The Winning Team

In filming the life story of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Warner Brothers made it a story of redemption when in fact it was a story of tragedy. But 1952 movie audiences wanted their happy endings.

Grover Cleveland Alexander (1887-1950) was possibly the greatest right handed pitcher in National League history. He played for 3 teams, the Phillies, Cubs, and Cardinals and compiled 373 lifetime victories over a 20 year period.

While still in the bush leagues Alexander sustained a serious head injury when a ball struck him right between the eyes while he was a base runner. He had double vision and headaches for a year. During World War I while an artillery officer the noise of exploding shells compounded a seemingly healed injury with a complication of epilepsy. To anesthetize himself, Alexander took to drinking some of that Prohibition whiskey and became an alcoholic.

After leaving baseball in 1930 for the next twenty years, Alexander drifted to all kinds of menial jobs, occasionally making headlines with some alcohol related incident. One positive headline was his election to the Hall of Fame in the second round of elections. He was on hand for the dedication of the building in Cooperstown.

In 1950 Alex was on hand as the Phillies won their second National League Pennant. Alex was the star of the first pennant winning team in 1915. A month later he was found dead in a cheap rooming house.

That unfortunately is the sad truth of the real Grover Cleveland Alexander. This is not the film you will see.

Ronald Reagan is just fine and actually comes close to the character of the real Alexander who was a genial and kind man with a terrible drinking problem. This was the final film Reagan made while at Warner Brothers.

Doris Day in her second film with Reagan plays Amy Arrants Alexander, his loyal, faithful wife. In her memoirs Doris wrote that during the shooting she and Reagan had a few dates and she remembers him best as a good man who was quite a dancer when they went out. This film also qualifies as a musical for in the beginning Doris has a Christmas number, Old St. Nicholas, and Reagan joins her for the last two bars. Ronald Reagan actually did sing in one of his films.

Today Hollywood would have no problem filming the real story which was quite a love story. Amy Alexander married Alex 3 times and divorced him twice, both those divorces an effort to give him a wake up call.

But the widow Alexander was an adviser on the film and she got the film made to show the public the husband she wanted them to remember.

And baseball fans the world over remember Grover Cleveland Alexander as a great baseball pitcher and a decent and patriotic man whose service to his country caused him a lifetime of triumph and tragedy trying to control the pain in his brain. It's a good legacy that doesn't need any embellishment from Hollywood.

The movie tells the story of Grover Cleveland Aexander (Ronald Reagan), a Hall of Fame Major League Baseball pitcher for Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis. His great skill on the mound is hampered after he takes a ball to the head, leaving him with double vision. He later serves in World War One, where he suffers from exposure to mustard gas and subsequent shell-shock, after which he develops epilepsy and a severe drinking problem. His farm-girl wife Aimee (Doris Day) tries to help him through his troubles, but are his demons too strong to allow a comeback?

The film skims over Alexander's troubles, and Reagan does a poor job of depicting a man at rock bottom. He always looks like, with just a shave and some pressed clothes, he'd be back at peak. Day doesn't have a lot to do, although she sings a Christmas song at one point, and sounds good doing so. This wasn't the worst sports biopic that I've seen, but I gained more insight on the real man from his Wikipedia page.

In "The Winning Team" Reagan is the great early baseball star Grover Cleveland Alexander. Unimaginitive direction makes this film a little dry, but Reagan's solid performance as the pitcher who has a tragic accident early in his career and yet refuses to quit, is well worth the effort to watch it. Reagan gives a realistic portrayal of the flawed hero who makes a surprising comeback and with the help of his wife, and ignores the ugly rumors that surrounded his occasional blackouts. His performance on the field in the final moments, despite suffering from his affliction reflect the courage that it must have taken the real Alexander to stay at the helm till the ship sailed home. I recommend this film to anyone who likes baseball and certainly to fans of Reagan, who has been often disparaged as an actor, when it was usually the director or the film itself that was really bad. I also recommend Kings Row, Hasty Heart and Law and Order, all of which are solid Reagan films.

Grover Cleveland Alexander was a remarkable pitcher and lived a very interesting life in an era in which baseball sported the most colorful people in its history: the early 1900s. Some of stories about them, like this one, are very inspiring, too, although they end this bio on Alexander's high note not his tragic demise - but what's wrong with that? People want to leave the theater feeling good, not depressed.

Ronald Reagan does a decent job portraying "Alex," except for the baseball scenes where he doesn't throw or hit like a real big-leaguer. That was common in classic sports films. You don't see that now. Robert Redford ("The Natural"), Kevin Costner (several baseball films) and the like, know how to play the game.

This is corny in spots and it's sugar-coated like some of the other classic sports stories. However, Alexander is shown with his drinking problem and his wife, played by Doris Day, also does the wrong thing walking away from her husband in his time of need.....so you do see some bad with the good. Yet, all ends well and overall, it's an interesting movie.

What's more, the climactic scene actually happened in real life where Alexander turned into a World Series hero despite the odds against him.

If you really want interesting stories, read the real-life accounts of men like Alexander, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Matthewson, John MacGraw, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, etc. They are fascinating.

I am 52 and never had seen this gem before until today July 10, 2016. I am not much of a movie critic, just wanted to throw in my 2-cents. The real-life baseball footage from the 1911 to 1927 years really got me, it does not get any better. I truly enjoyed the early 20th century "raw" baseball film footage caught in this film.

The love story is a bit corny, the whole "Aimee gave him his strength", I feel that was Hollywood doing their thing, just as in the end showing Grover striking out the last batter, when in fact, Babe Ruth was thrown out at 2nd trying to steal 2nd base, typical Hollywood in making up what they want.

Overall though, I loved the movie, loved the real 1910-1927's baseball footage! If you are a baseball fanatic, you will love this one, except for the side story with his love life, but I tell ya what, Dorris day played it well, I actually loved her performance.

Sportsman Park, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and Forbes Field with the banners and the crowds really won me over in the movie, along with the old-time radio broadcasters. The raw footage is AWESOME!