Grover Cleveland Alexander

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Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander (February 26, 1887, Elba, Nebraska - November 4, 1950, St. Paul, Nebraska) was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.

Related Topics:
February 26 - 1887 - Elba, Nebraska - November 4 - 1950 - St. Paul, Nebraska - Major League Baseball - Pitcher - Philadelphia Phillies - Chicago Cubs - St. Louis Cardinals - Baseball Hall of Fame - 1938

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Alexander was one of thirteen children and played semipro ball in his youth. He signed his first professional contract at age 22 in 1907 for $50 per month. He had a good first season, but it was marred by a beaning that probably contributed to later bouts with epilepsy. This incident set his career back, but he had recovered by 1910, became a star pitcher again, and was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies for $750.

Related Topics:
1907 - Epilepsy - 1910

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Alexander set the league on fire in his 1911 debut, leading 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. The best, however, was yet to come. Alexander was the dominant pitcher in the National League from 1915 to 1917, becoming the only pitcher to win pitching's Triple Crown three years in a row, and from 1912 to 1920, Alexander led the league in ERA four times (1915, 1916, 1919, 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 six times (1913, 1915, 1916 , 1917, 1919). In 1915, he was instrumental in leading the Phillies to their first pennant, and he also pitched a record four one-hitters.

Related Topics:
1911 - National League - 1915 - 1917 - Triple Crown - 1912 - 1920 - 1916 - 1919 - 1914

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After the 1917 season, the Phillies sold Alexander to the Cubs, fearful that he would be lost to the army in World War I. Sure enough, he was drafted, and spent most of the 1918 season in France as an artillery officer, where he suffered from shell shock, partial hearing loss, and increasingly worse seizures. Always a drinker, Alexander hit the bottle particularly hard after the war. He still gave Chicago several successful years, however, and grabbed another pitching triple crown in 1920. Finally tiring of his increasing drunkenness and insubordination, the Cubs sold him to the Cardinals in the middle of the 1926 season for the waiver price.

Related Topics:
World War I - 1918 - France - 1926

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The Cardinals won the National League that year and met the New York Yankees in the World Series, where Alexander had his finest moment. He pitched complete game victories in Games 2 and 6 before coming into the seventh inning of Game 7, after Jesse Haines developed a blister, with the Cardinals up 3-2 the bases loaded and two outs. Facing Yankee slugger Tony Lazzeri, Alexander got him to strike out and then held the Yankees scorless for two more innings to preserve the win and give St. Louis the championship. Alexander had one last 20-win season for the Cardianls in 1927, but his continued drinking finally did him in. He left baseball after a brief return to the Phillies in 1930 and pitched for the House of David until 1938.

Related Topics:
New York Yankees - World Series - Jesse Haines - Tony Lazzeri - House of David

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Alexander's 373 wins and 90 shutouts are both National League records, and he is also third all time in wins, tenth in innings pitched (5190), second in shutouts, and eighth in hits allowed (4868).

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YEAR TEAM AGE W L PCT G GS CG SV GF IP H R ER BB SO ERA RSAA

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1911 Phillies 24 28 13 .683 48 37 31 3 11 367 285 133 105 129 227 2.57 44

Related Topics:
1911 - Phillies

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1912 Phillies 25 19 17 .528 46 34 25 3 10 310 289 133 97 105 195 2.82 20

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1913 Phillies 26 22 8 .733 47 36 23 2 9 306 288 106 95 75 159 2.79 24

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1914 Phillies 27 27 15 .643 46 39 32 1 7 355 327 133 94 76 214 2.38 19

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1915 Phillies 28 31 10 .756 49 42 36 3 7 376 253 86 51 64 241 1.22 69

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1916 Phillies 29 33 12 .733 48 45 38 3 3 389 323 90 67 50 167 1.55 38

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1917 Phillies 30 30 13 .698 45 44 35 0 0 388 336 107 79 56 200 1.83 46

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1918 Cubs 31 2 1 .667 3 3 3 0 0 26 19 7 5 3 15 1.73 3

Related Topics:
1918 - Cubs

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1919 Cubs 32 16 11 .593 30 27 20 1 3 235 180 51 45 38 121 1.72 28

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1920 Cubs 33 27 14 .659 46 40 33 5 6 363 335 96 77 69 173 1.91 49

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1921 Cubs 34 15 13 .536 31 29 21 1 1 252 286 110 95 33 77 3.39 21

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1922 Cubs 35 16 13 .552 33 31 20 1 2 246 283 111 99 34 48 3.62 6

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1923 Cubs 36 22 12 .647 39 36 26 2 2 305 308 128 108 30 72 3.19 32

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1924 Cubs 37 12 5 .706 21 20 12 0 0 169 183 82 57 25 33 3.04 17

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1925 Cubs 38 15 11 .577 32 30 20 0 1 236 270 106 89 29 63 3.39 20

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1926 Cubs 39 3 3 .500 7 7 4 0 0 52 55 26 20 7 12 3.46 3

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Cardinals 39 9 7 .563 23 16 11 2 7 148 136 57 48 24 35 2.92 17

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TOTALS 12 10 .545 30 23 15 2 7 200 191 83 68 31 47 3.06 20

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1927 Cardinals 40 21 10 .677 37 30 22 3 4 268 261 94 75 38 48 2.52 50

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1928 Cardinals 41 16 9 .640 34 31 18 2 2 244 262 106 91 37 59 3.36 14

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1929 Cardinals 42 9 8 .529 22 19 8 0 3 132 149 65 57 23 33 3.89 11

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1930 Phillies 43 0 3 .000 9 3 0 0 2 22 40 24 22 6 6 9.00 -8

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TOTALS 373 208 .642 696 599 438 32 80 5189 4868 1851 1476 951 2198 2.56 523

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LG AVERAGE 286 286 .500 315 11 5189 5259 2466 1956 1598 1891 3.39 0

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YEAR TEAM HR H/9 BR/9 SO/9 BB/9 SO/BB SHO WP IBB HBP BFP BK NW NL

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1911 Phillies 5 6.99 10.35 5.57 3.16 1.76 7 4 0 8 1475 1 27 14

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1912 Phillies 11 8.39 11.61 5.66 3.05 1.86 3 5 0 6 1290 0 21 15

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1913 Phillies 9 8.47 10.76 4.68 2.21 2.12 9 3 0 3 1234 0 18 12

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1914 Phillies 8 8.29 10.50 5.43 1.93 2.82 6 1 0 11 1459 0 25 17

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1915 Phillies 3 6.06 7.83 5.77 1.53 3.77 12 2 0 10 1435 0 34 7

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1916 Phillies 6 7.47 8.86 3.86 1.16 3.34 16 3 0 10 1500 0 31 14

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1917 Phillies 4 7.79 9.23 4.64 1.30 3.57 8 2 0 6 1529 0 30 13

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1918 Cubs 0 6.58 7.96 5.19 1.04 5.00 0 0 0 1 98 0 2 1

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1919 Cubs 3 6.89 8.35 4.63 1.46 3.18 9 1 0 0 906 0 19 8

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1920 Cubs 8 8.31 10.04 4.29 1.71 2.51 7 3 0 1 1447 0 29 12

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1921 Cubs 10 10.21 11.43 2.75 1.18 2.33 3 1 0 1 1033 0 17 11

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1922 Cubs 7 10.35 11.71 1.76 1.24 1.41 1 4 0 3 1014 0 15 14

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1923 Cubs 17 9.09 9.97 2.12 0.89 2.40 3 2 0 0 1246 0 21 13

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1924 Cubs 9 9.75 11.13 1.76 1.33 1.32 0 1 0 1 708 0 10 7

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1925 Cubs 14 10.30 11.52 2.40 1.11 2.17 1 1 0 3 977 0 15 11

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1926 Cubs 0 9.52 10.73 2.08 1.21 1.71 0 0 0 0 218 0 3 3

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Cardinals 8 8.27 9.85 2.13 1.46 1.46 2 0 0 2 597 0 10 6

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TOTALS 8 8.60 10.08 2.12 1.40 1.52 2 0 0 2 815 0 13 9

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1927 Cardinals 11 8.76 10.07 1.61 1.28 1.26 2 1 0 1 1082 0 22 9

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1928 Cardinals 16 9.66 11.10 2.18 1.36 1.59 1 3 0 2 1009 0 14 11

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1929 Cardinals 10 10.16 11.80 2.25 1.57 1.43 0 2 0 1 562 0 10 7

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1930 Phillies 5 16.36 18.82 2.45 2.45 1.00 0 0 0 0 109 0 1 2

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TOTALS 164 8.44 10.21 3.81 1.65 2.31 90 39 0 70 20928 1 374 207

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LG AVERAGE 174 9.12 12.12 3.28 2.77 1.18 43 95 0 134 21881 9

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