1942: Baseball

The St. Louis Cardinals dominated the major league baseball scene in 1942. They achieved the National League pennant by a remarkable uphill fight from a position far behind the pacemaking Brooklyn Dodgers in mid-August.

By winning 41 of their last 48 games in the closing five weeks of the season they caught up with and passed the 1941 champion Dodgers, clinching the 1942 title on the final day of the league schedule. It was an accomplishment by Manager Billy Southworth and his fast young team which in many ways surpassed any previous September drive by a bygone eleventh-hour flag-winner.

World Series.

Great as this triumph was, it was eclipsed by their victory in the World Series. After losing the first game to the mighty New York Yankees, American League champions, they resumed the fiery pace that had won them the honors in their own league and proceeded to bowl over the Yanks in four successive games to become baseball's World Champions, 1942.

The fact that the series required only five games for its decision prevented the attendance from equalizing the all-time high for a whole series, but the Sunday game at Yankee Stadium set a new all-time record of 69,902 for a single game.

The Series as a whole took its place in the annals as one of the most dramatic ever played. After 8½ innings of the first game were completed, the Yanks led, 7 to 0, and the picture of Yankee domination of the baseball world was flawless. But in the 9th inning of that opening game, the Cardinals launched a last-ditch rally which changed the aspect entirely.

They scored 4 runs and had the bases filled when the third out was finally registered on them. From that point on, they had the Yankees on the run. At no time after that were the Yanks able to assert their claim to baseball supremacy.

Besides Beazley, the Cardinal stars were Whitey Kurowski, first-year third-baseman, whose home run in the last game accounted for the winning margin; the Cardinal captain, Terry Moore, one of the greatest centerfielders of all time; Enos Slaughter, whose batting, fielding and throwing were brilliant; Ernie White, young left-hand pitcher, who shut out the Yanks in the third game of the series, and many others.

The Cardinal victory in the World Series brought to an end an unbroken string of success for the New York American League club in World Series play since 1926, when they lost to the Cardinals of that year. In the interim they won eight world championships, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936-7-8-9, and 1941.

White's shutout was the first administered to a Yankee team in a World Series game since Oct. 5, 1926, when Jess Haines, of that year's Cardinals, blanked them. They had played forty World Series games between their two shutouts.

All-Star Game.

The American League won the annual mid-season All-Star Game July 6 at the Polo Grounds, New York, 3 to 1, thus qualifying to meet a team of armed-service stars in Cleveland Municipal Stadium the following evening. They made it a clean sweep of mid-season honors, shutting out the Service team, 5 to 0.

War Funds and Donations.

These major league features, as well as the pennant races and playoffs of all the leagues of Organized Baseball, operated with a background of universal war effort in which all the clubs in all the leagues participated. The combined major league activities turned over a total of approximately $1,315,000 to various war funds, of which $362,926.65 went to the United Service Organizations out of the World Series gross receipts of $1,105,249.

The Army Emergency Relief, the Navy Relief Society and the Baseball Equipment fund were the other chief avenues of war cooperation. All the clubs in all the leagues made special arrangements for service men on their days off, free tickets, canteen refreshments, etc. Each club in its community was a leader in civilian war activities, collecting scrap metal and rubber, signing up fans as donors for blood-banks, maintaining booths in ball parks for the sale of war bonds and stamps, and volunteering use of the park for sundry war purposes.

Each of the sixteen major league clubs played a special game for Army-Navy relief, assigning a regularly scheduled championship game to the cause, in some cases double-headers. These games totalled $506,106.30 (National League, $267,901.30; American League, $238,205) for funds devoted to maintaining the families of service men. The two All-Star Games provided about $161,000, of which $100,000 went to the Baseball Equipment Fund; the remainder to the relief organizations.

The BEF (popularly called 'The Ball and Bat Fund'), baseball's distinctively 'own' link with the services, was augmented by cash subscriptions from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the treasuries of Commissioner Landis, the two major leagues and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, and All-Star Games played by the International and Pacific Coast Leagues.

With a working fund of $133,359.37 for the year, a total of 5,306 'kits' were distributed through Army-Navy headquarters to camps and bases in 43 states and to units in England, Iceland, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Trinidad, Canal Zone, Hawaii, Alaska, Australia and Africa, with 2,300 additional 'kits' ready for distribution with the start of the 1943 playing season.

The BEF arranged with J. G. Taylor Spink, publisher of The Sporting News baseball's weekly newspaper, for its distribution in camp libraries, ships at sea and to overseas units and USO clubs (about 3,150 weekly).

Besides the bats, balls and other equipment packed in 'kits,' the two major leagues shipped about 1,000 dozen 'used' baseballs to camps and bases. These were 'foul balls,' baseballs driven into stands and bleachers and tossed back to the field of play by the fans for this purpose.

Attendance at Games.

The Associated Press survey of baseball attendance showed a drop of about 8 per cent from 1941 totals in the major leagues. The National League attendance topped the American, 4,724,961 to 4,685,614 in the AP tables. As compared to the 41 minor leagues operating in 1941, only 31 started the 1942 season, 5 of which suspended before mid-season. Though fewer in number, thus reducing the total minor league attendance figures below normalcy, some circuits showed marked increases.

The American Association (Columbus, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Louisville, Minneapolis, Toledo, Indianapolis and St. Paul), recorded 1,669,401, a 7.5 per cent bulge above 1941. The Southern Association's 743,385 was 59,717 ahead of the year before. The Canadian-American League hit a new all-time high of 344,487, topping 1941 by 16,014.

St. Louis Cardinals.

The pre-season poll of the Baseball Writers Association of America picked the Cardinals for National League champions on 46 of the 74 ballots cast, but in mid-August St. Louis was 9½ games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers, 1941 champions, who had won exactly 100 games as 1941 champions.

Brooklyn's 1942 final score showed 104 victories, an all-time high for a Brooklyn team, but the great drive of the Cardinals (41 out of 48) set their victory total at 106. Only once before in sixty-seven years of National League history did two teams reach the 100-win zone in the same season (1909: Pittsburgh 110; Chicago 104). The American League, in its forty-two years, showed only one case (1915: Boston 101; Detroit 100).

While the Cardinals thus were making history, the Yankees swept to their thirteenth American League pennant, again so decisively as to make them overwhelming favorites in the World Series. The Yanks ran true to form in the first game, winning, 7 to 4, but the rest of the way, the Cardinals' dashing attack, featuring fast and fearless base-running, spirited defensive play, sensational outfield catches, and strong courageous pitching especially by John Beazley, first-year rookie star, ruled the field of World Series championship play, the Cardinals vanquishing the Yanks four straight games to become kings of the baseball world.

Beazley, a recruit from New Orleans, of the Southern Association, was winning pitcher in the first game the Cardinals won from the Yankees. Then, by pitching and winning the final game, he rounded out the greatest first-year pitching record made in the National League since Grover Alexander won 28 and lost 13 in 1911. Beazley's record showed 21 wins against 6 defeats, plus his 2 World Series wins.

Stars of the Year.

Most-Valuable-Player awards, the top individual honors for the year, went to Morton Cooper in the National League and Joe Gordon in the American, members of the two championship teams.

Cooper was pitcher-of-the-year in the National League, leading with an Earned-Run-Average of 1.77, the best figure recorded since 1919 in either major league with the exception of Carl Hubbell's 1.66 in 1933. He likewise led his league in victories, with 22, his victory percentage being surpassed only by his junior partner, Beazley.

Cooper also reached the all-time record zone by pitching 10 shutouts. The major league record is 16, set by Alexander in 1916. This was the closest approach to the record since it was set, with (again) the exception of Hubbell, who had 10 in 1933. Of particular value to Cooper's team, however, was the fact that five of his victories were in games against Brooklyn, the team the Cardinals had to beat to achieve the championship.

Rated the greatest second-baseman in the major leagues in this era, Gordon earned his award by spark-plugging the Yankees with his bat in the early months of the season during which they established their pennant-winning lead.

Pitching laurels in the American League went to Ted Lyons, the veteran Chicago White Sox pitcher, with an ERA of 2.10, the best in the American League since 1919 with the exception of Lefty Grove's 2.05 in 1931. Tex Hughson, Boston, was top winner, with 22 against 6 defeats. Ernie Bonham, Yankees, led in percentage with 21 and 6, leading also in shutouts with 6.

Boston players captured the batting championships in both leagues and in both cases it was the man's second crown. Ernie Lombardi, 1938 National League champion as a Cincinnati player, staged a comeback as a 1942 Boston Brave. Ted Williams, the Red Sox 1941 bat-king, made it two straight years leading his league in the three major batting departments, the batting averages, home runs, and runs-batted-in. Mel Ott, National League all-time home run king, was the best homer hitter in the league to mark his first year as manager of the Giants, while the Giants' first-baseman, Johnny Mize, led the National in run-driving.

The National Association.

Champions repeating was the picture in the minor league replicas of the World Series. The Junior World Series, the Class AA playoff between the American Association and the International League, was won by the junior partners of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Columbus Red Birds, four games to two. In 1941 Columbus defeated Montreal. In 1942 Syracuse was the International representative.

For the third straight year the Nashville Vols won for the Southern Association the honors in the Dixie Series, annually played with the Texas League for Class A-1 supremacy. It made the fourth straight year in which the Vols represented the Southern, all under the management of Larry Gilbert, former New Orleans player and manager. After losing the 1939 Dixie Series to Fort Worth, Gilbert's Vols defeated Houston in 1940, Dallas in 1941 and Shreveport last year.

In only 7 of the 22 leagues which held playoff rounds among the first-division clubs did the pennant-winning team take playoff honors. Columbus and Syracuse finished third in the pennant races, while Nashville and Shreveport were second.

The pennant winners in the AA circuits were Kansas City for the American Association, Newark for the International, and Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League, the third-place Seattle Rainiers capturing playoff honors in the last-named organization. Nashville finished second to Little Rock in the playing season while Beaumont stood ahead of Shreveport in the Texas League.

The seven pennant-winners who swept their playoffs were Greensboro, in the Piedmont League; Cedar Rapids, Indiana-Illinois-Iowa League; Montgomery, Southeastern League; Pulaski, Virginia League; Bristol, Appalachian League; Jamestown, Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League; and Sheboygan, Wisconsin State League.

In four leagues, the runner-up won the playoffs. Scranton won in the Eastern League after Albany took the pennant; Macon was playoff winner after Charleston topped the South Atlantic League race; Hagerstown won the Interstate flag, but bowed to Wilmington in the playoffs; Winnipeg took the playoff prize in the Northern League, though Eau Claire finished first in the playing season.

There were three third-place playoff winners, besides Seattle, viz.: Waycross, in the Georgia-Florida League, in which Valdosta won the pennant; Rocky Mount, Bi-State, whose pennant was won by Wilson; Thomasville became playoff king of the North Carolina State League though the bunting belonged to Concord.

Fourth place playoff winners were Oneonta in the Canadian-American League, Erie in the Middle Atlantic, and Ashland in the Mountain State, with Amsterdam, Charleston and Huntington the respective pennant-winners.

Four leagues played split-season, winners of the two halves to meet for the pennant. The Appalachian League was the only one in which the same club won both halves, Bristol not only achieving this exploit but winning the playoff round as well.

Boise, second half winner, defeated Pocatello for the Pioneer League pennant. Second half winner won in the Pennsylvania State Association, too, Butler defeating Johnstown. It was the first half winner's turn in the Western Association, Fort Smith besting Topeka.

The Western International, the only league without a playoff, crowned Vancouver its champion. The final playoff round in the Northern League was cancelled when Wausau, one of the two winners in the preliminary playoffs, disbanded and forfeited to Winnipeg.

Five leagues which started the season disbanded before the finish. The Florida East Coast League, with Orlando leading, stopped May 14. On May 30 the Evangeline League suspended, with Natchez in front. The Kentucky-Tennessee League closed its score-books June 19, with Fulton ahead. June 28 the California League terminated operations, Santa Barbara in the lead. On July 5 the West Texas-New Mexico League discontinued, with Clovis in the van.

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.

1940: Baseball

The World Series.

The National League made a clean sweep of the major feature events of the 1940 baseball season. The Cincinnati Reds, after winning their second straight National League pennant, were victorious in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, American League champions, achieving the world championship in a 7-game series, 4 games to 3.

More money was paid by the public for World Series tickets this year than ever before in baseball history. The gate receipts, $1,221,817.84, eclipsed the former high of $1,207,864.00, established in 1926, the year the St. Louis Cardinals won a 7-game world championship from the New York Yankees. To this year's gate receipts was added the sum of $100,000 paid for the radio broadcasting privileges, the combined sum of $1,321,817.84 eclipsing the previous all-time high of $1,304,399.00, the combined gate and radio receipts of the 1930 series between the two New York clubs.

World Series time this year — October 2 to 8, 1940 — found the country at large in the throes of an eventful Presidential election campaign, and gravely concerned about the European war. Total attendance at the series, 281,842, nevertheless was only about 21,000 below the all-time attendance record of 302,924, set in 1936, and for the time being, the election and the war had to share the front page headlines with the National Game.

The World Series spectators at the 4 Cincinnati games and the 3 in Detroit, as well as the hundreds of thousands in the radio audiences throughout the United States and the West Indies, found their own heroes to crown in the daily tide of battle — Cincinnati's great pitching duo of Paul Derringer and Bucky Walters, the gallant Bucky Newsome, Detroit's ace, who won 2 games and made a mighty bid to win a third in the final decisive battle; Jimmy Wilson, the 40-year-old Cincinnati coach who tackled the arduous position of catcher in the emergency and recorded the only stolen base of the series as a striking touch to his all-around performances; Jimmy Ripple, the Reds' World Series batting star after spending most of the playing season in the International League, a sub-major circuit; Greenberg, York, Bridges, and more.

The 1940 World Series touched the all-time record book in other departments than financial. Bill McKechnie, manager of the Reds, became the first manager in 100 years of baseball to win the world championship in 2 different cities. His 1025 Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the American League champion Washingtons.

McKechnie also acted as manager of the National League teams in the two All-Star games of 1940, making him the first manager ever to achieve triumphs in 3 major league inter-league events in one year.

Bill Klem, the 66-year-old dean of all active umpires, renowned from Coast to Coast as the original 'Old Arbitrator,' was a World Series official for the 18th time. No other umpire ever appeared in more than 10 World Series assignments. Klem's all-time record bids fair to stand perpetually.

Two members of the contesting world series teams — Frank McCormick, of the Reds, and Hank Greenberg, of the Tigers, were voted the Most Valuable Players in their respective leagues by the annual balloting of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. It was the third straight year the National League award went to a Cincinnati player. The writers picked Walters in 1939 and Catcher Ernie Lombardi in 1938.

Two major league All-Star Games were played — a spring training season benefit contest for Finnish Relief in addition to the annual July fixture. The National League was triumphant in both these games between picked teams of stars representing the two major circuits of baseball, defeating the American League stars by a 2 to 1 score in the game at Tampa, Fla., March 17, and by 4 to 0 in St. Louis July 9.

Big League Games.

The pennant races in the 2 major leagues were in strong contrast to each other and to the history of recent years in their own circuits. Instead of having a hard fight and a close finish, decided by the traditional National League September drive, Cincinnati won its pennant by the widest margin in the annals of the senior circuit since 1931. In the American League, the race was the closest since 1926, with Detroit, Cleveland and New York all in the race until the closing weekend.

Brooklyn, which led the elder league at the start, was Cincinnati's closest contender throughout, finishing second, with St. Louis third, then Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, Boston and Philadelphia, in that order. The American League final standing showed Detroit, Cleveland and New York at the top and St. Louis, Washington, Philadelphia, in the last 3 positions, with Boston and Chicago tied for 4th and 5th.

Minor League Games.

Beyond the scope of the two major leagues, professional baseball in 1940 was played in 44 minor leagues, 43 of which completed their seasons successfully. In the 3 highest-ranking circuits, Class AA, Seattle won the Pacific Coast League pennant and also the post-season playoff round. Neither Kansas City, American Association pennant-winner, nor Rochester, International League flag-winner, was successful in the playoffs. Louisville and Newark winning the playoffs, with Newark conquering the 'Colonels' to bring victory to the International League in the 'Little World Series.'

In the Class A-1 bracket, two pennant-winners went on to win the playoffs, Nashville in the Southern Association and Houston the Texas League. The time-honored 'Dixie Series' between the champions of these two circuits saw the Vols vanquish the Lone Star representatives.

In the Class A Eastern League, Scranton won the pennant with Binghamton the playoff champion. In 2 of 5 Class B leagues, the pennant-winner won the playoffs, Jackson in the Southeastern League and Cedar Rapids in the Three-I League. In the Piedmont League, the Richmond pennant-winners had to give way to Durham as playoff champs; Savannah's South Atlantic League pennant bowed to Columbus, Ga., for the playoff title; Tacoma's playoff crown supplanted Spokane's pennant, in the western International League.

Six Class C leagues also showed only two 2-way champions: Monroe, which won the Cotton States League pennant and playoffs, and Akron, which captured both titles in the Middle Atlantic League. Ottawa won the Canadian-American pennant, but the playoff diadem landed on this side of the border at Amsterdam, N. Y. In the East Texas League, Henderson was first at the season's close, but Marshall was post-season victor. Salt Lake City's pennant had to yield to Ogden in the Pioneer League finals, and St. Joseph emerged eventual winner in the Western Association after Muskogee captured the flag in the season's play.

Of the 27 Class D leagues, the Arkansas-Missouri League was the only one which failed to play out its schedule.

The minor league enrollment was larger this year than at any time in the past 20 years. The fact that virtually every minor league in every sector of the baseball map played out its season and the all-time high recorded in the World Series financial statistics put together a splendid health report for our National Game as of 1940 ad. (See also SOFTBALL.)

1939: Baseball

For more than a half-century past, the American-born sport of baseball has rightly worn the sub-title, 'The National Game,' engaging a degree of attention more nearly universal throughout the United States than any other sport. To baseball's devotees, countrywide, the year 1939 meant mainly a greater realization of this universality together with a clearer consciousness of the sport's native origin and historic background.

Baseball Centennial.

Financed by Organized Baseball — the 2 major professional leagues and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, enrolling about 50 organizations whose distribution blankets the nation from coast to coast with a fringe overlapping into Canada — the celebration of baseball's Centennial Year enjoyed participation as universal as the geographical scope of the game itself. Though the professional leagues initiated the program, from the start the observance of the centenary reached to university campuses, prep school and high school athletic fields and to a multitude of diamonds devoted to amateur play in all parts of the land, from public parks in metropolitan centers to rural township playgrounds.

The Centennial program centralized at the village of Cooperstown, N. Y., located in the upstate lake country, many miles from the nearest professional ball park, more than 200 miles from the nearest big league territory. There, on June 12, the hundredth anniversary was commemorated by the dedication of the National Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame.

Kenesaw M. Landis, former Federal Judge and now Commissioner of Organized Baseball, together with the presidents of the major leagues, representative of the top ranks of twentieth century baseball players, and about 10,000 baseball pilgrims from the ranks of fandom, that day visited the pastoral hamlet which was the national game's birthplace in 1839.

James A. Farley, Postmaster-General of the United States, headed the array of distinguished fans in attendance. At the village post-office, just across the street from the Baseball Museum, the Postmaster-General in person began the circulation of a special baseball stamp, engraved to depict the scene of 100 years ago, showing Cooperstown boys on the village green playing the first game of baseball of which there is any record.

For the dedication of the Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame at high noon, thousands massed in the street and saw on the platform the eleven living members of the Hall of Fame galaxy of twenty-five. Baseball's All-Time Immortals, elected to their permanent niches because of their preeminent places in baseball history and each name a by-word in the heart of every baseball fan from 9 years old to 90.

Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Connie Mack, Grover Alexander, Napoleon Lajoic, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, George Sisler and Walter Johnson were there, to be congratulated by Judge Landis and to speak to the nation's fans over a coast-to-coast radio hookup. Inside, on the walls of the Hall of Fame, the baseball pilgrims saw, mounted for perpetual honor, plaques representing these eleven men, and citing their records, together with similar plaques honoring the fourteen other bygone baseball heroes. Many spent hours browsing through the museum with its wealth of souvenirs, mementos and trophies from every era of the National Game's past.

In the afternoon, on the same field where in 1839 Abner Doubleday drew up the first rules of baseball for the village urchins, two teams of today's major leaguers played a modern-style ball game, while by contrast two teams in nineteenth century garb gave an exhibition of how baseball looked in its primitive form. Today's teams were captained by two of the Hall of Fame Immortals, Honus Wagner and Eddie Collins.

The Centennial made its imprint upon virtually every professional baseball field in the country in the course of the summer, where special observances were held in which pageantry brought history home to fans in visual form. All year, from January to December, motion picture reels produced by the two major leagues told the story of baseball's history to hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the country. The red, white and blue Centennial seal became a well-known emblem to baseball folk as worn on the uniforms of players, displayed on ball park flagpoles, automobile tags, stationery, calendars, schedules, scorecards, etc.

Big League Games.

Fittingly enough, the baseball season of the centennial year reflected increased interest and participation in the sport on all fronts. The major league turnstiles, index of popular interest, showed a collective increase over recent previous seasons. After a 2-year gap in which the world series was broadcast solely as a news feature, this year a sponsor estimated public interest in the baseball year's climax high enough to warrant expenditure of $100,000 for radio advertising rights.

The New York Yankees won the American League pennant and the world series, defeating the National League champions, the Cincinnati Reds, in four straight games.

The 1939 title was the Yankees' fourth straight world championship in four years, their second straight accomplished in four successive games, and extended their world series winning streak to 9 straight games — these 3 exploits standing as new all-time records.

Lou Gehrig.

On May 2, 1939, Lou Gehrig, great first-baseman and home-run hitter of the Yankees, took himself out of the regular lineup because of a serious illness, just as his team went on the field in Detroit. This action brought to an end Gehrig's string of successive league games played, an all-time record of 2,130, which eclipsed all past endurance records so completely that it seems likely to stand in the baseball record-books for many years to come, a marker carrying on the Centennial Year's memory far into the century of baseball history just dawning.

Gehrig's malady was diagnosed at Mayo Clinic as a form of infantile paralysis and his permanent withdrawal from baseball was the occasion of a testimonial by his colleagues and friends, held on the field during the game at Yankee Stadium on July 4. Gehrig was continued on active list on full salary, but on Oct. 11 was appointed to the New York City Parole Commission for a ten-year term.

Summary of the Year in Baseball.

In the annual awards made by the Baseball Writers Association, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees was voted the most valuable player and leading batsman of the American League during the 1939 season. DiMaggio ended the season with a batting average of .318. He hit 30 home runs and batted in a total of 128 runs. In the National League, William Henry Walters, Jr., pitcher of the Cincinnati Red Sox was voted the most valuable player. The leading batsman was John Mize of the St. Louis Cardinals, who hit 28 home runs during the season and batted in a total of 104 runs. His batting average was .349.

In the seventh major league All-Star Game, the annual midseason classic, held on July 11, 1939, at the Yankee Stadium in New York, the team composed of selected players from the American League defeated the team of National League players 3-1, before a crowd of 62,892 spectators. This represented the American Team's fifth victory out of seven games played.

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.