1940 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 1940 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 1940 in baseball.

The 1940 Major League baseball season began on April 16, 1940. The regular season ended on September 29, with the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 37th World Series on October 2 and ended with Game 7 on October 8. The Reds defeated the Tigers, four games to three, capturing their second championship in franchise history, since their previous in 1919.

1940 MLB season
League	American League (AL) National League (NL)
Sport	Baseball
Duration	Regular season: April 16 – September 29, 1940 World Series: October 2–8, 1940
Number of games	154
Number of teams	16 (8 per league)
Regular season
Season MVP	AL: Hank Greenberg (DET) NL: Frank McCormick (CIN)
AL champions	Detroit Tigers
AL runners-up	Cleveland Indians
NL champions	Cincinnati Reds
NL runners-up	Brooklyn Dodgers
World Series
Champions	Cincinnati Reds
Runners-up	Detroit Tigers

Red Sox

White Sox  

Indians

Tigers

Athletics

Browns

Yankees

Senators

Locations of teams for the 1940 American League season
American League

Bees

Dodgers

Cubs

Reds

Giants

Phillies

Pirates

Cardinals

Locations of teams for the 1938–1940 National League seasons
National League

The eighth Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played on July 9, hosted by the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri, with the National League winning, 4–0.

Schedule

See also: Major League Baseball schedule

The 1940 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the 1904 season (except for 1919) and would be used until 1961 in the American League and 1962 in the National League.

Opening Day, April 16, featured all sixteen teams, the first since the 1936 season. The final day of the regular season was on September 29, which also saw all sixteen teams play, the first since the 1938 season. This was the first time since 1934 that all sixteen teams that all sixteen teams played their first and last games on the same days. The World Series took place between October 2 and October 8.

Rule change

The 1940 season saw the following rule change:

• The scoring sacrifice fly, exempting a batter from a time at bat when a runner scored after the putout on a fly ball, was eliminated after being re-implemented the previous season. The sacrifice fly would be reimplemented in 1954.^[1]

Teams

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

League	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Manager[2]
American League	Boston Red Sox	Boston, Massachusetts	Fenway Park	35,000	Joe Cronin
	Chicago White Sox	Chicago, Illinois	Comiskey Park	50,000	Jimmy Dykes
	Cleveland Indians	Cleveland, Ohio	Cleveland Stadium	78,811	Ossie Vitt
			League Park*	22,500*
	Detroit Tigers	Detroit, Michigan	Briggs Stadium	58,000	Del Baker
	New York Yankees	New York, New York	Yankee Stadium	71,699	Joe McCarthy
	Philadelphia Athletics	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Shibe Park	33,000	Connie Mack
	St. Louis Browns	St. Louis, Missouri	Sportsman's Park	34,023	Fred Haney
	Washington Senators	Washington, D.C.	Griffith Stadium	32,000	Bucky Harris
National League	Boston Bees	Boston, Massachusetts	National League Park	45,000	Casey Stengel
	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York, New York	Ebbets Field	35,000	Leo Durocher
	Chicago Cubs	Chicago, Illinois	Wrigley Field	38,000	Gabby Hartnett
	Cincinnati Reds	Cincinnati, Ohio	Crosley Field	29,401	Bill McKechnie
	New York Giants	New York, New York	Polo Grounds	56,000	Bill Terry
	Philadelphia Phillies	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Shibe Park	33,000	Doc Prothro
	Pittsburgh Pirates	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Forbes Field	33,537	Frankie Frisch
	St. Louis Cardinals	St. Louis, Missouri	Sportsman's Park	34,023	Ray Blades
					Mike González
					Billy Southworth

Standings

American League

• v
• t
• e

American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Detroit Tigers	90	64	.584	—	50‍–‍29	40‍–‍35
Cleveland Indians	89	65	.578	1	51‍–‍30	38‍–‍35
New York Yankees	88	66	.571	2	52‍–‍24	36‍–‍42
Boston Red Sox	82	72	.532	8	45‍–‍34	37‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox	82	72	.532	8	41‍–‍36	41‍–‍36
St. Louis Browns	67	87	.435	23	37‍–‍39	30‍–‍48
Washington Senators	64	90	.416	26	36‍–‍41	28‍–‍49
Philadelphia Athletics	54	100	.351	36	29‍–‍42	25‍–‍58

National League

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Cincinnati Reds	100	53	.654	—	55‍–‍21	45‍–‍32
Brooklyn Dodgers	88	65	.575	12	41‍–‍37	47‍–‍28
St. Louis Cardinals	84	69	.549	16	41‍–‍36	43‍–‍33
Pittsburgh Pirates	78	76	.506	22½	40‍–‍34	38‍–‍42
Chicago Cubs	75	79	.487	25½	40‍–‍37	35‍–‍42
New York Giants	72	80	.474	27½	33‍–‍43	39‍–‍37
Boston Bees	65	87	.428	34½	35‍–‍40	30‍–‍47
Philadelphia Phillies	50	103	.327	50	24‍–‍55	26‍–‍48

Postseason

Bracket

	World Series
	AL	Detroit Tigers	3
	NL	Cincinnati Reds	4

Managerial changes

Off-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Philadelphia Athletics	Earle Mack	Connie Mack
Pittsburgh Pirates	Pie Traynor	Frankie Frisch

In-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
St. Louis Cardinals	Ray Blades	Mike González
	Mike González	Billy Southworth

League leaders

American League

Hitting leaders^[3]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Joe DiMaggio (NYY)	.352
OPS	Hank Greenberg (DET)	1.103
HR	Hank Greenberg (DET)	41
RBI	Hank Greenberg (DET)	150
R	Ted Williams (BRS)	134
H	Doc Cramer (BRS) Barney McCosky (DET) Rip Radcliff (SLB)	200
SB	George Case (WSH)	35

Pitching leaders^[4]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Bob Feller1 (CLE)	27
L	George Caster (PHA) Dutch Leonard (WSH)	19
ERA	Bob Feller1 (CLE)	2.61
K	Bob Feller1 (CLE)	261
IP	Bob Feller (CLE)	320.1
SV	Al Benton (DET)	17
WHIP	Bob Feller (CLE)	1.133

¹ American League Triple Crown pitching winner

National League

Hitting leaders^[5]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Debs Garms (PIT)	.355
OPS	Johnny Mize (SLC)	1.039
HR	Johnny Mize (SLC)	43
RBI	Johnny Mize (SLC)	137
R	Arky Vaughan (PIT)	113
H	Stan Hack (CHC) Frank McCormick (CIN)	191
SB	Lonny Frey (CIN)	22

Pitching leaders^[6]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Bucky Walters (CIN)	22
L	Hugh Mulcahy (PHP)	22
ERA	Bucky Walters (CIN)	2.48
K	Kirby Higbe (PHP)	137
IP	Bucky Walters (CIN)	305.0
SV	Joe Beggs (CIN) Jumbo Brown (NYG) Mace Brown (PIT)	7
WHIP	Bucky Walters (CIN)	1.092

Awards and honors

Hank Greenberg, Hall of Famer and 2-time MVP

Frank McCormick 1940 NL MVP and 9x All-Star

Regular season

Baseball Writers' Association of America Awards
BBWAA Award	National League	American League
Most Valuable Player	Frank McCormick (CIN)	Hank Greenberg (DET)

Other awards

The Sporting News Awards
Award	National League	American League
Most Valuable Player[7]	Frank McCormick (CIN)	Hank Greenberg (DET)
Player of the Year[8]	—	Bob Feller (CLE)
Manager of the Year[9]	Bill McKechnie (CIN)	—
Executive of the Year[10]	—	Walter Briggs Sr. (DET)

Home field attendance

Team name	Wins	%±	Home attendance	%±	Per game
Detroit Tigers[11]	90	11.1%	1,112,693	33.1%	14,085
New York Yankees[12]	88	−17.0%	988,975	15.0%	13,013
Brooklyn Dodgers[13]	88	4.8%	975,978	2.1%	12,049
Cleveland Indians[14]	89	2.3%	902,576	60.1%	11,007
Cincinnati Reds[15]	100	3.1%	850,180	−13.4%	11,041
New York Giants[16]	72	−6.5%	747,852	6.5%	9,840
Boston Red Sox[17]	82	−7.9%	716,234	25.0%	9,066
Chicago White Sox[18]	82	−3.5%	660,336	11.1%	8,466
Chicago Cubs[19]	75	−10.7%	534,878	−26.4%	6,946
Pittsburgh Pirates[20]	78	14.7%	507,934	34.8%	6,772
Philadelphia Athletics[21]	54	−1.8%	432,145	9.4%	6,087
Washington Senators[22]	64	−1.5%	381,241	12.4%	4,951
St. Louis Cardinals[23]	84	−8.7%	324,078	−19.0%	4,209
Boston Bees[24]	65	3.2%	241,616	−15.5%	3,222
St. Louis Browns[25]	67	55.8%	239,591	119.5%	3,112
Philadelphia Phillies[26]	50	11.1%	207,177	−25.5%	2,622

Retired numbers

• Willard Hershberger had his No. 5 retired by the Cincinnati Reds, though his number would enter circulation just two years later. His number would later be re-retired to honor Johnny Bench in 1984. This was the first number retired by the team.

Events

• April 16, 1940 – Bob Feller pitches his first career no-hitter on opening day against the Chicago White Sox. This no-hitter remains the only no-hitter ever on opening day.
• April 23, 1940 – Pee Wee Reese makes his Major League Baseball debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pee Wee Reese later in his career goes into the Hall of Fame.
• June 6, 1940 – Warren Spahn signs with the Boston Bees. Spahn later becomes a pitcher icon and wins the Cy Young Award.
• July 9, 1940 – All-Star Game held at Sportsman Park in St. Louis, Missouri. The National League beat the American League 4–1 with help from Max West's home run.
• September 24, 1940 – Jimmie Foxx "The Beast" hits his 500th career home run.
• October 8, 1940 – The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Detroit Tigers in game 7 of the World Series. This is the second time the Reds have won the World Series, they were led by NL MVP Frank McCormick.