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Use A Monkey Wrench To Break Big Leagues; Grover AlexanderHtA Grover Cleveland Alexander used a hand-axe instead of a monkey wrench when he tried to remove a cross arm from a telephone pole one afternoon more years ago than he cares to admit he probably would have been climbing telephone poles today. Maybe he would have been foreman of the gang by now.mmtenancy and Alexander's family was not at all wealthy. He decided to look into this “joke” about being paid tor playing baseball, so he walked to Central City. A nice, new pitcher’s box was waiting Tor him there and he played at his new job for a few weeks for room and board, i Then came an offer from Gales-» cross am on a telephone line up in 1 Nebraska and today he is recogniz-But he used a common monkey \ burgh. 111., Galesburgh had a base-I wrenchjo dislodge ^the ^stubborn . ba]1 team in the tihnoia-Mlssouri-.-v—™ 3ague, and they offered Alexander----------------„ ----------- i a then flattering sum to come pitch1 ed as one of the immortal trio1’ of t t0r them. That was in 1909. and i major leafue baseball pitchers, j marked his entrance in professionalbaseball He stayed there that season, went to Indianapolis the next and finished the 1910 season with Syracuse of the New York State League. From there, as the worldof service in organized baseball, 2fyears in the National League.He is weatherbeaten and slightlybroken in health now, this old vat-eran who U rated with Cy Young and Walter Johnson as the three greatest pitchers in the major leagues. but he still loves the game. He would like to go back with the “big boys,” as he calls them, but you know what I mean, my legs , . . they’re no good for much more baseball. My arm is still here, but I’ll never get back.”True, he has had his day with major league baseball, but his 20 years of pitching in the National League will not be forgotten by generationsto come, in spite of his most ao- ____^ .........| parent lack of sobriety on the I knows, he went to Philadelphia of Texas Tech field last Friday night, j the National League and in 1917SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS LARGEWhen the foreman of the particular telephone gang in Illinois saw Alexander using a monkey wrench he slammed down his tool box, glared up at the workman atop the i- i tall pole and chattered, What the * I deuce (or maybe it was blank - i blank) do you mean by not using awas traded to Chicago, with Bill Killefer, for $55,000 and Prender-gast and Dilhoeter. going to St. Louis on waivers in 1926.Alexander arrived in Lubbock Friday afternoon with the House of . David ball club with which he serv-f . - ... . 0„ i es as pitcher and manager. He hadfjhand-axe on that timber? j pitched on the previous night ands. Cleveland cUmbed down without a . Wflg resting, w*ien his team playedrrd, wlthoui the cr0tf , h 1 the first night game in Lubbock,(handed the monkey-wrench to hte ■ B hi appearfl“ce here br0ught. employer and walked home To this | k memorles of hls 33 yearsL; day he has not told the foreman . l __d | why he used a monkey wrench. ! n I a few days prior to that histori- j 1 cal scene on the Nebraska line | h i someone in Central City, Neb,, had ?! seen Alexander pitching a game for j ,d! a sand lot team in the latter’s lit- j it | tie country town home on the out- j I skirts of St. Paul and had offered j n,) him a job in Central City if he j | would come and play baseball. Alex j d, | thought he was Joking. Imagine t h,? anyone getting paid for playing;; baseball. Why, the very idea, he jsaid to his pals, w Walks To Towni But having forefeited his monkey ; wrench there waa need of life sus- ;MIDLAND. May 9.—Among distinctive institutions m West Texas is the Men:s Sunday School class of Midland. Ten weeks after the class was started with 88 men. it had anattendance of 521 men. or one-tenth the total population of thecity. Its average attendance is 250 men. The class is taught by Paul T. Vickers, secretary of the Midland Chamber of Commerce. T. Paul Bar ron, newspaper publisher, is president. Men of all classes, hairy-chested cowboys, laborers, millionaire cattlemen, oil men. gamblers — all types attend. No women art allowed. It is now the largest men’s class in West Texas,
Newspaper Details
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Lubbock, Texas, US
Sat, May 09, 1931
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael W.
NA, 22 Jan 2023
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