Another Edition of Lopsided Trades! The Phillies Trade Ace “Old Pete” Alexander For… Who?? 

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Another Edition of Baseball’s Most Lopsided Trades!

The Phillies Trade Ace Pitcher “Old Pete” Pete Alexander For…Who??

One hundred and one years ago today, December 11, 1917, was the anniversary of one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history. Let’s just say the Cubs got the better end of this deal!

The Phillies traded their ace pitcher, Pete Alexander, to the Cubs, along with catcher Bill Killefer. In return, the Phillies received  pitcher Mike Prendergast, who went 13-15 in his one-plus season with the Phillies; and backup catcher Bill Dilhoefer, who played in a total of eight games batting .091. Meanwhile, from 1918 to 1926, “Old Pete” compiled a 128-83 record for the Cubs en route to a Hall of Fame career.

 Over his 20-year career (1911-1930), Alec went 373-208 (.642) with a career 2.56 ERA and 2198 strikeouts.  His 373 wins are third all-time behind Cy Young (511) and Walter Johnson (417), and tied for first all-time in the National League with Christy Mathewson.

Although he is usually remembered as the ace of the Phillies staff (1911-17, 1930), including their pennant-winning year of 1915, he pitched for the Cubs (as mentioned above), and Cardinals (1926-29). He was the star of the 1926 World Series when Cardinals’ manager Rogers Hornsby called him out of the bullpen in the seventh inning of the seventh game (possibly nursing a hang-over). He proceeded to strike out the dangerous slugger Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and preserved the game and Series win for the Cardinals.

Other career milestones for Old Pete include being a three-time pitching Triple Crown winner, six-time National League wins leader, four-time National League ERA leader, and six-time National League shutout leader. His best year was probably 1916 when he posted a 38-16 record, with a 1.55 ERA and 16 shutouts in 389 innings. He topped 300 innings seven times in his career. His 90 career shutouts are a National League record and second all-time. He’s also tenth all-time in innings pitched (5190), and eighth in hits allowed (4868).

In 1999 he ranked 12th on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Pete was elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1938, the third year of the Hall, the only player elected that year. His jersey has been retired by the Phillies.

Gary Livacari 

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Photo Credits: ;  Featured photo colorized by Don Stokes; All others from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from Pete Alexander Wikipedia page; stats from Baseball-Reference.com

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