Nebraska farmboy Grover Cleveland Alexander achieves baseball stardom before war injuries and alcoholism derail his career, but through his wife's faithful efforts he gets a chance for a com... Read allNebraska farmboy Grover Cleveland Alexander achieves baseball stardom before war injuries and alcoholism derail his career, but through his wife's faithful efforts he gets a chance for a comeback and redemption.Nebraska farmboy Grover Cleveland Alexander achieves baseball stardom before war injuries and alcoholism derail his career, but through his wife's faithful efforts he gets a chance for a comeback and redemption.
- Willie Alexander
- (as Rusty Tamblyn)
- Baseball Player
- (as Peanuts Lowrey)
- Baseball Player
- (as Irving Noren)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to TMC, Ronald Reagan had lobbied hard to play the title role in "The Stratton Story" (1949) but Warner Bothers didn't want to take a chance on a baseball film and passed on the project. After "The Stratton Story" became a huge hit, the studio picked up the Grover Cleveland Alexander story about another player who made a comeback after being forced from professional baseball.
- GoofsThe film ends with the 1926 World Series, and Grover Cleveland Alexander retired from baseball in 1930, yet he is seen with a number on the back of his jersey, a practice that did not begin until 1931. Because he never wore a number on his uniform, there was no number for teams to "retire" for this great player. Therefore the Philadelphia Phillies retired the block letter-style "P" from their 1915 uniforms to honor Alexander.
- Quotes
Aimee Alexander: [while Grover is hospitalized, having been beaned by a baseball] What's the matter?
Grover Cleveland Alexander: Nothing, I'm twice as good as I ever was... I'm seeing two of everything.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Diamonds on the Silver Screen (1992)
- SoundtracksTake Me Out to the Ball Game
(uncredited)
Music by Albert von Tilzer
Lyrics by Jack Norworth
Played during the opening credits and sung by Doris Day
Ronald Reagan gives a solid if unspectacular performance as Alexander, with Doris Day as his wife giving it a little more energy. The supporting cast is decent, with Frank Lovejoy probably getting the best opportunities as Rogers Hornsby, although the character takes some noticeable liberties with the Hornsby of baseball history. There are also numerous other factual inaccuracies about the players, stadiums, and so forth. In this respect, it's somewhat interesting as a contrast to many recent biographical movies.
Recent movies sometimes make better efforts to get the minor details right, but then they often distort the larger picture to promote a pet view of history or of a historical character. Older biographies like "The Winning Team" might be more likely to change factual details to fit a dramatic story, but less likely to distort the broader view of events.
Regardless of all that, this is a reasonable picture, without many significant strengths or flaws. It's probably mostly of interest to baseball fans or to those curious to see Reagan's role.
- Snow Leopard
- Dec 7, 2004
- Permalink
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1