After finishing in second place behind the Philadelphia Athletics the last two years, the St.Louis Browns knew that their time was coming. Led by third-year pro Charlie Keller, St.Louis took hold of the American League lead in August and held a slim 2 1/2 game lead over the defending champs and 10 games over the Boston Red Sox when Labor Day rolled around. With only a week remaining, the Browns finally eliminated the Athletics with only a few games remaining. "King Kong" Keller led the way for the Brownies as he went .294-26-97 with Jeff Heath (.296-19-93) providing some support. St.Louis's Thornton Lee had a league leading 20 wins and was the only pitcher to record 20 or more wins in the majors. The defending champions, Philadelphia, finished in second place, 7 games behind, thanks to the power bat from "The Beast", Jimmy Foxx, who finished 3rd in home runs (29) and RBI (102). The Boston Red Sox continued their success as the Bosox finished in third place, 10 games behind. The AL's MVP, Joe Dimaggio (.372-34-128) led the way as he won the junior circuit's triple crown with rising star Ted Williams (.341-33-115) combining to form a powerful 1-2 punch in the heart of the Boston order. Al Javery and Vito Tamulis each had 19 wins for the Red Sox to lead the mound corps.
In contrast to the American League pennant struggle, the National League winner reversed roles and had a cakewalk. New York and Philadelphia each had turns at the top in the early stages but Brooklyn came on hot as the weather got warmer and took the lead to stay as they held a 15 1/2 game lead on both the Giants and Phillies heading into September. The Dodgers never looked back and easily clinched the NL title, their first since the days of Babe Ruth, with over two weeks to go. The 1-2 punch of "Hammerin' Hank" Greenberg and the NL's MVP Joe "Flash" Gordon led the powerful Dodger lineup. Johnny Allen won the NL's Outstanding Pitcher award as he led the league in wins (19) and ERA (2.43). Dizzy Dean (2.87 ERA, 3rd in NL) also provided the pitching help. Led by Larry French's 19 wins, the New York Giants finished in second place, 15 games behind Brooklyn.
A historic comeback happened during the World Series as Brooklyn came from a 3 games to none deficit and won the next four games to win their first ever world's championship. Hank Greenberg's bat (3 HR) and the clutch pitching of Howie Pollet (2 wins) negated the 4-home run performance of Charlie Keller to win it for the Dodgers.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 102 52 .662 -- Brooklyn 96 58 .623 --
Philadelphia 95 59 .617 7 New York 81 73 .526 15
Boston 92 62 .597 10 Philadelphia 77 77 .500 19
New York 81 73 .526 21 St.Louis 77 77 .500 19
Washington 69 85 .448 33 Chicago 76 78 .494 20
Cleveland 64 90 .416 38 Pittsburgh 75 79 .487 21
Chicago 62 92 .403 40 Cincinnati 73 81 .474 23
Detroit 51 103 .331 51 Boston 61 93 .396 35
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
J.Dimaggio,BOS .372 N.Etten,STL .330
R.Radcliff,NY .348 R.Rolfe,NY .325
T.Williams,BOS .341 J.Gordon,BRO .323
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
J.Dimaggio,BOS 34 H.Greenberg,BRO 34
T.Williams,BOS 33 G.Selkirk,STL 31
J.Foxx,PHI 29 J.Gordon,BRO 29
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
J.Dimaggio,BOS 128 H.Greenberg,BRO 115
T.Williams,BOS 115 G.Selkirk,STL 112
J.Foxx,PHI 102 J.Gordon,BRO 111
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
J.Dimaggio,BOS 118 C.Travis,PHI 104
A.Vaughan,PHI 105 H.Greenberg,BRO 100
T.Williams,BOS 105 B.Chapman,STL 98
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
J.Hopp,NY 27 L.Frey,NY 28
B.Lewis,STL 22 J.Gordon,BRO 23
J.White,PHI 20 B.Elliott,PIT 22
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
M.Lanier,BOS 2.29 J.Allen,BRO 2.43
E.Brandt,STL 2.69 L.French,NY 2.48
T.Lee,STL 2.86 D.Dean,BRO 2.87
Wins W Wins W
T.Lee,STL 20 J.Allen,BRO 19
A.Javery,BOS 19 L.French,NY 19
V.Tamulis,BOS 19 P.Derringer,BOS 18
Saves SV Saves SV
A.Murray,BOS 17 N.Kimball,NY 20
R.Prim,STL 14 K.Raffensberger,CHI 15
K.Heintzelman,NY 11 H.Eisenstat,PHI 13
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
E.White,NY 182 B.Feller,STL 225
L.Gomez,PHI 156 L.French,NY 165
T.Bridges,WAS 151 M.Cooper,PHI 156
1940 World Series
Game #1
Brooklyn 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 10 2
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 x - 4 8 0
H.Pollet and S.Davis
A.Milnar, R.Peery (8) and S.Jolley, J.Glenn (9)
WP - A.Milnar (1-0)
LP - H.Pollet (0-1)
SV - R.Peery (1)
HR - STL: C.Keller (1)
Game #2
Brooklyn 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 0
St.Louis (A) 1 2 0 3 1 1 0 2 x - 10 14 0
B.Walters, H.Mulcahy (8) and S.Davis
J.Tobin and S.Jolley
WP - J.Tobin (1-0)
LP - B.Walters (0-1)
HR - STL: G.McQuinn (1), C.Keller 2 (3)
Game #3
St.Louis (A) 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 2
Brooklyn 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 2
S.Johnson, R.Prim (9) and S.Jolley, J.Glenn (9)
J.Turner and S.Davis
WP - S.Johnson (1-0)
LP - J.Turner (0-1)
SV - R.Prim (1)
HR - STL: G.McQuinn (2)
Game #4
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 12 2
Brooklyn 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 x - 6 8 1
A.Milnar and S.Jolley
H.Pollet and S.Davis
WP - H.Pollet (1-1)
LP - A.Milnar (1-1)
HR - BRO: H.Greenberg (1)
Game #5
St.Louis (A) 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 4 7 1
Brooklyn 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 x - 5 7 2
J.Tobin, R.Prim (8) and S.Jolley
B.Walters and S.Davis
WP - B.Walters (1-1)
LP - J.Tobin (1-1)
HR - STL: C.Keller (4)
Game #6
Brooklyn 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 5 6 1
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 3 8 2
J.Turner and S.Davis
S.Johnson, R.Prim (10) and S.Jolley, J.Glenn (9)
WP - J.Turner (1-1)
LP - S.Johnson (1-1)
HR - BRO: H.Greenberg (2), J.Turner (1); STL: S.Jolley (1)
Game #7
Brooklyn 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 2 1 - 7 12 3
St.Louis (A) 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 4 7 3
H.Pollet, T.Earley (9) and S.Davis
A.Milnar, R.Peery (9) and S.Jolley
WP - H.Pollet (2-1)
LP - A.Milnar (1-2)
SV - T.Earley (1)
HR - BRO: H.Greenberg (3), D.Litwhiler (1); STL: A.Kampouris (1)