1938: Baseball

For the seventh time since the American League established a team in New York City, the New York Yankees captured the World Series, defeating the Chicago Cubs in four straight games with scores of 3-1, 6-3, 5-2, and 8-3. This represented also the third successive year that the Yankees had won the World Series, a new record in baseball annals. The four games which climaxed the American professional baseball year, were held October 5-9, the first two games at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the final games at the Yankee Stadium in New York before a total attendance of 200,833 spectators. The gate receipts set a record peak of $851,166, each of the Yankee players receiving $5,815 as prize money, each of the Cub players receiving $4,674. In the first game. Charles (Red) Ruffing of the Yankees pitched against Bill Lee of the Cubs, winning the game 3-1. The left-handed Vernon Gomez of the Yankees pitched against Jerome Herman (Diary) Dean of the Cubs to capture the second game, when Dean weakened in the final innings. Monte Pearson of the Yankees decisively won the third game of the series against Clay Bryant of the Cubs, while in the fourth game, Charles Ruffing won his second victory against several Cub pitchers.

The Yankees captured the American League Pennant for the tenth time with a margin of nine and a half games in 1938 as compared with a twelve game margin in 1937. In the National League, the Chicago Cubs won the Pennant by two games, when they scored three successive victories in the crucial series and took the lead for the first time since the beginning of the baseball season.

In the sixth major league All-Star Game, the annual midseason baseball classic, held on July 6, 1938, at Cincinnati, the team composed of selected players from the National League, defeated the team of American League players 4-1, before a capacity crowed of 27,067 spectators. This represented the National Team's second victory in six games played.

In the minor leagues, the Kansas City Blues, winners in the American Association, captured the Little World Series in a seven game play-off with the Newark Bears who had won the Pennant in the International League. The series was played before a total attendance of 71,813 spectators and the total receipts were $55,692. In the South, Atlanta, the Southern Association champion, decisively defeated Beaumont, winner of the Texas League Pennant, to capture the Dixie Series in four straight games, while Sacramento defeated San Francisco four games to one to win the Pacific Coast play-offs.

In intercollegiate competition, Dartmouth won the Eastern Intercollegiate title, capturing nine games and losing three, with Harvard second, while Illinois won the Big Ten (Western) Conference championship.

The year saw Jimmy Foxx of the Boston Red Sox established as the American League's leading batsman, while Ernest Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds received this distinction in the National League. During the year, a record attendance of 10,000,000 people, 600,000 more than in 1937, witnessed major league games.