Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander
Pitcher
Born: (1887-02-26)February 26, 1887
Elba, Nebraska
Died: November 4, 1950(1950-11-04) (aged 63)
St. Paul, Nebraska
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1911, for the Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB appearance
May 28, 1930, for the Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics
Win–loss record 373–208
Earned run average 2.56
Strikeouts 2,198
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Inducted 1938
Vote 80.92% (third ballot)

Grover Cleveland Alexander (February 26, 1887 – November 4, 1950), nicknamed "Old Pete", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played from 1911 through 1930 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals. He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.[1]

Career

Alexander was born in Elba, Nebraska,[2] in the first term of President Grover Cleveland and was one of thirteen children. He played semi-professional baseball in his youth, signing his first professional contract at age 20 in 1907 for $50 per month. In 1909 he played for the Galesburg Boosters in the Class D Illinois–Missouri League and went 15-8 that year. His career was almost ended when he was struck by a thrown ball while baserunning.[2] Although this ended his 1909 season, he recovered by 1910 to become a star pitcher again, finishing with a 29-11 record for the Syracuse Stars in the Class B New York State League, before being sold to the Philadelphia Phillies for $750.[3]

Alexander made his Philadelphia debut during the pre-season 1911 City Series, pitching five innings of no-hit, no-run baseball against the Athletics. He made his official Major League debut on April 15.[4] He was joined on the Phillies that year by catcher Bill Killefer, who went on to become Alexander's favorite receiver, catching 250 of his games.[5][6]

In his rookie year, Alexander led the league with 28 wins (a modern-day rookie record), 31 complete games, 367 innings pitched, and seven shutouts, while finishing second in strikeouts and fourth in ERA.[2] From 1912 to 1921, Alexander led the league in ERA five times (1915–17, 1919, and 1920), wins five times (1914–17, 1920), innings six times (1912, 1914–17, 1920), strikeouts six times (1912, 1914–1917, 1920), complete games five times (1914–1917, 1920), and shutouts five times (1915, 1916 [a single-season record 16], 1917, 1919, 1921).[2] He won pitching's Triple Crown in 1915, 1916, and 1920, and is sometimes[2] credited with a fourth in 1917. In 1915, he was instrumental in leading the Phillies to their first pennant,[2] and he pitched a record five one-hitters. Along the way Alexander began to have problems with alcohol, a struggle that would plague him the rest of his life.


Alexander pitching for the Phillies

After the 1917 season, the Phillies sold Alexander to the Cubs, ostensibly fearful that he would be lost to the army in World War I, but as Phillies owner William Baker admitted later, "I needed the money". Alexander was drafted and one month before shipping out, he married Amy Marie Arrants on May 31 in a courthouse ceremony in Manhattan, Kansas (the couple divorced in 1929, remarried in 1931, and divorced again in 1941).[7][8]

Alexander spent most of the 1918 season in France as a sergeant with the 342nd Field Artillery. While he was serving in France, he was exposed to German mustard gas and a shell exploded near him, causing partial hearing loss and triggering the onset of epilepsy. Following his return from the war, Alexander suffered from shell shock and was plagued with epileptic seizures, which only exacerbated his drinking problem. Although people often misinterpreted his seizure-related problems as drunkenness, Alexander hit the bottle particularly hard as a result of the physical and emotional injuries inflicted by the war, which plagued him to his grave.

In spite of all this, Alexander gave Chicago several successful years and won another pitching triple crown in 1920. Tiring of his increasing drunkenness and insubordination that was often directly related to his epilepsy, the Cubs sold him to the Cardinals in the middle of the 1926 season for the waiver price.[2] Then-Cubs manager, Joe McCarthy stated the reason for the sale was, "The Cubs finished last last year and if they finish last again, I'd rather it be without [Alexander]."

The Cardinals won the National League pennant that year and met the New York Yankees in the World Series, where Alexander pitched complete game victories in Games 2 and 6. According to teammate Bob O'Farrell in The Glory of Their Times, after the game six victory, Alexander got drunk that night and was still feeling the effects when he was sent out to pitch the next day in Game 7.[9] Alexander came to the game in the seventh inning after starter Jesse Haines developed a blister, with the Cardinals ahead 3–2, the bases loaded and two out. Facing Yankee slugger Tony Lazzeri, Alexander struck him out and then held the Yankees scoreless for two more innings to preserve the win and give St. Louis the championship. He had one last 20-win season for the Cardinals in 1927, but his continued drinking finally did him in. He left major league baseball after a brief return to the Phillies in 1930, and pitched for the House of David until 1940.[10]

Alexander attended game three of the 1950 World Series at Yankee Stadium where he saw the Phillies lose to the Yankees.[11] He died less than a month later, on November 4 in St. Paul, Nebraska, at the age of 63.[12]

Milestones

Alexander's 90 shutouts are a National League record and his 373 wins are tied with Christy Mathewson for first in the National League record book. He is also third all time in wins, tenth in innings pitched (5190), second in shutouts, and eighth in hits allowed (4868). At the time of Alexander's final victory in August 1929, the news media reported that he had broken Mathewson's career victories record of 372. In the 1940s Mathewson was discovered to have qualified for an additional victory (May 21, 1912) and his total was officially upped to 373 and into a tie with Alexander. Alexander posted a lifetime winning percentage of .642, compared to Mathewson's .665.[13] Alexander has the most career wins of any pitcher who never threw a no-hitter.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore and Alexander during the 1915 World Series

In 1915, he won his first World Series game (the opening game of that series), for the Philadelphia Phillies. It would be 65 years before the Phillies won another World Series game.

In 1999, he ranked number 12 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,[14] and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Alexander was elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1938, the third year of the Hall. Alexander was the only player elected that year.[15]

Post Major League Baseball and Farm Leagues

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Alexander continued to play baseball, touring as a player-coach for the Grover Cleveland Alexander's House of David Team.[10] The team's tour was managed by J. L. Wilkinson and often played against the Kansas City Monarchs. Alexander played with and against many of the Negro League stars of the day, including Satchel Paige,[10] John Donaldson, Newt Joseph,[10] Chet Brewer, and Andy Cooper.

Names / nicknames

Newspapers often mentioned Alexander's full name when writing about him, in addition to just "Grover". He was also sometimes called "Alec", and on occasions when he succeeded in grand fashion (as with the 1926 World Series), they would call him "Alexander the Great". So dominant was he during the 1920s that many players and writers of his era referred to him as "the best pitcher to ever put on a pair of shoes".[16]

The origin of the nickname "Old Pete" is something of a mystery. It is uncertain how frequently Alexander was publicly called by that nickname during his playing days. When he won his 373rd game on August 10, 1929, one newspaper had called him "old Pete", indicating that the nickname was in public circulation.[17] On his 1940 Playball baseball card he was referred to as "Ol' Pete." In The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, by Lamont Buchanan, published in 1951, the year after Alexander died, on pp. 106–107 the author refers to "Pete Alexander" and "Ol' Pete" in a matter-of-fact way, suggesting the nickname was well known.

His nickname among family friends in Nebraska was "Dode."[18]

Quotes

"Grover Cleveland Alexander wasn't drunk out there on the mound, the way people thought. He was an epileptic. Old Pete would fall down with a seizure between innings, then go back and pitch another shutout." -Ty Cobb[19]

Legacy

Grover Cleveland Alexander was honored alongside the retired numbers of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2001.
Alexander's plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Alexander was the subject of the 1952 biographical film The Winning Team, portrayed by Ronald Reagan. Baseball commentator Bill James called the film "an awful movie, a Reader's Digest movie, reducing the events of Alexander's life to a cliché."

Since he played before the Phillies adopted uniform numbers, the block-letter "P" from the 1915 season uniforms was retired by the team in 2001 to honor his career with them.

Alexander is mentioned in the Leave It to Beaver third-season episode "Ward's Baseball" in which Ward has a baseball with several autographs and Alexander's is one of them.

Alexander is the first player mentioned in the poem Line-Up for Yesterday by Ogden Nash:

Line-Up for Yesterday
A is for Alex
The great Alexander;
More Goose eggs he pitched
Than a popular gander.

— Ogden Nash, Sport magazine (January 1949)[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Grover Cleveland Alexander at The Baseball Hall of Fame
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fiero, John W (2002) [1992]. Dawson, Dawn P, ed. Great Athletes. 1 (Revised ed.). Salem Press. pp. 32–34. ISBN 1-58765-008-8.
  3. ↑ Pete Alexander Statistics and History Baseball-Reference.com
  4. ↑ Thomas P. Simon, ed. (2004). Deadball stars of the National League. Brassey's. p. 209. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  5. ↑ Weatherby, Charlie. "The Baseball Biography Project: Bill Killefer". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  6. ↑ Deadball stars of the National League, Thomas P. Simon, Brassey's, 2004, ISBN 1-57488-860-9, ISBN 978-1-57488-860-7
  7. ↑ Pennsylvania Author
  8. ↑ Grover Cleveland Alexander Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Grover Cleveland Alexander
  9. ↑ Lawrence Ritter. The Glory of Their Times. Collier Books. p. 236. ISBN 0-688-11273-0.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Satchel Paige to Take Slab Monday Against Ogden Club" Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, August 18, 1940, Page 7, Column 1, 2, 4 and 5
  11. ↑ "Alexander Ignored At Yankee Stadium Where He Beat Great Bronx Bombers". Hartford Courant. 1950-10-07. p. 12.
  12. ↑ "Sport: Old Pete". TIME. 1950-11-13.
  13. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mathech01.shtml
  14. ↑ Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (The Sporting News). Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  15. ↑ Hall of Famers | Baseball Hall of Fame
  16. ↑ Racing Redbirds: A Video History of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1882 to Present. 1983.
  17. ↑ Jordan A. Deutsch; Cohen, Johnson and Neft (1975). The Scrapbook History of Baseball. Bobbs-Merrill. p. 131. ISBN 0-672-52028-1
  18. ↑ "Grover Alexander and Bride Visit Home Folks". St. Paul Phonograph, St. Paul, Neb. April 24, 1919.
  19. ↑ Stump, Al (1994). Cobb:A Biography. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books 1994. ISBN 0945575645.
  20. ↑ "Baseball Almanac". Retrieved 2008-01-23.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grover Cleveland Alexander.
Preceded by
Christy Mathewson
Hippo Vaughn		 National League Pitching Triple Crown
1915 & 1916
1920 		Succeeded by
Hippo Vaughn
Dazzy Vance

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