Alexander spent just 3 ½ seasons with the Cardinals as part of a 20-year career, but he made them count. In 1911, Alexander debuted with the Phillies and led the league with 28 wins. He received $250 per month for his efforts. Even in 1938, United Press correspondent George Kirksey noted that sum was “less than half of what the lowliest rookie gets nowadays for sitting on the bench.”[1]

In his first seven seasons in the league, Alexander averaged 27 wins and 356 innings per season. In 1915, 1916, and 1917, he won the ERA title and piled up 94 wins, winning at least 30 games each season. In 1915, he threw four one-hitters on his way to a 1.22 ERA. The following season, he threw 16 shutouts among his 33 wins.

In December 1917, the Phillies traded Alexander and Bill Killefer to the Cubs for Pickles Dillhoefer, Mike Prendergast, and $55,000. After just three appearances with the Cubs, however, Alexander went to France with the 89^th Division, where he served as an artillery sergeant and was regularly exposed to heavy artillery during World War I. When he returned, Alexander suffered from partial hearing loss and epilepsy. He drank whiskey to help control his seizures.[2]

Somehow, that didn’t prevent him from being an effective pitcher with the Cubs. In 1919, he won 16 games and led the National League with a 1.72 ERA. The next year, he led the league with 27 wins, a 1.91 ERA, 173 strikeouts, and 363 1/3 innings.

Alexander continued to lead the Cubs’ staff until June 1926, when Chicago released him for breaking team rules. With Branch Rickey out of town, Cardinals team owner Sam Breadon signed Alexander off waivers with manager Rogers Hornsby’s support.[3]

The 39-year-old Alexander appeared in 23 games the remainder of the regular season, going 9-7 with a 2.91 ERA in 148 1/3 innings. With an 89-65 record, Alexander and the Cardinals won the National League pennant by two games over the Reds, earning the right to play the Yankees in the World Series.

After the Yankees won Game 1, the Cardinals turned to Alexander in Game 2. “Old Pete” held Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Lou Gehrig, and the rest of the New York lineup to one earned run on four hits in a 6-2 Cardinals victory.

With St. Louis trailing the series three games to two, Alexander came up big once again in Game 6. In another complete-game effort, he allowed just two runs on eight hits to force a decisive Game 7.

With the world championship on the line, Hornsby and the Cardinals called upon Alexander one more time. After Jesse Haines, plagued by a loose and bloody fingernail, walked Gehrig to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh, Hornsby called upon Alexander with a 3-2 lead and Tony Lazzeri at the plate.

“The bases are packed, Alex,” Hornsby greeted the veteran pitcher.

According to one account, Alexander replied, “Three on, eh? Well, there’s no place to put Lazzeri, is there? I’ll just have to give him nothin’ but a lot of hell, won’t I?”[4]

After three warm-up pitches, he did exactly that, striking out Lazzeri to end the inning. He then threw two more scoreless innings to secure the Cardinals’ first World Series title.

In the Cardinals’ clubhouse after the game, legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw said, “There you see the man who gave us the greatest pitching feat baseball has furnished since Christy Mathewson shut out the Athletics three times in a row.”[5]

Alexander pitched three more seasons in St. Louis, winning 21 games with a 2.52 ERA in 1927 and adding 16 more wins in 1928. The Cardinals traded Alexander to the Phillies in December 1929, where “Old Pete” played the final season of his major-league career.

His 373 career wins were a major-league record. His 2.56 career ERA included 90 shutouts.

“When I had it, I gave it – for 20 years,” he said.[6]

In 1936, the first year in which the Baseball Writers’ Association of America conducted a Hall of Fame vote, Alexander received 24.3% of the vote. The following year, his 62.2% gave him more votes than anyone who didn’t reach the 75% threshold necessary for induction.

In 1938, Alexander received 212 of 262 votes, eclipsing the 197 votes he needed. He was trailed by George Sisler with 179 votes (68.3%), Willie Keeler with 177 (67.6%), and Eddie Collins with 175 (66.8%).

Alexander said he felt “like going into a corner where no one could see me and giving myself a pat on the back.”[7]

In the Moline Dispatch, Gayle Talbot wrote:

Alexander’s election is certain to strike a popular chord. There had been grumblings because he was not named earlier, and a belief by some that he might never attain the honor because he was, toward the sunset of his career, a very rugged individualist of the diamond, a man who didn’t worry about training rules.

“I’m happy to see Old Pete get in there,” said a prominent baseball official who knew Alexander throughout his big-league service. “He was a wonderful pitcher, at least the equal of Mathewson, and the fact that he broke training now and then doesn’t matter.”[8]

At the time of his election, Alexander worked as a greeter for the Empire Hotel in Springfield, Illinois.[9] Still battling alcoholism and health issues, Alexander had arrived in Springfield in a sorry condition one year earlier. Johnny Connors, a local sports promoter and operator of the Empire Hotel, paid for Alexander to receive hospital treatment and, once Alexander recovered, gave him a job at the hotel tavern. While Alexander was allowed to drink beer while he regaled customers with stories of the majors, Connors made him promise to lay off the “hard stuff.”[10]

“The Hall of Fame is fine, but it doesn’t mean bread and butter. It’s only your picture on a wall,” said Alexander from the Empire Hotel bar, where he gestured at the photographs of athletes, politicians, and actors that lined the walls. “This place is Hall of Fame enough for me. If I can get my picture up there, I’ll be satisfied.”[11]

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[1] George Kirksey, “Grover Cleveland Alexander Voted Into Baseball’s Hall Of Fame,” St. Louis Star and Times, January 19, 1938.

[2] Paul E. Doutrich (2021), The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven, Kindle Android Version, Location 1076.

[3] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang, PublicAffairs, Kindle Android Version, Page 38.

[4] Charles C. Alexander, Rogers Hornsby (Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com), Page 119.

[5]  James R. Dawson, “Alex’s Feat Rates Him with the Immortal ‘Matty,’ Says McGraw,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926, Page 12.

[6] George Kirksey, “Grover Cleveland Alexander Voted Into Baseball’s Hall Of Fame,” St. Louis Star and Times, January 19, 1938.

[7] George Kirksey, “Grover Cleveland Alexander Voted Into Baseball’s Hall Of Fame,” St. Louis Star and Times, January 19, 1938.

[8] Gayle Talbot, “Grover Cleveland Alexander’s Name Added to Baseball’s Hall of Fame,” Moline Dispatch, January 19, 1938.

[9] George Kirksey, “Grover Cleveland Alexander Voted Into Baseball’s Hall Of Fame,” St. Louis Star and Times, January 19, 1938.

[10] “Alex Tickled About Honors, But His Springfield Benefactor Comes First,” Moline Dispatch, January 19, 1938.

[11] “Alex Tickled About Honors, But His Springfield Benefactor Comes First,” Moline Dispatch, January 19, 1938.

The post Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Hall of Fame first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

One day earlier, the Cardinals forced Game 7 with a 10-2 victory in New York. Now the Yankees were counting on Waite Hoyt, the 26-year-old right-hander from Brooklyn, to capture their second World Series championship.

Hoyte had won Game 4 despite allowing 14 hits, bolstered by Ruth’s three home runs. Game 7 marked Hoyte’s eighth career World Series appearance, and he carried a 3-2 record in his seven previous Fall Classic appearances.

The Cardinals countered with 32-year-old knuckleballer Jesse Haines, making his third appearance of the series. Haines threw a scoreless inning of relief in St. Louis’s Game 1 loss before throwing a five-hit shutout in Game 3.

Hoyt looked sharp in the first two innings, working around a two-out single by Rogers Hornsby in the first inning, then retiring the side in order in the second.

Meanwhile, Haines worked in and out of trouble. In the first inning, he walked Ruth and allowed a two-out single to Bob Meusel, but got Lou Gehrig to ground out to end the inning. Joe Dugan singled in the second inning, but Cardinals catcher Bob O’Farrell threw him out attempting to steal second base. Hank Severeid singled, but Hoyt grounded out to leave him stranded.

Ruth broke the scoreless tie in the third inning with a solo home run into the right-field bleachers, but the Yankees’ lead was short-lived, as the Cardinals rallied for three runs in the fourth.

After Jim Bottomley reached on a one-out single, Les Bell hit a ground ball that appeared tailor-made for a double play, but Yankees shortstop Mark Koenig misplayed it. Chick Hafey followed with a bloop single to load the bases.

O’Farrell followed with a lazy fly ball into the left field gap. Meusel called for the ball and settled under it, but to the astonishment of the Yankees’ faithful, it popped out of his glove, allowing Bottomley to tie the score.

“When that ball popped out of his hands, the silence in that big ballpark was really stunning,” Bell said years later. “It was a hometown crowd (for the Yankees), of course, and they couldn’t believe what they had seen. Nobody could.”[1]

With the bases still loaded, Hoyt now faced the Cardinals’ eighth hitter, Tommy Thevenow. In his first full season in the majors, the 5-foot-10, 155-pound Thevenow hit .256 with 63 RBIs. The 23-year-old had been the Cardinals’ leading hitter in the World Series, going 3-for-4 with a home run in Game 2 and tallying two hits apiece in Games 4 and 6. Once again, Thevenow came through, this time with a single to right field that scored Bell and Havey.

“I want to tell everybody that Tommy Thevenow is the best shortstop in baseball,” Hornsby declared after the game. “There are no ifs or buts on this. Thevenow has them all beat. He won the ballgame.”[2]

Now holding a 3-1 lead, Haines continued to dance in and out of trouble. In the fourth, he worked around a leadoff walk to Lou Gehrig, thanks in part to Thevenow’s leaping catch of Severeid’s line drive. In the fifth, Earle Combs singled and Ruth was issued a free pass, but both were left stranded.

The Yankees finally got to Haines in the sixth, when Severeid hit an RBI double that cut the Cardinals’ lead to 3-2. With Hoyt’s place in the lineup next, Yankees manager Miller Huggins called on Ben Paschal to pinch hit and Spencer Adams to run in place of Severeid. The moves didn’t pay off, however, as Paschal bounced the ball back to Haines for the final out.

The Yankees continued to threaten Haines in the seventh. Combs led off with a single and Koenig bunted him to second. With first base now free, Haines intentionally walked Ruth. Meusel grounded into a forceout at second base. With runners on second and third, Haines looked distinctly uncomfortable as he walked Gehrig on four pitches.

When player-manager Rogers Hornsby arrived on the mound, he realized what was causing Haines’ distress. Haines’ knuckleballs had torn the skin on his fingers and left him bleeding. It was time for Hornsby to call upon his secret weapon – Alexander.

Several at the game noticed that the 39-year old, who had just thrown all nine innings the day earlier, took his time reaching the mound.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day,” Alexander recalled. “The biggest moment I ever had. You know, they say I stopped to pick daisies on my way from the bullpen that day. I didn’t, but hell, what did they want me to do, run for the mound? I’d a been all out of breath.

“But you know when I started out, and you know how far that bullpen is, I could see Lazzeri already at the plate. He was knocking the dirt from his spikes and hopping around, and I just thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll give you plenty of time to get more dirt in those spikes.’ So I did stop to look at the center fielder’s glove, and I paused to take a squint at the shortstop’s glove, but eventually I got there.”[3]

When Alexander did arrive, Hornsby greeted him by saying, “The bases are packed, Alex.”

“Well, if they’re full I’ll have to get rid of Lazerri some way, as I have no place to put him,” Old Pete Alexander replied, according to the next day’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat.[4]

Author Charles C. Alexander provided a slightly different account, in which Alexander told Hornsby that he felt fine before adding, “Three on, eh? Well, there’s no place to put Lazzeri, is there? I’ll just have to give him nothin’ but a lot of hell, won’t I?”[5]

After just three warm-up pitches, he did exactly that, but not before Lazzeri turned on an inside fastball and pulled it into the left-field bleachers, just a few feet foul. Having narrowly escaped giving up a game-altering grand slam, Alexander struck out the Yankees rookie on a curveball that dropped out of the strike zone.

“I said to myself, ‘Grover Cleveland Alexander, you’ve been in this game longer than he has. He’s up there for the first time, and he’s got to hit it. You just pitch him another wide curve and he’ll swing at it,’” Alexander recalled. “And I pitched it and he swung and he missed it.”[6]

The score remained 3-2 headed in the final innings. Alexander easily retired the Yankees in order in the eighth, and Herb Pennock did the same in the top of the ninth. Just three outs away from the championship, Alexander wasted no time, getting both Combs and Koenig to ground out to Bell at third base.

After getting ahead of Ruth with a 1-2 count, Alexander pitched carefully around the slugger, missing with his next three pitches. That brought Meusel to the plate with the tying run on first base. As Alexander released his first pitch to the Yankees left fielder, Ruth broke for second. Meusel took the pitch for a called strike and O’Farrell fired to Hornsby at second base. Hornsby tagged Ruth as he slid into the bag.

“I caught the blur of Ruth starting for second as I pitched, and then came the whistle of the ball as O’Farrell rifled it to second,” Alexander said. “I wheeled around and there was one of the grandest sights in my life. Hornsby, his foot anchored on the bag and his gloved hand outstretched, was waiting for Ruth to come in.”[7]

“I wondered why Babe tried to steal second then,” O’Farrell said. “A year or so later, I went on a barnstorming trip with the Babe, and I asked him. Ruth said he thought Alex had forgotten he was there. Also, that the way Alex was pitching, they’d never get two hits in a row off him, so he better get in position to score if they got one. Well, maybe that was good thinking and maybe not. In any case, I had him out a mile at second.”[8]

Regardless of the reason for Ruth’s ill-fated attempt, the result was clear: for the first time in franchise history, the Cardinals were World Series champions.

“Have a heart,” Alexander told teammates who pounded his back in congratulations. “I’ve got to pitch again. I haven’t retired.”[9]

Hornsby, whose mother passed away shortly before the World Series began, caught a train to St. Louis and then to Austin for her burial. Before leaving town, however, the National League’s top star was gracious in victory.

“Our victory means all the more to us because we know that we defeated a great ball club,” he said.[10]

The game proved the last World Series defeat for the Yankees’ Huggins. A former Cardinal who played for the Redbirds from 1910 to 1917, Huggins led the Yankees to World Series sweeps over the Pirates in 1927 and the Cardinals in 1928.

“There is nothing to say except that the Cardinals played wonderful defensive ball today – better than we did – and on the basis of their play, they deserved to win,” Huggins said. “We were beaten by a great ball club, and I told Rogers Hornsby so when I congratulated him as soon as the game was over.

“Of course, we did not need today’s performance to know that Alexander is a great pitcher. I have said so twice before in this series, and I say so again.”[11]

Legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw agreed.

“There you see the man who gave us the greatest pitching feat baseball has furnished since Christy Mathewson shut out the Athletics three times in a row,” McGraw said, pointing to Alexander in the Cardinals’ clubhouse.[12]

In St. Louis, fans celebrated into the early hours of the morning. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, “it was as if dynamite had been planted in a hundred scattered spots and all touched off at the same instant. The downtown exploded in noise. Two minutes after victory, the din was deafening. Automobile horns and sirens, back-firing of motors, tin horns, bells that had been muffled in silence for the one moment all turned loose.”[13] Similar celebrations took place in towns in Southern Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, and Southeast Kansas.[14]

In the aftermath of the championship, tales began to spread that Alexander had been drunk during his Game 7 performance. Following his service in World War II, Alexander suffered from epilepsy and alcoholism; in fact, his troubles with alcohol had contributed to the Cubs’ decision to release him that summer, allowing the Cardinals to purchase him for $4,000.

In The Cardinals and The Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven, author Paul E. Doutrich suggests that Alexander’s epilepsy may have been caused when he was struck in the head by a pitch and exasperated by his service as an artillery sergeant during World War I.[15] To minimize the seizures, Alexander self-medicated with whiskey.

According to fellow pitcher Flint Rhem, Alexander had celebrated his Game 6 victory the night before and was dozing in the bullpen with a pint of whiskey when Hornsby called for him. Upon being summoned to the mound, Alexander “staggered a little, handed me the pint, hitched up his britches, and walked straight as he could to the mound.”[16]

Doutrich, however, argues that Hornsby had informed Alexander the night before that he planned to use him in relief of Haines if necessary. Alexander’s wife, Amy, disputed the charge, as did Bottomley, Thevenow, Bell, and Hornsby in the years to come.

Alexander himself said little on the topic. A few days after Game 7, as he prepared to leave St. Louis after a week spent at the Ambassador Theater, where adoring crowds had heartily congratulated him, Alexander was philosophical about the experience.

“You know, being an actor and shaking hands and having everybody pat you on the back can almost ruin a guy,” he said. “When baseball fans are strong for you, they’re strong for you, but – come to think of it – what if Lazzeri had hit a home run with the bases full instead of striking out?”

He already knew the answer.

“If that had happened, Lazzeri would be the hero instead of me,” Alexander continued. “I wouldn’t have been a hero. I’d have been a bum.”[17]

Shortly before hopping on a train to Chicago, Alexander offered one more bit of advice: “Don’t ever be a hero,” he said. “If you’ve got to be one, be one, but avoid it as long as you can. It’s been a long, hard week.” He paused. “But I sure appreciated it.”[18]

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[1] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Pages 112-113.

[2] Brian Bell, “Weakness of Yankees in Field Gave Title to Cardinals,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 8.

[3] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 114.

[4] “No Place to Put Lazzeri So Alec Struck Him Out,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 8.

[5] Charles C. Alexander, Rogers Hornsby (Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com), Page 119.

[6] “‘What If Lazzeri Hit?’ Old Alex Asks, Quitting Town After Week As Hero,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1926: Page 3.

[7] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Pages 117.

[8] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Pages 117.

[9] Brian Bell, “Weakness of Yankees in Field Gave Title to Cardinals,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 8.

[10] Brian Bell, “Weakness of Yankees in Field Gave Title to Cardinals,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 8.

[11] Brian Bell, “Weakness of Yankees in Field Gave Title to Cardinals,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 8.

[12] James R. Dawson, “Alex’s Feat Rates Him with the Immortal ‘Matty,’ Says McGraw,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1926: Page 12.

[13] “Fans in 9-Hour Rampage Give Vent to Noisy Joy Over Cardinals’ Victory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 11, 1926: Page 3.

[14] “Cardinals Victory Observed in Suburbs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 11, 1926: Page 3.

[15] Paul E. Doutrich, The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven (2021), Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com, Location 1076.

[16] Charles C. Alexander, Rogers Hornsby (Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com), Page 119.

[17] “‘What If Lazzeri Hit?’ Old Alex Asks, Quitting Town After Week As Hero,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1926: Page 3.

[18] “‘What If Lazzeri Hit?’ Old Alex Asks, Quitting Town After Week As Hero,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 16, 1926: Page 3.

The post 1926 World Series Game 7: Cardinals win their first World Series first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Down three games to two against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig’s squad, the Cardinals were further disadvantaged by the absence of two-thirds of their starting outfield. Left fielder Ray Blades had been out of the lineup since August, when he caught his spike in the chicken-wire fence that had been strung along the outfield wall at Sportsman’s Park. The injury required season-ending surgery, and though Blades’ career would continue, he carried a slight limp for the remainder of his life.[1] In his place, future Hall of Famer Chick Hafey started in left field.

In the Cardinals’ Game 4 loss in St. Louis, Hickey and center fielder Taylor Douthit collided in the outfield. Douthit suffered strained ribs on the play and would not return in the series; in his place, manager Rogers Hornsby called upon Wattie Holm, who batted .285 in 55 games during the regular season. Holm went 0-for-4 with a walk in his Game 5 start.

With the season on the line, Hornsby called upon Pete Alexander, who had outdueled Urban Shocker in the Cardinals’ 6-2 Game 2 victory. In that complete-game performance, Alexander allowed just four hits while striking out 10.

To counter him, the Yankees’ Miller Huggins turned to Bob Shawkey, a 35-year-old veteran who started just 10 of his 29 regular-season appearances. He had gone 8-7 with a 3.62 ERA during the 1926 campaign, but more importantly, he had retired all 10 Cardinals he had faced in two previous appearances during the World Series.

It didn’t take long for Yankees fans to begin questioning Huggins’ decision after Jim Bottomley hit an RBI double down the left-field line and Les Bell followed with a two-run single to give the Cardinals a quick 3-0 first-inning lead.

Alexander worked around a leadoff double by Bob Meusel in the second inning, then escaped a third-inning jam when Hank Severeid led off with a single and Tommy Thevenow committed an error.

In the fourth, the Yankees got on the board as Meusel tripled and Gehrig brought him home with a ground ball to first base. The Cardinals answered in the top of the fifth. Thevenow singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Alexander. Holm, who led off the game with a single, collected his second hit of the day with an RBI single into center field.

The Cardinals held a 4-1 lead until they broke the game open in the seventh. Thevenow singled and Alexander reached on an error to lead off the frame. Billy Southworth hit a fly ball to left field, but Meusel lost it in the sun and Southworth was credited with an RBI double into left field.

Trailing 5-1, Huggins turned to Urban Shocker. Hornsby greeted him with a two-run single into center that made the score 7-1, and with two outs Bell hit a two-run homer to make the score 9-1.

Yankees center fielder Earle Combs hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, but the Cardinals added another run in the ninth for the final 10-2 score. St. Louis finished the day with 13 hits, including three by Bell and two apiece by Holm, Southworth, and Bottomley.

“We hit the ball today when we had to, and we will hit again tomorrow when hits will mean even more than they did today,” Hornsby said.[2]

Alexander, meanwhile, had his second complete-game victory of the World Series, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and two walks.

“It was so cold that you couldn’t work up a sweat,” Alexander said. “I was afraid in one of those long innings of being kept too long on the bench where it was colder than (on the field). That was my only worry. I knew I had enough to stop them but I was afraid that the cold weather might affect me.”[3]

While Combs, Meusel, and Joe Dugan each had two hits, Alexander held Ruth to a walk in four plate appearances. Ruth had already made his impact in the series, hitting a World Series-record three home runs in Game 4.

“We didn’t hit,” Huggins said. “The boys are playing some in-and-out baseball in this series, but it will be all right when we win tomorrow. Alexander had a better game left in his system than we thought, and he was better than our pitchers today.”[4]

While Huggins didn’t immediately announce his starting pitcher for Game 7, Hornsby declared that Jesse Haines, who shut out the Yankees in Game 3, would take the mound for the Cardinals.

“I was absolutely confident that Alex would beat the Yankees today and I am just as confident that Jess Haines will beat them again tomorrow and give us the championship,” Hornsby said. “Jess may not shut them out again, but we don’t figure he will have to, to win.”[5]

Enjoy this post? Find similar stories listed by decade or by player.

[1] Russell Wolinsky, “Ray Blades,” Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ray-blades/.

[2] Brian Bell, “Clubhouse Chatter After Game,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 10, 1926: Page 2S.

[3] Paul E. Doutrich, The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven (2021), Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com, Location 2621-2624.

[4] Brian Bell, “Clubhouse Chatter After Game,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 10, 1926: Page 2S.

[5] Brian Bell, “Clubhouse Chatter After Game,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 10, 1926: Page 2S.

The post 1926 World Series Game 6: Cardinals clobber Yankees 10-2 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

After falling to the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 1926 World Series behind a complete-game, three-hit performance by Herb Pennock and two RBIs from Lou Gehrig, the Cardinals turned to 39-year-old veteran Grover Cleveland Alexander, commonly called Old Pete Alexander. Now in his 16^th major-league season, Alexander had already cemented his place in baseball history leading the league in wins six times – including 33 wins as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1916 – and leading the league in innings pitched seven times.

By 1926, however, Alexander was epileptic and an alcoholic. In The Cardinals and The Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven, author Paul E. Doutrich suggests that Alexander’s epilepsy may have been caused when he was struck in the head by a pitch and exasperated by his service as an artillery sergeant during World War I.[1] To minimize the seizures, Alexander self-medicated with whiskey.

Alexander was 3-3 with a 3.46 ERA for the Chicago Cubs in June 1926 when he was suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. When the Cubs waived him a few days later, Branch Rickey was out of town.[2] Instead, team owner Sam Breadon, with manager and star second baseman Rogers Hornsby’s blessing, signed Alexander for $4,000.[3] Down the stretch, Alexander went 9-7 with a 2.91 ERA, helping the Cardinals capture the National League pennant by two games over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Yankees countered with Urban Shocker, a veteran spitballer who led the league with 27 wins for the St. Louis Browns five years earlier. Shocker had gone 19-11 for the Yankees during the 1926 regular season, posting a 3.38 ERA over 258 1/3 innings.

Both pitchers threw scoreless first innings. After Shocker worked around singles from Bob O’Farrell and Tommy Thevenow in the second inning, Alexander was not as fortunate. Bob Meusel led off the inning with a single and was driven in by Tony Lazzeri. Cardinals left fielder Chick Hafey made a strong throw on the play and may have thrown Meusel out at home, but in all the noise Alexander thought O’Farrell was shouting at him to cut the ball off and prevent Lazerri from advancing to second.

After Joe Dugan singled to right and Alexander struck out Hank Severeid, the Yankees attempted a double steal and the Cardinals caught Lazerri between third and home. Alexander, however, committed a throwing error that allowed Lazerri to score the second run of the game.

“I had not pitched in 12 days and in the first two innings I had some trouble in getting started,” Alexander said. “Finally, I got the range and my arm got warmed up. After that I found I had as good control as I ever had and I just worked along smoothly.”[4]

Down 2-0, the Cardinals got on the scoreboard in the top of the third. Taylor Douthit and Billy Southworth each singled to lead off the inning, and after Hornsby laid down a sacrifice bunt, Jim Bottomley singled into right to tie the game.

With the score once again even, Alexander hit his stride. After allowing a single to Earle Combs to lead off the third, Alexander retired the next 21 batters he faced. In the fourth inning, he struck out Gehrig, Lazzeri, and Dugan in order on his way to 10 strikeouts in the game.

“Alexander had more speed than usual and his curve was breaking more sharply than usual,” Hornsby wrote in a column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “O’Farrell tells me he had more speed than he had shown all season. He also worked his change of pace very effectively.”[5]

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Shocker was finding his groove as well. After Bottomley tied the score, Shocker retired the next 11 batters he faced.

“Shocker pitched a good game until the seventh inning but we were in a hitting mood and we were sure to find him before long,” Hornsby wrote.[6]

In the seventh, O’Farrell doubled into the left-field gap to lead off the inning and Thevenow followed with a single. Alexander popped out and Douthit flied out to shallow left field, bringing Southworth to the plate.

Southworth was another midseason acquisition for the Cardinals, who obtained him from the New York Giants in exchange for Heinie Mueller. Since arriving in St. Louis, the 12-year veteran had batted .317 with 11 homers and 69 RBIs.

“I traded Southworth for Mueller because of my friendship for Rogers Hornsby,” Giants manager John McGraw said in 1928. “Hornsby, I knew, could win a pennant if he had an old head, a steadying influence in the outfield. The Giants, I knew, did not have a chance to win, so I gave Hornsby the break and traded Southworth for Mueller.”[7]

While this was likely a convenient rewriting of history on McGraw’s part, Southworth indeed played a crucial part of the Cardinals’ success. With two on and two out, Shocker delivered a pitch that the Post-Dispatch’s J. Roy Stockton said was, “not a fast ball inside, but a half speed ball inside. Or perhaps it was a spit ball. At any rate it was inside and Southworth swung.”[8] The ball landed in the right-field seats to give the Cardinals a 5-2 lead.

Two innings later, Thevenow hit an inside-the-park home run off Sad Sam Jones to produce the final 6-2 score. With the Cardinals’ first World Series victory in franchise history on the line, Alexander retired Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, and Meusel in order in the ninth.

“You will have to give the credit to Alexander,” Hornsby said. “He pitched a wonderful game and there wasn’t a time that every man on the team did not feel confident that Alex would be able to win. Even after the Yankees got off to their two-run lead the men were very confident and expected it in every word and action.”[9]

Yankees manager Miller Huggins agreed that Alexander, who allowed just three hits and walked one, proved the difference.

“We couldn’t hit Alexander. That’s all there is to it,” he said. “Alexander pitched an almost perfect game. He had everything on the ball and we just couldn’t connect. Against some other pitcher we probably would have done much heavier hitting.”[10]

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[1] Paul E. Doutrich, The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven (2021), Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com, Location 1076.

[2] John Heidenry, The Gashouse Gang (2007), PublicAffairs, Page 38.

[3] Charles C. Alexander, Rogers Hornsby (2013), Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com, Location 1850.

[4] Vernon Van Ness, “Alexander Deserves Credit for Victory, Both Pilots Say,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 4, 1926: Page 11.

[5] Rogers Hornsby, “‘We Will Be a Better Ball Club Every Way, Harder Than Ever to Beat,’ Hornsby Says,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 4, 1926: Page 19.

[6] Rogers Hornsby, “‘We Will Be a Better Ball Club Every Way, Harder Than Ever to Beat,’ Hornsby Says,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 4, 1926: Page 19.

[7] Paul E. Doutrich, The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven (2021), Kindle Android version retrieved from Amazon.com, Location 1041.

[8] J. Roy Stockton, “‘Old Pete’ Retires 21 Consecutive Batters And Fans 10 Yankees,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 4, 1926: Page 19.

[9] Vernon Van Ness, “Alexander Deserves Credit for Victory, Both Pilots Say,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 4, 1926: Page 1.

[10] Vernon Van Ness, “Alexander Deserves Credit for Victory, Both Pilots Say,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 4, 1926: Page 11.

The post 1926 World Series Game 2: The Cardinals’ first World Series win first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.