Boston Red Sox
On June 12, 1932, the Tigers traded him with Roy Johnson to the Boston Red Sox, for Earl Webb, who had set the Major League record for doubles (67) the previous season. Webb hit only 19 doubles for the Tigers in 1932 and retired one year later. Alexander won the American League batting crown with a career-high .367 average. He beat Jimmie Foxx by a mere three points, depriving Foxx of the triple crown. Alexander is the only Major League batting champion to be traded to another team in the same league during the season in which he won the title. (In 1990, Willie McGee won the National League batting title despite being traded to the American League in late August.)
On August 6, 1932, Alexander broke up a no-hitter by Cleveland pitcher, Wes Ferrell, who ended up with a one-hitter.
On May 30, 1933, Alexander twisted a knee in a game at Philadelphia. He was given diathermy treatment ("electrically induced heat" used for muscle relaxation) in the clubhouse by Red Sox trainer, Doc Woods. Alexander's leg suffered third degree burns during the treatment, and gangrene eventually set in. "It was a new method of treatment and not too much was known about it," Alexander said, years later. "I noticed my leg felt awfully hot. I ended up with third-degree burns and a gangrene infection and almost lost my leg. I was finished in the Majors... I couldn't run and I couldn't field and when I got hurt, that was the end." Alexander attempted a comeback but injured his leg again in July 1933 and saw limited action for the rest of the season, mostly as a pinch hitter. Alexander wound up hitting .281 in 1933 and played his last Major League game was on September 23, 1933 against the New York Yankees.
Read more about this topic: Dale Alexander
Famous quotes containing the words boston and/or red:
“However strongly they resist it, our kids have to learn that as adults we need the companionship and love of other adults. The more direct we are about our needs, the easier it may be for our children to accept those needs. Their jealousy may come from a fear that if we adults love each other we might not have any left for them. We have to let them know that it’s a different kind of love.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)
“With the old kindness, the old distinguished grace,
She lies, her lovely piteous head amid dull red hair
Propped upon pillows, rouge on the pallor of her face.
She would not have us sad because she is lying there,
And when she meets our gaze her eyes are laughter-lit,
Her speech a wicked tale that we may vie with her....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)