The St.Louis Browns served early notice on the American League that they planned to retain their crown, and proved it by taking a quick lead that no team could cut down all year. Finishing with a five-game bulge over the runner-up Yankees, the Browns packed plenty of wallop as Charlie Keller and Jeff Heath both knocked in over 100 runs. Pitcher Si Johnson was the AL's only 20-game winner as he led the St.Louis mound crew and was awarded the league's Outstanding Pitcher award.
The second-place Yankees had to thank slugger Hal Trosky (24 HRs) in leading the team to their highest finish in franchise history to date.
The third-place Red Sox grabbed a major individual award as Ted Williams followed his MVP in 1941 by winning the Triple Crown with a .374 average, an AL record 45 homers, and 121 RBI's for his second straight AL MVP award.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, world champions in 1938, caught fire early in the season and were in a neck-and-neck battle with the Cincinnati Reds all season long. Pittsburgh had only a slight 1/2 game lead over the Reds around Labor Day then fell 2 games back of Cincinnati with 10 games to play. The Pirates battled back to draw even with 3 games to go and ended up clinching the NL title on the next-to-last day of the season. Pittsburgh was led by the power bat of Johnny Mize (27 HRs, 107 RBIs), and by the pitching of Marv Breuer (18 wins).
The Cincinnati Reds had the senior circuit's top pitcher leading the way as Dave Koslo won 21 games and struck out 165 batters in winning the NL's Outstanding Pitcher award.
The third-place New York Giants, behind the arms of Larry French (2.44 ERA) and Johnny Beazley (18 wins) came from 16 games behind on July 1st to finish only 6 games behind the title winning Pirates.
The World Series was a tightly fought one as Pittsburgh jumped out with wins in the first two games only to see the Browns take games 3 and 4 to even things up. After the Pirates took the last game at Forbes, the Browns came back behind the bat of Charlie Keller as he homered in game six in leading them to a 4-3 win in extra innings to force a game seven. Pittsburgh jumped out to a 4-0 lead but in the bottom of the 8th, Charlie Keller belted a 2-run HR, his 3rd of the series, to give the Browns a 5-4 lead and ace Si Johnson shut down the Bucs to give the Browns the world's championship, their fifth overall and first one in twenty years.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 91 63 .591 -- Pittsburgh 89 65 .578 --
New York 86 68 .558 5 Cincinnati 86 68 .558 3
Boston 83 71 .539 8 New York 83 71 .539 6
Philadelphia 76 78 .494 15 Philadelphia 80 74 .519 9
Washington 76 78 .494 15 St.Louis 76 78 .494 13
Detroit 74 80 .481 17 Boston 71 83 .461 18
Cleveland 71 83 .461 20 Chicago 68 86 .442 21
Chicago 59 95 .383 32 Brooklyn 63 91 .409 26
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Williams,BOS .374 C.Travis,PHI .356
S.Musial,CHI .348 S.Chapman,PIT .340
C.Keller,STL .314 J.Mize,PIT .328
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
T.Williams,BOS 45 T.Henrich,BOS 36
C.Keller,STL 35 J.Mize,PIT 27
H.Trosky,NY 24 B.Phelps,PHI 23
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
T.Williams,BOS 121 J.Mize,PIT 107
C.Keller,STL 109 T.Henrich,BOS 105
J.Heath,STL 103 T.Wright,CIN 92
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
T.Williams,BOS 142 T.Henrich,BOS 108
C.Keller,STL 115 D.Camilli,PHI 99
J.Hopp,NY 94 L.Fleming,STL 91
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
C.Keller,STL 42 G.Case,PIT 43
J.Hopp,NY 34 P.Rizzuto,NY 37
P.Reiser,STL 24 B.Cissell,PHI 16
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
J.Vander Meer,WAS 2.16 M.Salvo,CHI 2.09
S.Johnson,STL 2.37 S.Overmire,CHI 2.41
C.Blanton,CHI 2.60 L.French,NY 2.44
Wins W Wins W
S.Johnson,STL 20 D.Koslo,CIN 21
S.Hudson,PHI 18 J.Beazley,NY 18
B.Lee,PHI 18 M.Breuer,PIT 18
Saves SV Saves SV
R.Embree,NY 17 H.Casey,PIT 18
A.Johnson,DET 15 J.Brown,STL 15
S.Cohen,WAS 13 C.Shoun,CIN 15
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Schmitz,NY 191 B.Feller,STL 220
J.Vander Meer,WAS 181 A.Reynolds,CHI 195
M.Lanier,BOS 166 D.Koslo,CIN 165
1942 World Series
Game #1
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 - 4 8 0
St.Louis (A) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 1
M.Breuer, J.Gonzales (9) and E.Lombardi
S.Johnson, R.Prim (7), E.Brandt (9) and B.Huffman
WP - M.Breuer (1-0)
LP - S.Johnson (0-1)
SV - J.Gonzales (1)
HR - PIT: S.Chapman (1), STL: P.Reiser (1)
Game #2
Pittsburgh 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 4 1 - 7 11 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 0
H.White, H.Casey (9) and E.Lombardi
W.Wyatt, B.Sales (9) and B.Huffman
WP - H.White (1-0)
LP - W.Wyatt (0-1)
HR - PIT: J.Mize (1)
Game #3
St.Louis (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 8 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 9 0
S.Chandler and B.Huffman, S.Davis (9)
H.Borowy, H.Casey (8) and E.Lombardi
WP - S.Chandler (1-0)
LP - H.Borowy (0-1)
HR - PIT: J.Mize (2)
Game #4
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 2 4 2 0 0 - 9 6 3
Pittsburgh 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 - 5 8 3
S.Johnson and B.Huffman
M.Breuer, H.Casey (7), I.Andrews (9) and E.Lombardi
WP - S.Johnson (1-1)
LP - M.Breuer (1-1)
HR - STL: J.Heath (1), C.Keller (1)
Game #5
St.Louis (A) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 9 1
Pittsburgh 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 x - 4 9 0
W.Wyatt and B.Huffman
H.White, I.Andrews (8) and E.Lombardi
WP - H.White (2-0)
LP - W.Wyatt (0-2)
SV - I.Andrews (1)
HR - PIT: J.Mize (3)
Game #6
Pittsburgh 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 3 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 - 4 10 4
H.Borowy, J.Gonzales (9) and E.Lombardi
S.Chandler, R.Prim (9) and B.Huffman
WP - R.Prim (1-0)
LP - J.Gonzales (0-1)
HR - STL: C.Keller (2)
Game #7
Pittsburgh 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 8 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 2 x - 5 10 0
M.Breuer and E.Lombardi
S.Johnson and B.Huffman
WP - S.Johnson (2-1)
LP - M.Breuer (1-2)
HR - STL: C.Keller (3)