#BASEBALL COMMENTATOR MOVIE#
#BASEBALL COMMENTATOR SERIES#

#BASEBALL COMMENTATOR SERIES#

Like most who hold the office, he threw out ceremonial first pitches and congratulated World Series champions. Ronald Reagan was still involved with the world of baseball as president. President Reagan eating a hotdog in the dugout with Bowie Kuhn and Edward Bennett Williams while attending opening day game of 1984 Baseball Season at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. He noted it in his diary on May 12, 1988: 'received a gift the Baseball jersey I wore as Alex the Great in the movie.'

#BASEBALL COMMENTATOR MOVIE#

Later while he was President, Reagan was given his old costume from the movie as a present. One of his best-known movie roles was in the 1952 film The Winning Team with Doris Day, where he played real-life baseball star Grover Cleveland Alexander, known as 'Alexander the Great.' Ronald Reagan portrayed Alexander's struggles with epilepsy, alcoholism, and his triumphant return to pitching, leading to a victory in the 1926 World Series. In 1937 he had persuaded his radio bosses to send him to California to cover the Cubs' spring training, and while there took a screen test for Warner Bros. Ronald Reagan owed a debt to baseball for his Hollywood movie career. Costume worn by Ronald Reagan in the movie Winning Team.Charcoal portrait of Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleaveland Alexander.And finally, thanks to Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson, baseball became truly the American sport.' At the opening of the Champions of American Sport exhibit in June 1981, he said, 'And I'm proud that I was one of those in the sports-reporting fraternity who continually editorialized against that rule, that baseball was for Caucasian gentlemen only. He would share this humorous anecdote with audiences for decades to come.Īs a sports announcer, Ronald Reagan decried segregation in the game. Rather than lose his audience, Reagan improvised a streak of foul balls that lasted nearly twelve minutes until the wire came back. On June 7, 1934, with the Cubs and the Cardinals tied 0-0 in the ninth inning, with Billy Jurges at-bat and Dizzy Dean out on the mound, the line went dead. He would call Chicago Cubs games, but rather than being at the game, he would recreate the action from nothing but a slip of paper typed by a telegraph operator who was transcribing plays sent by Morse code. Ronald Reagan himself worked as a sports announcer for WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa during the 1930s. Reagan's father, John, had played on a team in Bennet, Iowa in 1898. While Ronald Reagan was known more for his time playing football, he had a lengthy history with the game of baseball as well. Ronald Reagan as a WHO Radio Announcer in Des Moines, Iowa.RCA radio condenser type 4-A-1 microphone with station WHO logo.

Baseball commentator