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If Former Big League Hurler 1st With Bewhiskered TeamIlnds Life on Road Extremely Tough and Quite Unlike Playing With Major League Clubs and Living First ClassChicago, Aug. 22.—He wes batting grounders la infield practice when I walked Into a ball park In the heart oi Chicago's black belt, where the House of David team was to play Colo’s American Giants, a negro nine.Even If every other can player on the field hadn’t been black or wore General Grant whiskers, anyone who had seen h'm from the time he broke Jn with the Phillies in 1911 until ho pitched his last game in the National league in 1930 would have Immediately recognized him.There never was but one Grover Cleveland Alexander.There ho stood under the floodlights tossing up bell and hitting it with a bat, the same tall, gaunt figure that graced a major league pitching mound for 2Q -years and leftbehind him the greatest record of any National league pitcher. In that span he won £72 and lost 2OB_Prom a distance, he hasn’t changed much. He still wears his uniform sloppily and'hit cap perched on top of his head a* if it were too mml for him.-Look yonder, boy/* colored gentleman chirped. “There’s old Alex. Wonder 'bout how old ha Is now. Batch* 'bout aa old as Methuselah- * When he came to the bench he confessed to 45 last February. And In that stretch he's been all the way up and down baseball's scale. Six years ago he was a world series hero, and now the national game baa reduced him to the level of a manager and pitcher for s tribe of be whiskered players touring the kerosene circuit* in a bus.Hi© arm may have lost most of its cunning and his legs may have gone back on him, but the name Grover Cleveland Alexander la *tm a magnet to baseball fans. He's advertised to pitch in every game, and he usually goes in for an inning or two. Last year the House of David team played 184 games and Alexander pitched in more Chen half of them. Ihey've played about 115 this year, and he's fceea in 90 of them.•Don't the old soupbone ever hurt 3'Ou? he was asked.- The strain or pitching night, alter night makes it get tired quick and I can’t last more'n two or three Innings/’ he said. I think, though, if I got my legs in ohape and had the proper rest I could go the route once a week.How do you like this life?This is tougher than playing in the big leagues, he replied, ’’The*: everything s arranged for you, you live flrot-cioA* and you don t li**e to do nothing but play ball. The poor diamonds, the hostile crowds, the partial umpires, and bad accommodations and everything like that make this pretty tough Eventually we got to talking about the time he came in to pitch in the 1928 world series with the bases ailed, fanned Lazrerl, and pitched the Cardinals into the world's championship It has been written and saidthat he was tlpey when he came into the box that day.•*I wasn’t no mote drunk than the sport writers who started that. Alex said. I took my time and Just kind of mosled in because I knew the longer it took me to get to the box the more nervous a youngster like Lazaari -would be.Asked If he thought he would have JasteU longer Lf fa« had nevar lmwb-ed, Alex replied:“I don't see how I could of. If I had my career to* live over I would do Just about the 6ame. I used to lose 4 or 5 pounds pitching a game and I wasn’t eny big strong fellow. I had to get that weight back, and I used to have a few drinks to do it.Pat Moran, who managed the Phil-1 lies when he broke in.'he regards as thi* greatest manager h* ever played under. He hasn't much regard for Joo McCarthy, who fired him off the Cuts, but he believes Rogers Hornsby, recently flred from the Cubs, was n great leader.T like to pia7 lor Homsoy/’ said Ales. He never said this or that to me. He just handed me a bell and said 'you’re pitching today/' and he never tried to tell me how to pitch to a hatter or second-gu*?si*rt m».
Newspaper Details
Zanesville Signal
Zanesville, Ohio, US
Mon, Aug 22, 1932
Page 17
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael W.
NA, 14 Jul 2023
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