3. Grover Cleveland Alexander
Baseball / Elba / 1887-1950
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Outfielder Billy Southworth of Harvard, who had 1,296 hits in a 13-year big-league career, was a National League competitor beginning in 1918 and became a Cardinal teammate in 1926
Best moment as an athlete: When he entered in relief and struck out New York Yankees slugger Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and St. Louis clinging to a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series. It is commemorated on his Hall of Fame plaque.
Grover Cleveland Alexander battled alcoholism, epilepsy, partial deafness and trauma from war, yet he was still one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.
A right-hander with terrific control, he was 373-208 with a 2.56 ERA from 1911 through 1930. Only Cy Young and Walter Johnson earned more wins, and he is the alltime leader with 90 shutouts.
In 1915, he led the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series and had an ERA of 1.22, the best in the majors until Bob Gibson's 1.12 mark of 1968. He won 30 games or more in three straight seasons before serving in the artillery in France during World War I in 1918. It was there that his epilepsy surfaced and hearing loss occurred. Contemporaries claim he didn't drink much early in his career, but his personal life had begun to deteriorate by the 1920s.
He went from the Chicago Cubs to the St. Louis Cardinals on waivers during the 1926 season and recaptured past glory by winning Games 2 and 6 and saving Game 7 of the World Series against the New York Yankees. After suffering from cancer, he died of a heart attack in a rented room in St. Paul in 1950.
-- Rob White
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Outfielder Billy Southworth of Harvard, who had 1,296 hits in a 13-year big-league career, was a National League competitor beginning in 1918 and became a Cardinal teammate in 1926
Best moment as an athlete: When he entered in relief and struck out New York Yankees slugger Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and St. Louis clinging to a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series. It is commemorated on his Hall of Fame plaque.
