Former Major League Baseball pitcher Doyle Alexander turns 62 today. When I think of Doyle Alexander I think “hired gun” Alexander had a fine career, he won close to 200 games- his career record 194-174 3.76 ERA. The thing was-he never stayed in one place very long. His career started 1971 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1972-76 Baltimore Orioles, 1976 mid-season traded to the Yankees, He was with the Texas Rangers 1977-79. He went to Atlanta 1980, San Francisco 1981,back with the Yankees 1982-83. He was with Toronto 1983-86, Atlanta 86-87 before finishing up in 1987-89 with the Detroit Tigers.

He won 17 games three times. In the off-season of 1971 he was part of the trade going from the Dodgers to the Orioles in which the Dodgers got Frank Robinson. On the trading deadline in 1976 he was part of a 9 player deal between Baltimore and the Yankees. He was traded six times during his career the most significant was on August 12,1987 when the Atlanta Braves traded Alexander to Detroit for a young pitcher deep in the minor leagues named John Smoltz. In the short run it was a great deal for Detroit, Alexander went 9-0 down the stretch for the Tigers and they won the AL East. Smoltz went on to have a great career in Atlanta and will probably make the Hall of Fame. No doubt a deal the Tigers would have liked to have taken back. {In my opinion though-had Doyle helped the Tigers win the World Series that year the deal would have been worth it but they lost in the ALCS}

Alexander kind of had the reputation as a hard gun because he travelled from team to team and did his job seemingly without being too emotionally involved. I guess if you switched teams as often as he did maybe that is the outlook you’d take.  He only made on All-Star team in 1988 for Detroit. He had a very interesting career.