Grover Cleveland Alexander lost his spot on the Cardinals when manager Bill McKechnie lost confidence in the pitcher’s ability to come to games ready to play.
On Aug. 19, 1929, McKechnie determined Alexander’s alcoholism made him unreliable and sent him back to St. Louis during a Cardinals road trip.
Cardinals owner Sam Breadon, who liked Alexander and was sympathetic to him, told him to go home to Nebraska, sit out the rest of the 1929 season and try to get sober.
Alexander never pitched for the Cardinals again.
Shell shocked
After posting a 190-88 record in seven seasons with the Phillies, Alexander was dealt to the Cubs in December 1917. He entered the Army in the spring of 1918 and experienced extensive combat in Europe during World War I.
Exposed to heavy artillery shelling, Alexander lost hearing in his left ear, suffered damage to his right ear, developed epilepsy and became an alcoholic.
Alexander returned to the Cubs in May 1919 and pitched effectively for several seasons, but his drinking eventually got him in trouble with rookie manager Joe McCarthy, who took over in 1926 and wanted him off the team.
Years later, Alexander’s wife, Aimee Alexander, told Sport magazine, “Alex always thought he could pitch better with a hangover, and maybe he could, at that.”
In June 1926, the Cubs granted McCarthy’s request, placed Alexander on waivers and he got claimed by the Cardinals.
Under control
In his book “Redbirds: A Century of Cardinals Baseball,” author Bob Broeg described Alexander, 39, as “freckled and turkey-wattled from a long, hard athletic life, knock-kneed, wearing his cap perched on top of his head like a peanut.”
Alexander may not have had control of his personal demons, but he still had command of his pitches. According to Broeg, Alexander was called “Old Low and Away” by teammate Jesse Haines for his ability “to pinpoint pitches down across the lower, outer edge of the plate.”
Alexander was 9-7 for the Cardinals the remainder of the 1926 season, helping them win their first National League pennant. In the 1926 World Series against the Yankees, Alexander made two starts, won both, and earned the save in Game 7 with 2.1 innings of hitless relief, including an iconic strikeout of Tony Lazzeri with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh.
Alexander was 21-10 for the Cardinals in 1927 and 16-9 in 1928 when they won their second National League championship.
At 42, Alexander still was a starter for the Cardinals in 1929, but he delivered one of his best performances in a relief stint.
On Aug. 10, 1929, in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader against the Phillies at Philadelphia, McKechnie brought Alexander into the game in the eighth inning with the Cardinals trailing, 9-8. According to Broeg, McKechnie said to Alexander, “Hold ’em, and we’ll win it for you.”
The Cardinals got a run in the ninth to tie the score at 9-9 and two in the 11th for an 11-9 lead. Alexander did his part, pitching four scoreless innings and earning the win, the 373rd and last of his major-league career. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals catcher Jimmie Wilson said Alexander had such control of his pitches against the Phillies “he could have hit a gnat in the eyebrow.” Boxscore
Basic training
Philadelphia prohibited Sunday baseball, so with a day off on Aug. 11, 1929, Alexander informed McKechnie he planned to go to Atlantic City to visit friends.
According to Broeg, Alexander told McKechnie, “I won’t take a drink.”
McKechnie replied, “I don’t care if you take a drink. Just return Monday, fit and ready to work.”
Alexander returned to the club on Monday looking “unsightly and shaky,” according to Broeg.
McKechnie warned Alexander not to let it happen again.
On Aug. 17, 1929, Alexander got the start against the Giants in Game 2 of a Saturday doubleheader in New York and took the loss, yielding five runs in three innings and dropping his record to 9-8.
Alexander went on a drinking binge again. Two days later, on Aug. 19, 1929, during a day off in Brooklyn, McKechnie “ordered Alexander to leave the team for breaking training” rules, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.
McKechnie had given Alexander “repeated warnings” and said he decided “to use stern measures” because “leniency had failed to gain results,” the Associated Press reported.
In the Post-Dispatch, J. Roy Stockton wrote, “Everybody knows what caused Alexander’s final break with Bill McKechnie. His waywardness has been disguised by a kindly newspaper world as mumps, measles, lumbago, indigestion and ptomaine poisoning, but it is doubtful if anybody is fooled.”
Fond farewell
Alexander got back to St. Louis on Aug. 20, 1929, and told the St. Louis Star-Times, “I’ve been a bad boy of baseball and I’m paying for it now. There’s no one to blame but myself and I hold no hard feelings toward anyone. Everyone knows I never was an angel.”
Alexander met with Breadon the next day, Aug. 21, 1929. Breadon thought it best for Alexander to take a break from baseball, but said he would continue to pay him during his leave of absence.
“Mr. Breadon told me to go home and straighten up with a long rest and all would be all right,” Alexander said to the Post-Dispatch. “I am going home to St. Paul, Nebraska, and go fishing for bullheads. I expect to regain my best condition and to pitch for the club next year.”
According to the Globe-Democrat, Breadon said McKechnie “did right to order (Alexander) away from the team and I support McKechnie in his moves.”
Breadon added, “I have always been very fond of Alexander and I could not deal harshly with him. It has been said I have disciplined my managers for not holding Alexander closer to the mark, but the actual truth is I have been even more lenient with Alexander than the managers.”
Four months later, on Dec. 11, 1929, the Cardinals traded Alexander and catcher Harry McCurdy to the Phillies for pitcher Bob McGraw and outfielder Homer Peel.
Alexander was 0-3 with a 9.14 ERA in nine appearances for the 1930 Phillies, got sent to the minors and didn’t play in the big leagues again.
He and Christy Mathewson are tied for third among major leaguers in career wins at 373. Only Cy Young (511) and Walter Johnson (417) have more.
Alexander struggled with personal and financial problems during the Great Depression. According to Broeg, Breadon, for the rest of his life, paid Alexander $100 a month, sending the check through the National League office. After Breadon died in 1949, Fred Saigh, part of the Cardinals’ new ownership, kept up the payments to Alexander and paid for the funeral when Alexander died in 1950.
RetroSimba 
When I was in grade school, my favorite day was the third Friday of every month. On that day the teachers would let us go to the library and check out books. One of the first baseball books I read was titled Great Baseball Stories. One of the stories in that book just happened to be how Alexander helped the Cardinals win their first World Series. Grover was portayed has a fun loving personality. Being a book for kids, it did not make mention of some of the issues he was dealing with. A few years later, I did learn that he liked to raise a glass or two, but untill reading this piece, had know idea about the other things he battled with. The fact that he was still able to perform on the baseball field just tells us how much talent and heart he possessed. The fact that the Cardinals sent him a check every month means that they probably thought very highly of him. Untill the Phillies took game 1 of the 1980 World Series, the only WS game they had ever won was way back in 1915. They beat the Red Sox in the first game with Alexander getting the win.
Marvelous story about your grade school library experience. Thanks for sharing it.