The following are the baseball events of the year 1939 throughout the world.
Any team shown in small text indicates a previous team a player was on during the season.
American League | National League | Negro American League | Negro National League | |||||
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Stat | Player | Total | Player | Total | Player | Total | Player | Total |
AVG | Joe DiMaggio (NYY) | .381 | Johnny Mize (SLC) | .349 | Henry Turner (CLB) | .393 | Josh Gibson (HOM) | .402 |
HR | Jimmie Foxx (BRS) | 35 | Johnny Mize (SLC) | 28 | Turkey Stearnes (KC) | 7 | Josh Gibson (HOM) Buck Leonard (HOM) | 11 |
RBI | Ted Williams (BRS) | 145 | Frank McCormick (CIN) | 128 | Willard Brown (KC) | 42 | Buck Leonard (HOM) | 48 |
W | Bob Feller (CLE) | 24 | Bucky Walters 1 (CIN) | 27 | Smoky Owens (CLB) George Walker (KC) | 8 | Henry McHenry (PHS) | 11 |
ERA | Lefty Grove (BRS) | 2.54 | Bucky Walters 1 (CIN) | 2.29 | Felix Evans (IND) | 1.86 | Roy Partlow (HOM) | 1.74 |
K | Bob Feller (CLE) | 246 | Claude Passeau (CHC/ PHP ) Bucky Walters 1 (CIN) | 137 | Hilton Smith (KC) | 85 | Neck Stanley (NYB) | 44 |
1 National League Triple Crown pitching winner
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All Negro leagues standings below are per Seamheads. [1]
(1) First half champion (2) Second half champion Negro American League postseason
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†Toledo Crawfords withdrew from the league after the first half of the season. Negro National League postseasonThe National League had four playoff teams compete against each other before the championship series. | Locations of teams for the 1939 Negro National League season ![]() Traveling teams: New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans Notes: Homestead Grays played in both Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., with the majority of games in Pittsburgh. |
Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that's the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.