The farm system which made the Pirates into champions also served in this year to make them preseason favorites to cop the National League pennant, and the Bucs danced through the senior circuit to the anticipated repeat championship with a week to go. Harry Brecheen appeared out of the farm system to shore up the pitching. Johnny Mize grabbed his first NL home run title since coming to the club as a free agent, Sam Chapman swung a big stick, and Harry Brecheen and Marv Breuer starred on the pitching hill. Second-place New York finished 3 games back while Philadelphia slipped into third-place 9 games behing the Pirates. Pittsburgh's Johnny Mize finished first in HR and third in RBI while batting .320 but lost out in MVP honors to Chicago's Bill Nicholson.
The American League had a new pennant winner as the Philadelphia Athletics survived a down to the wire dogfight with the defending Browns as the White Elephants captured the title on the last day of the season. Although the Athletics lost the services of Jimmie Foxx for most of the season, Enos Slaughter and Arky Vaughan provided the boost that Philadelphia needed to hold back the surging St.Louis club. The Athletics also had the cream of the AL pitching crop as Chubby Dean (20 wins) and Dizzy Trout (2.88 era, league high 7 shutouts) carried the pitching chores. The 1942 Triple Crown winner, Ted Williams, led the Boston Red Sox to a third-place finish as he almost grabbed another Triple Crown as he finished first in average and home runs but lost out to Detroit's Vern Stephens by 3 for the RBI crown.
In the World Series, Pittsburgh ran off to a 3-games-to-0 lead by sweeping the first two games at home and then taking the first game in Shibe Park by the scores of 6-3, 7-2 and 4-0. The Athletics managed to avoid being swept as Chubby Dean bested Marv Breuer by a 4-3 score. Unfortunately for the Mackmen, the Pirates came roaring back behind home runs by Sam Chapman and Max West to take the world's championship by a 7-3 score.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Philadelphia 87 67 .565 -- Pittsburgh 92 62 .597 --
St.Louis 86 68 .558 1 New York 89 65 .578 3
Boston 81 73 .526 6 Philadelphia 83 71 .539 9
Detroit 80 74 .519 7 Cincinnati 77 77 .500 15
New York 74 80 .481 13 Boston 74 80 .481 18
Chicago 73 81 .474 14 Chicago 72 82 .468 20
Cleveland 73 81 .474 14 Brooklyn 70 84 .455 22
Washington 62 92 .403 25 St.Louis 59 95 .383 33
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Williams,BOS .367 D.Walker,CIN .339
L.Boudreau,CHI .344 B.Nicholson,CHI .329
P.Weintraub,BOS .329 S.Hack,CIN .320
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
T.Williams,BOS 41 J.Mize,PIT 34
C.Keller,STL 33 B.Nicholson,CHI 33
P.Weintraub,BOS 21 S.Chapman,PIT 30
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
V.Stephens,DET 122 B.Nicholson,CHI 120
T.Williams,BOS 119 S.Chapman,PIT 116
P.Weintraub,BOS 111 J.Mize,PIT 97
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
T.Williams,BOS 136 B.Nicholson,CHI 104
A.Vaughan,PHI 116 S.Stirnweiss,PIT 100
C.Keller,STL 106 J.Pesky,STL 94
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
T.Tucker,DET 49 S.Stirnweiss,PIT 39
R.Hughes,STL 43 J.Pesky,STL 22
G.Myatt,BOS 42 P.Rizzuto,NY 18
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
J.Schmitz,NY 2.50 J.Kramer,CIN 2.20
D.Trout,PHI 2.88 H.Newhouser,NY 2.50
O.Grove,DET 2.91 J.Beazley,NY 2.55
Wins W Wins W
C.Dean,PHI 20 J.Beazley,NY 26
J.Vander Meer,WAS 20 H.Brecheen,PIT 19
V.Trucks,DET 19 M.Breuer,PIT 19
Saves SV Saves SV
D.Donahue,WAS 10 H.Eisenstat,PHI 18
R.Embree,NY 10 W.Masterson,CIN 13
B.Frey,BOS 10 B.Crouch,PIT 12
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Vander Meer,WAS 213 A.Reynolds,CIN 199
J.Schmitz,NY 160 H.Brecheen,PIT 183
M.Lanier,BOS 152 B.Feller,STL 161
1943 World Series
Game #1
Philadelphia (A) 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 - 6 11 0
C.Dean and P.Masi
M.Breuer, B.Crouch (10) and E.Lombardi
WP - B.Crouch (1-0)
LP - C.Dean (0-1)
HR - PHI: M.Haslin (1); PIT: S.Chapman 2 (2)
Game #2
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 7 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 2 4 0 1 0 x - 7 11 0
S.Sundra, S.Hudson (7) and P.Masi
H.Brecheen and B.Dickey
WP - H.Brecheen (1-0)
LP - S.Sundra (0-1)
HR - PIT: J.Mize (1), M.West (1)
Game #3
Pittsburgh 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 - 4 9 2
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 4 0
H.Borowy and B.Dickey
D.Trout and P.Masi
WP - H.Borowy (1-0)
LP - D.Trout (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
Pittsburgh 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 - 3 5 0
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 x - 4 9 2
M.Breuer and E.Lombardi
C.Dean and P.Masi
WP - C.Dean (1-1)
LP - M.Breuer (0-1)
HR - PHI: E.Slaughter (1), S.Spence (1)
Game #5
Pittsburgh 2 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 - 7 11 0
Philadelphia (A) 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 3 9 0
H.Brecheen and B.Dickey
S.Sundra, C.Pickrel (8) and P.Masi
WP - H.Brecheen (2-0)
LP - S.Sundra (0-2)
HR - PIT: S.Chapman (3), M.West (2); PHI: M.Haslin (2)