During the early part of the season, the defending AL champion Athletics had a tough fight on their hands with Detroit, Chicago, Boston and the Browns. When the weather started heating up, so did the Brownies. The St.Louis AL club just caught fire and left all of the other teams in the dust and fighting for runnerup. The Browns led the then second place Tigers by 8 games heading into Labor Day and then went on a massive roll to clinch their first AL pennant in a dozen years with 10 games to go. The Browns were led by their pitching staff, which featured all three of the league's 20-game winners. Cy Blanton led the junior circuit with 24 wins and a 2.20 ERA plus finished second with 159 strikeouts as he was voted the AL's outstanding pitcher. AL MVP Arky Vaughan led the Philadelphia Athletics along with slugger Hank Greenberg as the White Elephants finished in second place, a distant 14 games behind the front running Browns. Detroit's rookie sensation, Mike Kreevich led the Tigers to a third place finish, 18 games behind St.Louis, as he batted .314 with 5 home runs and 94 ribbies and was voted the AL's Rookie of the Year, out voting the Red Sox's Joe Dimaggio, who finished third in the league with 28 home runs.
The National League race didn't have any suspense either. The defending world champion Pirates took the lead in June and never looked back as they coasted to a 16-game win over the second place Boston Braves and St.Louis Cardinals. Pittsburgh was led once again by their star catcher, Jimmie Foxx. All "The Beast" did was lead the major leagues in home runs with 37 plus finished third in the NL in average, batting .343 as he took home the senior circuit's MVP award. Ed Coleman also chipped in as he drove home 116 runs to finish second in the league behind the Cubs' Earl Averill. Lee Grissom was the leader of the Bucs' mound corps as he took home the league's Outstanding Pitcher award as a result of his 24 wins and 115 strikeouts. The Braves and the Cardinals battled right behind the Pirates all season long and finished in a dead heat for second place with identical 83-71 records. Boston was led by the NL's batting champion, Charlie Gehringer, who batted a major league high .357. Wally Berger provided the power for St.Louis as he clouted 30 home runs to finish second in the NL behind the Pirates' Foxx.
During the first two games of the World Series, the Browns showed off their hitting power by hitting three home runs as they split the games and headed to the windy city. The Pirates took games 3 and 5 thanks to the pitching of Sloppy Thurston and Lee Grissom and could have won game #4 if it wasn't for a walk-off home run by Bob Johnson in the bottom of the 9th to salvage the game for St.Louis. Back at Forbes Field, the Browns started off fast against Sloppy Thurston as they scored a pair of runs in the 2nd then held on to win the game, 4-2, and tie the series. Pittsburgh's Tommy Bridges was just too much on the mound and completely shut down the Browns as the Pirates won the game, 2-0, to win their second straight world's championship.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 99 55 .643 -- Pittsburgh 99 55 .643 --
Philadelphia 85 69 .552 14 Boston 83 71 .539 16
Detroit 81 73 .526 18 St.Louis 83 71 .539 16
Chicago 79 75 .513 20 Chicago 76 78 .494 23
New York 77 77 .500 22 New York 76 78 .494 23
Boston 70 84 .455 29 Cincinnati 69 85 .448 30
Washington 68 86 .442 31 Philadelphia 68 86 .442 31
Cleveland 57 97 .370 42 Brooklyn 62 92 .403 37
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
W.Moses,NY .349 C.Gehringer,BOS .357
B.Myer,CHI .349 J.Medwick,CHI .356
A.Vaughan,PHI .348 J.Foxx,PIT .343
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
H.Trosky,NY 34 J.Foxx,PIT 37
H.Greenberg,PHI 29 W.Berger,STL 30
J.Dimaggio,BOS 28 E.Averill,CHI 28
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
H.Trosky,NY 119 E.Averill,CHI 119
P.Higgins,PHI 116 E.Coleman,PIT 116
H.Greenberg,PHI 115 G.Walker,NY 111
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
A.Vaughan,PHI 117 J.Foxx,PIT 118
H.Greenberg,PHI 114 J.Medwick,CHI 112
J.Stone,PHI 113 C.Gehringer,BOS 111
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
B.Werber,WAS 31 F.Bordagaray,STL 34
J.White,PHI 26 S.Hack,CIN 26
F.Pytlak,PHI 23 S.Martin,STL 23
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
C.Blanton,STL 2.20 E.Auker,NY 2.76
J.Allen,STL 2.52 V.Mungo,CHI 2.91
T.Freitas,BOS 2.78 D.Dean,BRO 2.98
Wins W Wins W
C.Blanton,STL 24 L.Grissom,PIT 24
J.Allen,STL 20 C.Hubbell,CIN 20
T.Carleton,STL 20 V.Mungo,CHI 18
Saves SV Saves SV
C.Bryant,DET 11 R.Prim,PIT 13
E.Heusser,WAS 10 J.Haines,BOS 12
R.Peery,STL 10 J.Pattison,NY 12
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
L.Gomez,PHI 202 V.Mungo,CHI 224
C.Blanton,STL 159 B.Walker,BOS 132
J.Allen,STL 156 C.Hubbell,CIN 131
1935 World Series
Game #1
St.Louis (A) 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 2 - 5 13 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 7 2
C.Blanton and E.Lombardi
J.Bowman, J.Brown (1), R.Prim (5) and J.Foxx
WP - C.Blanton (1-0)
LP - J.Brown (0-1)
HR - STL: E.Lombardi (1), B.Hafey (1)
Game #2
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 - 2 6 1
Pittsburgh 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 3 11 0
J.Allen, J.Shaute (9) and E.Lombardi
L.Grissom and J.Foxx, R.Hayworth (9)
WP - L.Grissom (1-0)
LP - J.Allen (0-1)
HR - STL: B.Johnson 1
Game #3
Pittsburgh 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 6 0
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 3 9 2
S.Thurston and J.Foxx, R.Hayworth (9)
D.MacFayden and E.Lombardi
WP - S.Thurston (1-0)
LP - D.MacFayden (0-1)
HR - STL: B.Hafey (2)
Game #4
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 8 0
St.Louis (A) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 6 0
T.Bridges and J.Fox, R.Hayworth (9)
C.Blanton, J.Shaute (10) and E.Lombardi
WP - J.Shaute (1-0)
LP - T.Bridges (0-1)
HR: STL: B.Knickerbocker (1), B.Johnson (2)
Game #5
Pittsburgh 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 - 5 10 1
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 1
L.Grissom, J.Brown (8) and J.Foxx, R.Hayworth (9)
J.Allen, R.Peery (8) and E.Lombardi
WP - L.Grissom (2-0)
LP - J.Allen (0-2)
SV - J.Brown (1)
HR - none
Game #6
St.Louis (A) 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 4 7 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 6 2
D.MacFayden, J.Shaute (9) and E.Lombardi
S.Thurston and J.Foxx
WP - D.MacFayden (1-1)
LP - S.Thurston (1-1)
SV - J.Shaute (1)
HR - STL: T.Cuccinello (1), B.Hafey 2 (4), PIT: L.Koenecke (1)
Game #7
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 4 0
Pittsburgh 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 x - 2 7 1
C.Blanton and E.Lombardi
T.Bridges and J.Foxx, R.Hayworth (9)
WP - T.Bridges (1-1)
LP - C.Blanton (1-1)
HR - none