ALEXANDER, Grover Cleveland

(b. 26 February 1887 in Elba, Nebraska; d. 4 November 1950 in Saint Paul, Nebraska), pitcher for Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals, winner of 373 games, and 1938 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.

Alexander was one of eight children born to William Alexander and Margaret Cootey, farmers in Elba, Nebraska. Following graduation from high school in Saint Paul, Nebraska, Alexander worked as a telephone lineman and pitched semiprofessional baseball.

In 1909 Alexander was signed to a professional contract with Galesburg, Illinois, of the Illinois-Missouri League. However, his baseball career was sidetracked when he was knocked unconscious by a thrown baseball as he attempted to break up a double play at second base. Suffering from double vision, Alexander was sold to the Indianapolis Indians, who, in turn, dealt him to the Syracuse Chiefs of the New York State League. Recovering his vision before the 1910 season, Alexander won twenty-nine games for the Chiefs, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to draft him that same year.

Alexander's rookie performance in Philadelphia was outstanding. Standing six feet, one inch tall and weighing 185 pounds, the right-handed pitcher with exceptional control won twenty-eight games (still the rookie record), including seven shutouts. In September 1911 Alexander mastered a 1–0 victory over baseball immortal Cy Young, who was playing his final season.

By 1915 Alexander was one of the dominant pitchers in the National League, achieving 31 victories, 241 strikeouts, and a stingy earned run average of 1.22. He led the Phillies to their first pennant, but Philadelphia was defeated in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox and Babe Ruth. In 1916 Alexander won thirty-three games, including sixteen shutouts, followed by another thirty-win season the following year.

From 1911 to 1917 Alexander posted 190 victories for the Phillies, one-third of the total games they won during that time. However, anticipating that he would be drafted for military service in 1918, the Phillies traded him to the Chicago Cubs. In May 1918 Alexander married Aimee Marie Arrants before departing for France as a sergeant in a U.S. Army artillery unit, the 342d Battalion of the 89th Division.

In 1919, when Alexander returned to the Cubs, he was suffering from epileptic seizures. In addition he had a severe hearing loss caused by frontline artillery fire. These problems appeared to exacerbate Alexander's alcohol dependency. Nevertheless, he was an effective pitcher for the Cubs. Between 1918 and 1926 Alexander won 128 games for the Chicago franchise, including a league-leading twenty-seven games in 1920.

Early in the 1926 season the new Cubs manager Joe McCarthy, seeking to curb his club's drinking, allowed the St. Louis Cardinals to claim Alexander on waivers. Manager Rogers Hornsby made little effort to reform Alexander, and the right-hander contributed nine victories to the Cardinals' pennant drive. Perhaps the most memorable moment of Alexander's career occurred during the 1926 World Series between the Cardinals and the New York Yankees. After victories in Games 2 and 6, Alexander was taking a well-deserved rest in the Cardinal bullpen when he was summoned to the mound in the seventh inning of Game 7 to face Tony Lazzeri with two out, the bases loaded, and St. Louis leading 3–2. Many speculate that Alexander was still intoxicated from celebrating his victory in Game 6. Despite an unsteady appearance, Alexander retired Lazzeri on four pitches and held the Yankees scoreless over the last two innings, assuring the Cardinals their first world championship.

Indicating that his World Series performance was no fluke, Alexander, or Old Pete, as he was often called, won twenty-one games for St. Louis in 1927, followed by sixteen victories in 1928. However, in 1929 Alexander's skills began to slip, and his victory total fell to nine games. He was traded back to the Phillies in 1930, appearing in nine games for them before finishing the season with Dallas of the Texas League.

Although he continued to pitch with semiprofessional teams and in exhibition contests, Alexander's major league career was over in 1930. In twenty big-league seasons he won 373 games, pitched 5,190 innings, struck out 2,198 batters, and averaged only 1.65 walks per nine innings. His lifetime achievements were recognized with his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.

Alexander's years after baseball were difficult. He pitched briefly for the barnstorming House of David sect from Benton Harbor, Michigan. His problems with alcohol were pronounced, and he struggled to maintain employment, working at a race track, laboring in a factory, and even serving as a sideshow attraction for a penny arcade in New York City. He divorced, remarried, and again divorced his wife, Aimee.

Although few recognized him, Alexander was invited to the 1950 World Series between the Phillies and the Yankees. In 1952 he was the subject of a biopic film, The Winning Team, starring Ronald Reagan and Doris Day. But he was unable to enjoy this fame. Surviving on a small pension from baseball and the military, he lived in a boardinghouse in Saint Paul, Nebraska, and was found dead there, apparently from a heart attack. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Saint Paul.

Although Alexander's personal life was troubled, there is no denying his attributes on the baseball diamond. His pitching exploits rank him among the greatest right-handed pitchers in National League history, alongside his rival, the New York Giants' "Christian Gentleman" Christy Mathewson.

A player file on Alexander is available in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Useful biographies include Jerry E. Clark and Martha Ellen Webb, Alexander the Great (1993), and Jack Kavanagh, Ol' Pete: The Grover Cleveland Alexander Story (1996). Alexander is also profiled in Lee Allen and Tom Meany, Kings of the Diamond (1965); Lawrence Ritter, The Glory of Their Times (1966); and Bob Broeg, "Incredible Alex—The Mound Master," Sporting News (14 June 1969). An obituary is in the New York Times (5 Nov. 1950).

Ron Briley