Expectations were high for the Boston Red Sox after their free agent signing of Luke Appling to go along with their 1-2 punch of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Boston shot out in front in the early stages of the season with the Browns, White Sox, and Athletics right on their tail. Unfortunately for the Bosox, injuries to Appling and DiMaggio sent the team into a tailspin and when September rolled around, the St.Louis Browns held a 4 1/2 game lead over Boston while the Chicago White Sox were 8 games back. With only a week remaining in the regular season, the Red Sox trailed the Browns by only 2 games before St.Louis pulled away to repeat as the AL champions. The Browns hitting attack was led by Jeff Heath (.333-18-110) and Pete Reiser (.313-14-75). Boston finished in second place, three games back, behind the hitting of Ted Williams (.369-26-96), the junior circuit's MVP, and the pitching of the AL's Outstanding Pitcher award winner, Max Lanier (20-3, 2.28 era).
The pennant race in the National League was even tighter as Brooklyn held a 1 game lead over the Giants, a 1 1/2 game lead over Cincinnati and 4 games over Pittsburgh. The Dodgers then went into a free-fall with the Reds taking over first place by a game over the Giants and 4.5 games ahead of the Dodgers. New York and Cincinnati traded the lead a couple of times and were tied with only two games remaining for each club. The Giants won their last two games and Cincinnati split theirs as New York captured their first NL title in twelve years. The Giants were led by Johnny Moore (.319-14-104) at the plate with both Larry French (18-12, 2.73 era) and Johnny Beazley (19-12, 3.30 era) leading the mound corps. Cincinnati finished in second place, one game behind the G-men, thanks to the arm of Claude Passeau (league leading 24 wins and 2.31 era), who was awarded the NL's Outstanding Pitcher award. Brooklyn ended up in third place, 6 games behind, thanks to the power production of Hank Greenberg (25 HR's).
The World Series opened with the Browns and Giants splitting the two games in St.Louis before heading to the Polo Grounds for games 3,4 and 5. The Giants, thanks to the hitting of Moore and Cavarretta, swept the three games in New York and captured their first world's championship in 28 years.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 94 60 .610 -- New York 88 66 .571 --
Boston 91 63 .591 3 Cincinnati 87 67 .565 1
Chicago 83 71 .539 11 Brooklyn 82 72 .532 6
Philadelphia 82 72 .532 12 Pittsburgh 81 73 .526 7
New York 75 79 .487 19 Philadelphia 79 75 .513 9
Cleveland 67 87 .435 27 St.Louis 77 77 .500 11
Washington 64 90 .416 30 Chicago 62 92 .403 26
Detroit 60 94 .390 34 Boston 60 94 .390 28
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Williams,BOS .369 C.Travis,PHI .368
H.Trosky,NY .315 N.Etten,STL .333
J.Rizzo,NY .314 J.Moore,NY .319
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
J.Mize,WAS 34 B.Nicholson,CHI 29
T.Williams,BOS 26 H.Greenberg,BRO 25
J.Foxx,PHI 23 D.Camilli,PHI 20
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
J.Heath,STL 110 J.Moore,NY 104
J.Tabor,CHI 106 S.Hack,CIN 86
J.Lucadello,BOS 104 G.Brack,STL 83
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
T.Williams,BOS 125 B.McCoskey,NY 99
J.Mize,WAS 111 L.Fleming,STL 96
S.Musial,CHI 94 S.Hack,CIN 96
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
J.Hopp,NY 28 G.Case,PIT 27
J.White,DET 24 P.Rizzuto,NY 21
L.Handley,CHI 22 M.Connors,CHI 15
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
M.Lanier,BOS 2.28 C.Passeau,CIN 2.31
J.Lanning,CHI 2.40 L.French,NY 2.73
S.Johnson,STL 2.63 J.Allen,BRO 2.78
Wins W Wins W
M.Lanier,BOS 20 C.Passeau,CIN 24
J.Bowman,BOS 17 H.Borowy,PIT 22
S.Johnson,STL 17 J.Beazley,NY 19
Saves SV Saves SV
V.Tamulis,BOS 19 H.Eisenstat,PHI 17
P.Dean,NY 13 K.Raffensberger,CHI 13
R.Monteagudo,CHI 13 J.Gonzales,PIT 11
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Vander Meer,WAS 192 B.Feller,STL 159
E.White,NY 132 M.Harris,BRO 149
M.Lanier,BOS 132 D.Koslo,CIN 144
1941 World Series
Game #1
New York (N) 0 2 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 - 6 13 0
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 - 4 10 0
L.French and H.Wagner
W.Wyatt, J.Callahan (8) and S.Davis
WP - L.French (1-0)
LP - W.Wyatt (0-1)
HR - NY: J.Moore (1), P.Cavarretta (1)
Game #2
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 - 2 11 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 - 3 11 1
O.Swigart and H.Wagner
S.Johnson, J.Callahan (7) and S.Davis
WP - J.Callahan (1-0)
LP - O.Swigart (0-1)
HR - STL: M.West (1)
Game #3
St.Louis (A) 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 0
New York (N) 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 x - 6 7 1
T.Lee and S.Davis
J.Beazley, M.Shoffner (9) and B.Warren, H.Wagner (9)
WP - J.Beazley (1-0)
LP - T.Lee (0-1)
SV - M.Shoffner (1)
HR - NY: J.Moore (2)
Game #4
St.Louis (A) 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 7 1
New York (N) 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 x - 4 7 0
W.Wyatt and S.Davis
L.French and H.Wagner
WP - L.French (2-0)
LP - W.Wyatt (0-2)
HR - NY: P.Cavarretta (2)
Game #5
St.Louis (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 7 2
New York (N) 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 x - 3 6 0
S.Johnson, J.Callahan (7) and S.Davis
O.Swigart and H.Wagner
WP - O.Swigart (1-1)
LP - S.Johnson (1-1)
HR - none