The Detroit Tigers had hoped to improve on their second place finish of 1936, but another club had other ideas. Due to the emergence of American League's MVP, Hank Greenberg, the Philadelphia Athletics wanted to return to the top after finishing no lower than third place the last two seasons. Greenberg led the league in both home runs (43) and runs batted in (141) plus finished third in the AL in average, batting .346. To help out Greenberg, Arky Vaughan led the junior circuit in average by batting .353. Frank Pytlak helped out with his legs as he stole 34 bases and scored 104 runs, both top three finishes in the league. The Mackmen also had a strong pitching staff that was led by Roy Sherid and Lefty Gomez. Philadelphia raced to the top of the AL in June and led the second place Tigers by 6 games heading into Labor Day. The Athletics held Detroit at bay and clinched the title with 5 games remaining. Thanks to the pitching of Lefty Grove, the Detroit Tigers finished in second place for the second straight year as he finished in a tie for the league lead with 19 wins and strikeouts (160) along with a second place finish in ERA, with 2.83. Cleveland finished in third place, a distant 19 games behind Philadelphia, thanks to the hitting of Paul Waner (.348 avg) and the pitching of Peaches Davis, who led the AL in ERA with 2.74.
In the National League, the Boston Bees continued their climb towards the top after finishing 1936 in a tie for second. Boston led Philadelphia by 6 games and Brooklyn by 11 1/2 games heading into Labor Day before the Dodgers caught fire and had a 9-game winning streak which enabled them to past the fading Phillies and pull to within 1 1/2 games of the Bees with only a few games remaining. The Bees hung on and clinched the NL title on the last day of the season as both teams lost and enabled Boston to win by a 1-game margin. Tommy Henrich drove in 124 runs and belted 26 home runs to lead the Boston attack and Paul Derringer led the way with a league-leading 21 wins. The Dodgers' mound corps led Brooklyn late season run and the Dodgers finished second as Dizzy Dean won 20 games and Waite Hoyt won 19.
The World Series was turned into a 4-game rout as the Athletics outscored the Bees, 40-17 with Chick Hafey clouting 3 home runs and AL Rookie of the Year Enos Slaughter batting over .470 leading the offensive outburst.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Philadelphia 99 55 .643 -- Boston 93 61 .604 --
Detroit 91 63 .591 8 Brooklyn 92 62 .597 1
Cleveland 80 74 .519 19 Philadelphia 89 65 .578 4
Washington 79 75 .513 20 St.Louis 77 77 .500 16
St.Louis 73 81 .474 26 Cincinnati 69 85 .448 22
New York 71 83 .461 28 Chicago 66 88 .429 25
Chicago 70 84 .455 29 Pittsburgh 66 88 .429 25
Boston 53 101 .344 46 New York 64 90 .416 27
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
A.Vaughan,PHI .353 E.Averill,CHI .394
P.Waner,CLE .348 G.Hasson,PHI .358
H.Greenberg,PHI .346 Z.Bonura,STL .351
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
H.Greenberg,PHI 43 R.York,CIN 40
B.Dickey,WAS 33 I.Goodman,BRO 27
H.Trosky,NY 33 T.Henrich,BOS 26
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
H.Greenberg,PHI 141 Z.Bonura,STL 134
B.Dickey,WAS 104 T.Henrich,BOS 124
J.Dimaggio,BOS 102 B.Phelps,PHI 112
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
H.Greenberg,PHI 158 E.Averill,CHI 126
A.Vaughan,PHI 135 T.Henrich,BOS 119
F.Pytlak,PHI 104 F.Crosetti,BOS 114
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
J.Hill,CHI 37 F.Bordagaray,STL 39
R.Hughes,WAS 34 A.Galan,CHI 37
F.Pytlak,PHI 34 E.Swanson,BRO 35
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
P.Davis,CLE 2.74 C.Melton,PHI 2.52
L.Grove,DET 2.83 V.Mungo,STL 2.60
L.Gomez,PHI 3.01 B.Walker,BOS 3.05
Wins W Wins W
L.Grove,DET 19 P.Derringer,BOS 21
R.Sherid,PHI 19 D.Dean,BRO 20
L.Gomez,PHI 18 W.Hoyt,BRO 19
Saves SV Saves SV
B.Cantwell,DET 17 L.Howe,BOS 15
C.Pickrel,PHI 16 R.Stiles,BRO 15
A.Yeargin,BOS 11 M.Ryba,STL 12
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Allen,WAS 160 D.Dean,BRO 183
L.Grove,DET 160 V.Mungo,STL 166
L.Gomez,PHI 154 R.Bauers,NY 161
1937 World Series
Game #1
Boston (N) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 4 - 6 12 1
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 2 x - 7 12 1
B.Walker and G.Hartnett
L.Gomez, C.Pickrel (9), E.Gallagher (9) and F.Pytlak
WP - L.Gomez (1-0)
LP - B.Walker (0-1)
HR - BOS: B.Walker (1), PHI: C.Hafey (1), H.Greenberg (1)
Game #2
Boston (N) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 1
Philadelphia (A) 0 3 0 2 0 0 5 0 x - 10 13 3
J.Bowman, M.Cvengros (7) and G.Hartnett
J.Krakauskas, E.Gallagher (6), C.Pickrel (7) and F.Pytlak
WP - J.Krakauskas (1-0)
LP - J.Bowman (0-1)
SV - C.Pickrel (1)
HR - PHI: J.Stone (1)
Game #3
Philadelphia (A) 3 0 7 8 0 0 0 0 0 - 18 23 2
Boston (N) 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 5 8 3
R.Sherid, C.Pickrel (9) and F.Pytlak, L.Sewell (9)
I.Andrews, M.Cvengros (3), M.Brown (4) and G.Hartnett
WP - R.Sherid (1-0)
LP - I.Andrews (0-1)
HR - PHI: E.Slaughter (1)
Game #4
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 - 5 12 5
Boston (N) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 - 4 5 2
L.Gomez, E.Gallagher (8), C.Pickrel (9) and F.Pytlak
B.Walker and G.Hartnett
WP - L.Gomez (2-0)
LP - B.Walker (0-2)
SV - C.Pickrel (2)
HR - PHI: C.Hafey 2 (3)