Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander

[4scuda]

I picked up this lobby card for an early fifties movie called "A Winning Team" starring Ronald Reagan. I understand the movie is about Grover Cleveland Alexander. Has anyone seen the movie? Reagan graduated college from a little town just east of me , Eureka College, so I was glad to pick up this piece with him in a baseball uniform. Does anyone else have any memorabilia from this movie?

[mr2686]

I've seen the movie a few times, but not recently. It's a pretty glossed over version of his life, much like the Babe Ruth story etc. Not a great movie by today's standards but when I was a kid in the 60's, anything baseball was great.

[Bored5000]

I have not seen "A Winning Team, but I read John C. Skipper's excellent book a few months ago on Alexander entitled "Wicked Curve: The Life and Troubled Times of Grover Cleveland Alexander." The book contains several references to the movie and talks about how the movie sanitized Alexander's real life struggles.

http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Curve-Troubled-Cleveland-Alexander/dp/0786424125/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365862416&sr=1-1&keywords=grover+alexander

In reality, Alexander was deeply affected by shell-shock following his combat service in W.W.I, had to have an ear removed due to cancer, suffered from epilepsy and was completely overtaken by his alcoholism once he was out of baseball.

Skipper's book mentions several times that most baseball executives and team owners viewed Alexander as an embarrassment to the game because he could not control his alcoholism and was seemingly beyond help despite many efforts to provide him employment or just outright financial handouts late in his life.

[earlywynnfan]

May I ask what you paid, or if anyone has a current value of these lobby cards? I have the set that I bought many years ago.

Ken

[4scuda]

I paid $25 for this one card. I have no idea if that was a good price or not. I feel fortunate when I can find something I like and it doesn't cost a lot.