The Winning Team

The movie tells the story of Grover Cleveland Aexander (Ronald Reagan), a Hall of Fame Major League Baseball pitcher for Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis. His great skill on the mound is hampered after he takes a ball to the head, leaving him with double vision. He later serves in World War One, where he suffers from exposure to mustard gas and subsequent shell-shock, after which he develops epilepsy and a severe drinking problem. His farm-girl wife Aimee (Doris Day) tries to help him through his troubles, but are his demons too strong to allow a comeback?

The film skims over Alexander's troubles, and Reagan does a poor job of depicting a man at rock bottom. He always looks like, with just a shave and some pressed clothes, he'd be back at peak. Day doesn't have a lot to do, although she sings a Christmas song at one point, and sounds good doing so. This wasn't the worst sports biopic that I've seen, but I gained more insight on the real man from his Wikipedia page.