Real oldtime baseball fans have no trouble remembering a buoyant, carousing young man of 24 who blew into the majors from the Nebraska plains in 1911 and promptly won 28 games with the Philadelphia Phillies, a freshman record that has never been approached. Grover Cleveland Alexander, with fireball, fast curve, boundless self-confidence, and a big wad of chewing tobacco tucked in the corner of his grinning mouth, hit the National League like a meteor, and managed to keep his big-league glow for 20 years.
His greatest trouble was his fondness for glowing after dark, as well. Though for three years in a...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
