| 1940 MLB season | |
|---|---|
| League | Major League Baseball |
| Sport | Baseball |
| Duration | April 27 – October 8, 1940 |
| Number of games | 154 |
| Number of teams | 16 |
| 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 |
The 1940 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 16 through October 8, 1940. Both the American League (AL) and National League (NL) had eight teams, with each team playing a 154-game schedule. The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series over the Detroit Tigers in seven games. Hank Greenberg of the Tigers and Frank McCormick of the Reds won the Most Valuable Player Award in the AL and NL, respectively.
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1 American League Triple Crown Pitching Winner
American League
| National League
|
| World Series | ||||
| AL | Detroit Tigers | 3 | ||
| NL | Cincinnati Reds | 4 | ||
The 1940 MLB season was dominated by stars such as Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, and Frank McCormick. Bob Feller took home the American league pitching triple crown by having the most wins, strikeouts and lowest era in his respective league. Debs Garms led the entire league in batting average by hitting .355. Hank Greenberg and Johnny Mize led their respective leagues in homerun's and runs batted in by having (41,150) and (43,137). The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award went to Bill McKechnie for leading his team to the World Series and winning it. The World Series was won in Game 7 by the Reds over the Tigers, due to a strong pitching performance by Paul Derringer.
This was the 8th time the MLB all star game "mid summer classic" had been played. It was held in St. Louis Missouri at Sportsman's Park on July 9, 1940. The NL was led to victory by the lone home run of the game by Max West of the Braves and they won the game 4–1. The two starting pitchers of the game were Red Ruffing of the New York Yankees for the American League who took the loss for this game and Paul Derringer of the Cincinnati Reds for the National League who got the win in this game.
The starting rosters for both the National League and the American League are shown below:
| Order | Player | Team | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cecil Travis | Senators | 3B |
| 2 | Ted Williams | Red Sox | LF |
| 3 | Charlie Keller | Yankees | RF |
| 4 | Joe DiMaggio | Yankees | CF |
| 5 | Jimmie Foxx | Red Sox | 1B |
| 6 | Luke Appling | White Sox | SS |
| 7 | Bill Dickey | Yankees | C |
| 8 | Joe Gordon | Yankees | 2B |
| 9 | Red Ruffing | Yankees | P |
| Order | Player | Team | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arky Vaughan | Pirates | SS |
| 2 | Billy Herman | Cubs | 2B |
| 3 | Max West | Braves | RF |
| 4 | Johnny Mize | Cardinals | 1B |
| 5 | Ernie Lombardi | Reds | C |
| 6 | Joe Medwick | Dodgers | LF |
| 7 | Cookie Lavagetto | Dodgers | 3B |
| 8 | Terry Moore | Cardinals | CF |
| 9 | Paul Derringer | Reds | P |
In a 7 game world series between the Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Reds the Cincinnati Reds won in Game 7. The 1940 World Series was a showdown between the best team in each league. The Reds were led by NL MVP Frank McCormick and the Tigers were led by AL MVP Hank Greenberg. This series game down to the last game where Paul Derringer threw a complete game, allowing no earned runs, and the Reds won 2-1.
| Team | Manager | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Sox | Joe Cronin | |
| Chicago White Sox | Jimmy Dykes | |
| Cleveland Indians | Ossie Vitt | Finished 2nd |
| Detroit Tigers | Del Baker | Won AL pennant |
| New York Yankees | Joe McCarthy | Finished 3rd |
| Philadelphia Athletics | Connie Mack | |
| St. Louis Browns | Fred Haney | |
| Washington Senators | Bucky Harris |
| Team | Manager | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Braves | Casey Stengel | |
| Brooklyn Dodgers | Leo Durocher | Finished 2nd |
| Chicago Cubs | Gabby Hartnett | |
| Cincinnati Reds | Bill McKechnie | Won World Series |
| New York Giants | Bill Terry | |
| Philadelphia Phillies | Doc Prothro | |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Frankie Frisch | |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Ray Blades, Mike González and Billy Southworth | Finished 3rd |
| Team name | Wins | %± | Home attendance | %± | Per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Tigers [1] | 90 | 11.1% | 1,112,693 | 33.1% | 14,085 |
| New York Yankees [2] | 88 | -17.0% | 988,975 | 15.0% | 13,013 |
| Brooklyn Dodgers [3] | 88 | 4.8% | 975,978 | 2.1% | 12,049 |
| Cleveland Indians [4] | 89 | 2.3% | 902,576 | 60.1% | 11,007 |
| Cincinnati Reds [5] | 100 | 3.1% | 850,180 | -13.4% | 11,041 |
| New York Giants [6] | 72 | -6.5% | 747,852 | 6.5% | 9,840 |
| Boston Red Sox [7] | 82 | -7.9% | 716,234 | 25.0% | 9,066 |
| Chicago White Sox [8] | 82 | -3.5% | 660,336 | 11.1% | 8,466 |
| Chicago Cubs [9] | 75 | -10.7% | 534,878 | -26.4% | 6,946 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates [10] | 78 | 14.7% | 507,934 | 34.8% | 6,772 |
| Philadelphia Athletics [11] | 54 | -1.8% | 432,145 | 9.4% | 6,087 |
| Washington Senators [12] | 64 | -1.5% | 381,241 | 12.4% | 4,951 |
| St. Louis Cardinals [13] | 84 | -8.7% | 324,078 | -19.0% | 4,209 |
| Boston Bees [14] | 65 | 3.2% | 241,616 | -15.5% | 3,222 |
| St. Louis Browns [15] | 67 | 55.8% | 239,591 | 119.5% | 3,112 |
| Philadelphia Phillies [16] | 50 | 11.1% | 207,177 | -25.5% | 2,622 |
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.
The 1940 World Series matched the Cincinnati Reds against the Detroit Tigers, with the Reds winning a closely contested seven-game series. The victory secured the Reds the second championship in their franchise history and came 21 years after their victory over the scandal-tainted Chicago White Sox in 1919. This would be the Reds' last World Series championship for 35 years despite appearances in 1961, 1970, and 1972. Meanwhile, Bill Klem worked the last of his record 18 World Series as an umpire.
The 2003 Major League Baseball season ended when the Florida Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in a six-game World Series. The Detroit Tigers set the American League record for losses in a season, with 119, and the Marlins became the first team to win the championship twice as a wild card.
The 2001 Major League Baseball season finished with the Arizona Diamondbacks defeating the New York Yankees in seven games for the World Series championship. The September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. pushed the end of the regular season from September 30 to October 7. Because of the attacks, the World Series was not completed until November 4. The 2001 World Series was the first World Series to end in November.
The 1997 Major League Baseball season was the inaugural season for Interleague play, as well as the final season in the American League for the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to the NL the following season. The California Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. The Florida Marlins ended the season as the World Champions defeating the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game World Series, four games to three.
The 1996 Major League Baseball season was the final season of league-only play before the beginning of interleague play the following season. The season ended with the New York Yankees defeating the defending champion Atlanta Braves in six games for the World Series title, the Yankees' first championship since 1978. The record for most home runs hit in an MLB regular season, set at 4,458 in 1987, was broken, as the AL and NL combined to hit 4,962 home runs. Only 196 shutouts were recorded in the 2,266 MLB regular-season games. This was the first season in the Divisional Series era to be played to the full 162 games, as the 1994–95 player's strike caused the first two seasons of the era to be abbreviated.
The 1940 Detroit Tigers season was their 40th since they entered the American League in 1901. The team won the American League pennant with a record of 90–64, finishing just one game ahead of the Cleveland Indians and just two games ahead of the New York Yankees. It was the sixth American League pennant for the Tigers. The team went on to lose the 1940 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds 4 games to 3.
The 1968 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 10, 1968. It was the final year of baseball's pre-expansion era, in which the teams that finished in first place in each league went directly to the World Series to face each other for the "World Championship."
The 1935 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 16 to October 7, 1935. The Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Tigers then defeated the Cubs in the World Series, four games to two.
The 1959 Major League Baseball season was played from April 9 to October 9, 1959. It saw the Los Angeles Dodgers, free of the strife produced by their move from Brooklyn the previous season, rebound to win the National League pennant after a two-game playoff against the Milwaukee Braves, who themselves had moved from Boston in 1953. The Dodgers won the World Series against a Chicago White Sox team that had not played in the "Fall Classic" since 1919 and was interrupting a Yankees' dynasty that dominated the American League between 1949 and 1964.
The 1975 Major League Baseball season saw Frank Robinson become the first black manager in the Major Leagues. He managed the Cleveland Indians.
The 1947 Major League Baseball season, was contested from April 15 through October 6, 1947. The American League and National League both featured eight teams, with each team playing a 154-game schedule. The World Series was contested between the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in seven games, capturing the 11th championship in franchise history.
The 1970 Major League Baseball season: The Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, thus returning Major League Baseball to Wisconsin for the first time since the relocation of the Milwaukee Braves to Atlanta following the 1965 season. Major League Baseball returned to Seattle in 1977, when the Mariners began play.
The 1974 Major League Baseball season: The Oakland Athletics won their third consecutive World Series, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one.
The 1967 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 12, 1967. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox four games to three in the World Series, which was the first World Series appearance for the Red Sox in 21 years. Following the season, the Kansas City Athletics relocated to Oakland.
The 1956 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 17 to October 10, 1956, featuring eight teams in the National League and eight teams in the American League. The 1956 World Series was a rematch of the previous year's series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The series is notable for Yankees pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5.
The 1960 Major League Baseball season was played from April 12 to October 13, 1960. It was the final season contested by 16 clubs and the final season that a 154-game schedule was played in both the American League and the National League. The AL began using the 162-game schedule the following season, with the NL following suit in 1962.
The 1972 Major League Baseball season was the first to have games cancelled by a player strike. It was also the last season in which American League pitchers would hit for themselves on a regular basis; the designated hitter rule would go into effect the following season.
The 1971 Major League Baseball season was the final season for the Senators in Washington, D.C., before the team's relocation to the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb Arlington for the following season, as the Texas Rangers, leaving the nation's capital without a baseball team of its own until 2005.
The 1934 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 17 to October 9, 1934. The St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Cardinals then defeated the Tigers in the World Series, four games to three.
The 1976 Major League Baseball season ended with the Cincinnati Reds winning their second consecutive World Series championship.
