With the depression in full bloom and pocketbooks nearly empty, baseball juiced up the ball to liven the attendance and the action on the field. For the hitters, it was a vision of heaven on earth. For the pitchers, it was the freight that open season was declared on them. Even the spitball, at one time a tool for the crafty hurler, was now gone. All that remained were frantic batting averages and over-inflated earned run averages.
Although all the clubs enjoyed the bashings by the hitter and suffered the agony of the pitcher, no other club could have the kind of extreme year that was had by Brooklyn. The Robins batted a robust .291 as four hitters batted better than .300. First baseman Babe Ruth and second sacker Tony Lazzeri led the attack as Ruth batted .356 and Lazzeri batted .330. Yet instead of heading up in the standings, they remained in the National League basement as their pitching staff got lit up for a major league high 6.53 earned run average.
In 1930, nine teams obtained a batting average of .291 or higher, more than any other season to date. The 35-year old Babe Ruth showed that he wasn't through yet as he belted 50 homers, the third time in his career that he had hit that many and the sixth time that he accumulated 46 or more in a season. He finished first in home runs, second in runs batted in and third in batting average to grab yet another Outstanding Batter award, his eleventh of his career. Of all the clubs in the majors, only three teams (Detroit, Cleveland and Washington) were lucky enough to get a team ERA below 4.00 as the pitchers tried to hold back the flood of runs.
In the National League, not even the power of Mel Ott (34 hr, 145 rbi) could get the Giants to repeat as champions. As the schedule headed into Labor Day, the Boston Braves held a 1.5 game lead over Cincinnati while New York was 3.5 and Chicago was 7.5 games back. Boston then got hot and coasted to win their second title in four years with Joe Cronin (.341-23-93) and Charlie Gehringer (.343-15-92) leading the way offensively and Snipe Conley (17-7, 2.82 era) on the mound. The Cincinnati Reds finished second and were led by George Grantham (.335-15-81) and Kiki Cuyler (.337-7-77, 42 sb) while Mel Ott (.333-34-145) and Hack Wilson (.316-30-115) led the New York Giants to a third place finish.
The Tigers' Lefty Grove, who won the AL's Outstanding Pitcher award, led the Detroit mound corps that helped stake the team to a one-game lead over Cleveland as September rolled around. During the month the Bengals started to pull away from the rest of the league and clinched their third pennant in four years during the final week of the regular season. Grove finished second in wins (23) and first in both ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (239) in garnishing the award. The defending champs, the Cleveland Indians, finished in second place, three games back, thanks to the hitting of Paul Waner (.385-15-103) and Johnny Frederick (.328-23-132). Washington finished a distant third, 11 games back, and were led by the bats of Lou Gehrig (.335-26-92), George Watkins (.330-22-99) and also Rookie of the Year Billy Herman (.295-8-69).
In the World Series, the Braves and the Tigers split the first two games in Detroit before the teams headed to Boston. The Braves, thanks to hitters Don Hurst and Ethan Allen, swept the three games slated at Braves Field and won the world's championship, 4 games to 1.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Detroit 99 55 .643 -- Boston 89 65 .578 --
Cleveland 96 58 .623 3 Cincinnati 84 70 .545 5
Washington 88 66 .571 11 New York 82 72 .532 7
New York 79 75 .513 20 Pittsburgh 81 73 .526 8
Boston 76 78 .494 23 Chicago 80 74 .519 9
Philadelphia 68 86 .442 31 St.Louis 69 85 .448 20
St.Louis 60 94 .390 39 Philadelphia 67 87 .435 22
Chicago 50 104 .325 49 Brooklyn 64 90 .416 25
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
P.Waner-CLE .385 B.Herman-CHI .362
B.Terry-NY .376 S.Davis-CHI .359
E.Smith-DET .360 B.Ruth-BRO .356
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
C.Klein-DET 32 B.Ruth-BRO 50
W.Berger-STL 28 J.Foxx-PITT 37
L.Gehrig-WAS 26 M.Ott-NY 34
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
J.Frederick-CLE 132 M.Ott-NY 145
W.Berger-STL 123 B.Ruth-BRO 127
E.Webb-WAS 110 E.AVerill-CLE 126
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
P.Waner-CLE 128 B.Herman-CHI 126
B.Dickey-WAS 110 B.Ruth-BRO 124
L.Gehrig-WAS 110 M.Ott-NY 120
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
P.Waner-CLE 26 K.Cuyler-CIN 42
B.Dickey-WAS 24 C.Hafey-PIT 33
L.Lary-STL 22 B.Herman-CHI 26
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
L.Grove-DET 2.39 B.Hadley-CIN 2.62
S.Thurston-WAS 2.53 S.Conley-BOS 2.82
T.Zachary-PHI 2.92 C.Hubbell-CIN 3.22
Wins W Wins W
S.Thurston-WAS 25 D.Gray-PHI 19
L.Grove-DET 23 F.Shellenback-CHI 19
G.Earnshaw-CLE 20 B.Hadley-CIN 18
Saves SV Saves SV
F.Heimach-CLE 16 C.Yerkes-BOS 14
J.Shaute-DET 15 J.Heving-STL 10
L.Jacobus-DET 12 A.Yeargin-CIN 10
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
L.Grove-DET 239 C.Hubbell-CIN 190
G.Earnshaw-CLE 195 L.Gomez-STL 179
B.Hallahan-PHI 171 B.Hadley-CIN 179
1930 World Series
Game #1
Boston (N) 0 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 - 5 11 1
Detroit 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 4 12 0
H.Carlson, C.Yerkes (9) and M.Shea
L.Grove and E.Smith
WP - H.Carlson (1-0)
LP - L.Grove (0-1)
SV - C.Yerkes (1)
HR - DET: C.Klein (1)
Game #2
Boston (N) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 5 0
Detroit 3 0 1 0 0 2 3 1 x - 10 14 2
S.Conley, K.Ash (7) and M.Shea
C.Brown and E.Smith
WP - C.Brown (1-0)
LP - S.Conley (0-1)
HR - BOS: J.Cronin (1), DET: P.Whitney (1)
Game #3
Detroit 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 9 2
Boston (N) 0 0 3 1 0 0 1 0 x - 5 12 0
D.Ulrich, J.Shaute (6) and E.Smith, J.Bischoff (6)
J.Haines and M.Shea
WP - J.Haines (1-0)
LP - D.Ulrich (0-1)
HR - DET: R.Moore (1)
Game #4
Detroit 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 3 7 0
Boston (N) 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 4 13 2
L.Grove, L.Jacobus (9). J.Shaute (11) and E.Smith
H.Carlson, C.Yerkes (9), K.Ash (12) and M.Shea
WP - K.Ash (1-0)
LP - J.Shaute (0-1)
HR: BOS: D.Hurst (1)
Game #5
Detroit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 2 9 1
Boston (N) 1 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 x - 6 12 0
C.Brown, J.Shaute (7) and E.Smith
S.Conley, K.Ash (8) and M.Shea
WP - S.Conley (1-1)
LP - C.Brown (1-1)
HR - BOS: E.Allen (1)