1941: Baseball

The World Series.

The pendulum of major league victory swung to the American League in 1941. Whereas in 1940 the National League dominated the baseball world, victorious in the annual midseason All-Star Game as well as the pre-season interleague contest in Florida, then in the World Series as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Detroit Tigers, the 1941 results were the other way.

On July 9, the American League won the All-Star Game in Detroit, 7 to 5, by a 4-run 9th inning rally climaxed by Ted Williams' home run. In October the New York Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 1, in the World Series.

New all-time records were set by the Yanks to make 1941 memorable. They clinched the American League pennant Sept. 4, the earliest date in major league history for a regulation 154-game schedule. They became the first major league team to win 5 pennants in 6 years. Their world championship victory chalked up their 8th straight successful World Series since the St. Louis Cardinals defeated them in 1926. Before Brooklyn beat them in the second game of the 1941 series, they had set the all-time record for successive games won in World Series play at 10 straight by winning the 1941 opener.

This 1941 opening game also set another record, an all-time high for attendance at a World Series game — 68,540, surpassing the former record of 66,669, set in the 1936 opener. Remarkable as was the Yankee record for successive victories the last item of which was recorded that afternoon of Oct. 1, the day's attendance record was even more so, in the light of world affairs, with the background of the war abroad and the national emergency in this hemisphere.

With no national emergency in the picture, the fact of Brooklyn's first pennant since 1920 and the pitting of that loyal borough's heroes against the Yankees in the World Series would have made a capacity crowd a foregone conclusion. The fact that the war and its repercussions at home did not prevent a new attendance record, was testimony to baseball's place in national morale, its function in the national emergency.

Baseball attendance everywhere all season bore evidence to this fact. The All-Star Game in Detroit, July 8 also had a capacity crowd — 54,674 — a figure limited only by the size of the Tigers' stadium. The emergency helped, if anything, this turnout, for the entire proceeds of the game, $53,226.27, were turned over to the United Service Organizations.

The 41 minor leagues which started and finished the 1941 season showed a total attendance increase of more than 3,000,000 over 1940, indicating that baseball, the community sport, reflected a heightened community consciousness everywhere. The National Anthem was the signal for every baseball crowd to salute the colors; on special occasions like Flag Day, communal recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance testified the patriotism of baseball fandom from coast to coast.

Big League Games.

The major league scene, though dominated by the Yankees in the summing up, was dominated in the course of its season's play by the National League champions, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The National League race was close, as compared to the runaway triumph of the Yanks in their own league. The flag-fight between the Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals, start to finish, was the most sustained 2-club race in baseball history. At no time was there more than 4 games difference between the rival clubs. Only once did the margin between first and second places spread that far.

As protagonists in a ding-dong pennant fight the Dodgers had the color as well as the class to enlist the interest of hundreds of thousands of fans far outside the limits of their home borough. In baseball annals, the 1941 season will stand as the one in which the entire baseball world became Dodger-conscious in a fashion reminiscent of the Baltimore-Oriole days of the '90's.

That the Dodgers had class as well as color is attested by the records. They led the league in batting, in runs scored, runs batted in, homers, triples, doubles, and total hits, and were shut out only 4 times all season, fewer than any other team in either major league. In fielding they were one point below the Cincinnati Reds, league-leaders in defensive skill.

When it came to electing the year's Most-Valuable-Player, the jury of baseball writers from the 8 National League cities in their voting named Dodgers for the first 3 places; Dolph Camilli, brilliant first-baseman and league-leader in runs-batted-in and in homers, was a foregone conclusion for the Most-Valuable award; second was centerfielder Pete Reiser, first freshman ever to win the batting championship; then Whitlow Wyatt, the pitching ace, 22-game winner during the season and first pitcher to beat the Yankees in a world series game since Carl Hubbell in 1937.

Joe DiMaggio, great centerfielder of the Yankees, was named the American League's Most-Valuable-Player. DiMaggio made 1941 historic by breaking one of the most spectacular batting records in the book, hitting safely in successive games. He set the all-time mark at 56, surpassing Sisler's American League mark of 41 games, set in 1922, and the major league record of 44 posted by Willie Keeler of the Baltimore Orioles in 1897.

In the course of his streak, May 15 to July 16, the Yankees climbed from 4th place, 5 games behind the leaders, to first place with a lead of 7 games, an advantage they built up into a 17-game lead over the second-place Boston Red Sox at the season's close.

Second place went to the league batting champion, Ted Williams, of the Red Sox, whose batting average of .406 was the highest in his league since Sisler's .420 in 1922; he was the first .400 hitter in either major league since Bill Terry in 1930.

Minor League Games.

Outside the major league zone, 36 leagues used the Shaughnessy playoffs, a system of post-season competition in which the first division clubs play a round-robin elimination series to determine the final championship. In the 3 Class AA leagues, the Columbus Red Birds, of the American Association, won the pennant and the playoff series, as did Seattle in the Pacific Coast League. In the International League, the Newark pennant winners were defeated in the playoffs by the second-place Montreal Royals, who in turn bowed to Columbus in the interleague Junior World Series, 4 games to 2.

Both pennant-winners in the Class A-1 circuits toppled in the playoffs. Houston, in the Texas League, went out in the first round, the 4th place Dallas Rebels becoming Shaughnessy champions. The Nashville Vols, second-placers in the Southern Association pennant race, conquered the flag-winning Atlanta Crackers in the playoffs. The Dixie Series, between the pair of A-1 champions, was won by Nashville.

Besides Columbus and Seattle, 10 other pennant-winners withstood all challengers in the Shaughnessy finals; Mobile, in the Southeastern League; Durham in the Piedmont League; Harrisburg, Pa., Interstate League; Joplin, Western Association; Dothan, Alabama State League; Oneonta, N. Y., Canadian-American League; New Iberia, La., Evangeline League; Wilson, N. C., Coastal Plain League; Logan, W. Va., Mountain State League; and Elizabethtown, Tenn., Appalachian League.

Second-place teams victorious in Shaughnessy rounds, in addition to Montreal, were: Columbia, S. C., which vanquished the pennant-winning Macon Peaches in the South Atlantic League; Cedar Rapids, victors over the Indiana-Illinois-Iowa League flag-winners, the Evansville Bees; Hot Springs, Ark., toppling the Cotton States first-place Monroe, La., team; Erie, Middle Atlantic champs over Akron's pennant club; Salem topping the Virginia League after Petersburg won the pennant; Ogden, Utah, Pioneer League champs over Boise; Butler, Penn State Association, over Johnstown; Salisbury, North Carolina State, over Kannapolis; Miami Beach, Florida East Coast, over West Palm Beach; and Bradford, Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York, over Jamestown.

Only 2 third-place teams beat their pennant-winners, the Elmira Eastern Leaguers, who conquered Wilkes-Barre, and Clovis, N. M., victors over Big Spring, Tex., in the West Texas-New Mexico League.

Besides Dallas, 4th in the Texas League pennant race, but 1st in post-season play, 8 more 4th place clubs won out over pennant-winners: Eau Claire, Wis., Northern League, over Wausau, Wis.; Sanford, N. C., Bi-State League, over Leaksville, N. C.: Easton, Md., Eastern Shore League, over Milford. Del.; Pueblo, Col., Western League, over Norfolk. Neb.; Thomasville, Ga., Georgia-Florida League, over Albany, Ga.; Mayfield, Ky., Kentucky-Tennessee League, over Jackson, Tenn.; Leesburg, Florida State League, over St. Augustine; and Sheboygan, Wis., Wisconsin State League, over Green Bay.

The leagues without Shaughnessy playoffs posted the following champions: California League, Santa Barbara; Western International, Spokane; Arizona-Texas, Tucson; Michigan State, Flint; Northeast Arkansas, Newport; and Ohio State, Fremont.