Small Town Legends - Transcript

[Mick McDowell:] "Every town in Nebraska, I think, begins to look for its roots and heritage and a piece of history that it can relate to. And in 1991, St. Paul looked to Grover Cleveland Alexander as part of its roots. There was a group of people that started the celebration called 'Grover Cleveland Alexander Days.' And as part of that we made our first exhibit on Grover and from there it just continued to grow."

The centerpiece of the Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball is a display of the five baseball hall-of-famers from Nebraska. Sam Crawford from Wahoo who still holds the major league record for lifetime triples with 312. Dazzy Vance from Hastings who lead the league in shutouts seven straight years. Richie Ashburn from Tilden who had over 2,500 hits. Bob Gibson from Omaha who won two Cy Young awards and pitched more than 3,000 strikeouts for the St. Louis Cardinals. And Grover Cleveland Alexander who was born in Elba and lived in

St. Paul. He won 373 games pitching for Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis, and in 1938 was the first Nebraskan inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

[Mick:] "We took the old dime store, which was Johnson's Variety here in St. Paul, and rented it from the Masonic Lodge who is the building owner. And we have done some renovations, and we opened up in April of this year and... people have been coming in. Thus far this year we've had 365 visitors from 31 towns across Nebraska and 19 different states. So we're real excited about our beginning.

[Kenneth Christensen:] "Here he's giving some hitting instruction to some St. Paul kids, and here he's talking about pitching."

Kenneth Christensen, a baseball enthusiast, helps with research for the museum.

[Kenneth:] "The families of the honorees would come in here and find it a rather moving experience to see these displays. The Ashburn family has been here and have been very appreciative of what they've seen.

"This display that we have here in the center has a placard on every one of the people who have been identified as a major league ball players from Nebraska. We may have missed one or two somewhere along the line. But we certainly do have a comprehensive roster."

[Mich:] "We started making some purchases of acrylic cases. Something that is easy to view. You can view it from all sides. You can almost feel like you're living history while you're in the presence of major league greats."

[Emma O'Neil:] "That's Grover there. That's one of his very few business pictures that you see."

Emma O'Neil, a niece of Grover Cleveland Alexander, remembers when he visited St. Paul in the off season.

"And we used to look forward to every fall when he would come home and spend the winter with his grandmother and his brothers. And of course, I think the biggest thing we remembered was in 1926 when he won the World Series for the Cardinals."

In the final game of the 1926 World Series, Alexander, 39 years old and nearing the end of his career, was called in to pitch. It was the seventh inning, the bases were loaded.

[Emma:] "St. Louis was behind. And when they called him up to pitch, he had pitched the day before on the sixth game. And then they called him up to the seventh inning, and he couldn't believe that they was going to pitch him the next day again. The manager [asked,] 'The bases were loaded, what was he going to do with this batter?' And he said, 'I'll just put him on the bench I guess.' That's when he struck him out."

The strikeout ended the New York Yankee rally and the Cardinals went on to win game seven, 3 to 2.

"They has the celebration after he came back from the '26 Series, an they had a town game here. And he pitched about three innings but... it didn't last very long because they never had a catcher that could catch his ball. You know, he was too fast.

"Grandma used to tell about when they were on the farm. If she wanted a chicken for dinner she'd tell Grover that 'I want that one.' He'd throw a ball at it and... that's the way he'd catch her chicken for her.

"I remember one time he was out at the fairground during the County Fair. And there was a stand there where they had wooden milk bottles piled up high, and if you could knock them all down you'd have a Kewpie Doll or some prize. Well, they would go and get Grover to come throw the balls, until finally the manager wouldn't let him play anymore. He found out who he was and that was the end of playing the game."

[Ed Nevrivy:] "The hooks are still there. The hooks of the swing where he sat everyday are right up here. This is where I met him right here. And we visited a lot about baseball."

In 1950, Alexander was living here in Ed Nevrivy's mother's boarding house. He suffered from bouts of epilepsy and alcoholism.

"I'd come home for dinner, and my mother was out in the kitchen. The kitchen is right down in here. And she was telling me, she said, 'You know, Ed,' she said, 'Alex has not been moving around or nothing.' Usually he was up around ten o'clock. 'I suppose you should go up and see what's the matter.'

"So I did. I proceeded up there, and, when I got to his room, I knocked. He didn't answer. So I knocked again, no answer. So I opened the door and there he was. He had rolled off the bed... must have had a heart attack.

"I go by here a lot and think of this place, us staying here and... when Alex was here with my mother and us. Like to reminisce a little bit about the place."

[Emma:] "I just can't believe that its been that long ago. Fifty years since he's been gone. I guess time marches on."

[Mick:] "People are already coming out of the woodwork to see what we've got and... and they're very pleased. They're real happy. And that makes us happy and very encouraged to do more and more to make Nebraska's history come alive."