The Want List, Part II: Grover Alexander (1933 W517)

Every baseball card collector has a most wanted list of cards. Some collectors need a card to complete a set, and others want a card of a favorite player. I want a card because it looks cool (whether it's the player's pose, face, or the card's colors), or I want a card because of the player's history. Until I can afford the cards on my want list, I will have to be happy with writing about them. 

The Want List, Part II: Grover Alexander (1931 W517 #15)
With a blank stare, looking disconnected from the world, this is the last card appearance of Grover (Pete) Alexander. Back with the Phillies, where 15 years before he won 94 games in three seasons, Alexander posted a 9.14 era in 1930 along with three losses. After his release, he quit the majors, but went on to pitch in the minors and the House of David team.

Grover Alexander W517

At the end of his career. At the end of his rope. Alexander's post-baseball life follows the familiar story of a washed-up former star: fighting a drinking problem, keeping poverty at bay, dropping into obscurity, re-assimilating into society like a prisoner on parole. Adding to his pile of Dickensian troubles, Alexander suffered from epileptic seizures, and shell-shock caused by his horrific experience on the front lines of WWI, including participating in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive where the U.S. suffered 117,000 casualties (1)(2). His wife, Amy, divorced him for the first time in 1929. Things were crumbling around him.

So, why is this strip card on my want-list? This card shows what life after baseball looks like, before pensions and million dollar contracts. It shows a former star facing destitution. It shows what happened to forgotten heroes after the cheers go silent and baseball turns its head.


1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_meuse_argonne.html
2. SABR Biography of Grover 'Pete' Alexander: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=140&bid=945