Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Ronald Reagan Depicts Hall of Famer’s Comeback in ‘The Winning Team,’ with Doris Day


The troubled life of a baseball legend is depicted in this 1952 film.
by Rich Watson
 
Few major league pitchers were as dominant as Grover Cleveland Alexander. During the 1910s and 20s, when professional baseball was still new, he set records left and right that stand today: 373 wins, the all-time National League co-leader; 28 wins in his rookie season, a modern rookie record; 90 shutouts, a NL record; a three-time winner of the pitching Triple Crown (wins, ERA, strikeouts), and a World Series championship.

Alexander (AKA “Old Pete”) achieved all this despite suffering epileptic seizures stemming from a freak playing accident, which also led to bouts of alcoholism.

In 1952, his career was chronicled in a movie: The Winning Team, with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day.

6 comments:

  1. In real life RONALD REAGAN had been a lifeguard in his younger days. Speaking of IT'S A GREAT FEELING Reagan's then-wife JANE WYMAN and their daughter MAUREEN also had cameo roles. Did you watch FALCON CREST starring Jane Wyman? Also did you watch the smash hit DALLAS and/or its spinoff KNOTS LANDING?

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  2. I did watch those 80s nighttime soaps, though much of it was over my head at the time. I was only a kid, after all.

    Reagan used to be a lifeguard? I guess that means he had the physicality for the role of an athlete—though it wasn’t like he did anything strenuous.

    You recommended this movie, so thanks for that, even if I wasn’t blown away by it.

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  3. I enjoyed reading your article on The Winning Team. We agree on several points.

    I went back and read my piece on the movie from a couple of years ago and found I responded in one of the comments with "It seems to me that Hollywood missed out on some really interesting films by constantly messing with the facts when they chose to do a biography. Name recognition alone seemed to be the deciding factor in a project."

    I do enjoy many aspects of the movie as entertainment and like the casting of the leads.

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  4. It’s certainly not the first time Hollywood’s fudged with the facts in order to tell a story. I would’ve begun with him winning the World Series with the Cardinals, then his problems with booze and the seizures, and ended with him recovering well enough to get into the Hall of Fame.

    I think I may have to reevaluate my opinion of Doris Day. Obligatory hokey song aside, she managed to make this watchable. I’d always thought of her as the definition of milquetoast, but I can see why she was popular: she had a certain charm and spunk that I can imagine 50s audiences responding to—not that I’d take her over, say, Rita Hayworth.

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    1. Rita, eh? Even Gavin with his limited language skills shouts "Cover Girl" when he sees Rita on the TV, and woe to anyone who wants to change the channel!

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