Customer Reviews

Ol' Pete: The Grover Cleveland Alexander Story

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Reading this book was difficult. Not difficult to read, but difficult to accept. Hard to imagine that one of baseball's most loved and storied legends had such a difficult life. A well written and well researched book. Kept me interested from beginning to end. When I finally closed the book, I could not help but sigh. A sigh of such sadness will overcome you. Truly a sad outcome for such a gifted pitcher.

A favorable trend over the last few years has been biographies appearing on some of the biggest stars in early baseball, ones who have not have their lifes covered previously - Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, George Sisler, Cy Young, etc. I was glad to see that a biography had been written about Grover Alexander, as there seemed to be contridictions in his life after baseball and too many rumors about his life in baseball. Jack Kavanagh, I believe, has done his best to sort out fact from fiction in Alexander's life through his baseball career; it makes for interesting reading and clears up some misconceptions about incidents in his baseball life and life during baseball. The only weak point in the book is that there isn't a lot said about his life after baseball - but this may be because there isn't a lot of information about that period of his life, and that may be unfair to Kavanagh. Nonetheless, I found myself feeling somewhat embarrassed over the fall of G.C. Alexander after his big-league days were over and the level that he sunk to. But our "heroes" of the big leagues are merely people, subject to the same excesses and faults that we all are, and no matter of the problems of Alexander should be judged too harshly by us. This is a good book, entertaining and probably as thorough a biography as we have at this point, or may have at all. Alexander has been overlooked as a great pitcher and a biography about him is overdue - read, enjoy and learn.

THIS IS THE STORY ABOUT ONE OF THE LEGENDARY PITCHERS OF THE GRAND OLD GAME. A TREMENDOUS ON THE FIELD SUCCESS AND OFF THE FIELD FAILURE. HIS 1926 WORLD SERIES IS LEGENDARY AS IS HIS STORIED CAREER. BUT HIS OFF THE FIELD DRINKING AND EPILEPSY IS VERY SHOCKING AND GUT WRENCHING. I WONDER WHAT SORT OF CAREER HE COULD HAVE HAD IF HE DIDN'T HAVE TO FIGHT THE DEMON OF ALCOHOLISM. ALEX'S PLAYING DAYS ARE DONE IN GREAT DETAIL, JUST WISH MORE WAS AVAILABLE ABOUT HIS PRIVATE LIFE. BUT A WELL DONE JOB BY THE AUTHOR. A MUST READ FOR BASEBALL HISTORY FANS.

I have always wondered why there was not more written about this early hero of baseball who seemed to have such a sad and tragic life, and was very excited when I found this book. Jack Kavanagh did a wonderful job of researching the ins and outs of Ol' Pete, and reading of his life and hardships was very informative. But I believe he allowed the book to drag just a bit by trying to include too much detail about meaningless games.

I have undertaken the quest to read biographies of the past baseball heroes, and wanted to know more about Ol' Pete, so this book was an exact match.

I became a aware of a few editing mistakes, there is a picture caption that claims GCA won 26 games as a rookie yet the statistics show he won 28.

During a 3 page span there were a few mathematical mistakes dealing with GCA and surpassing Matty's career wins record. Page 110 said Pete needed 9 wins to pass Matty, then a few pages later it said GCA won his 6 game, 1 more needed to tie Matty. Certainly with the Mattty record changed later, this was just clearly an over site with numbers, hopefully it will be corrected with the paperback version up-coming.

A handful of the old-time players were certainly tragic firgures, and I guess Fitzgerald was right, when he said "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

If you enjoyed this book, try the following: 1. Matty: An American Hero 2. Fouled Away: The Baseball tragedy of Hack Wilson 3. Rogers Hornsby: A Biography