Due to the death of the previous commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the club owners have named Albert B. (Happy) Chandler, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, to replace the iron-handed Landis. Chandler's first season had some great excitement.
The AL pennant race had several lead changes between the Athletics, Red Sox, Browns and White Sox and heading into Labor Day, Chicago held a 6.5 game lead over the charging Athletics, 7 over the Browns and 8 over the Red Sox. On the final day of the season, however, the Pale Hose found themselves in front by 1 game over Boston. Thanks in part to the AL's MVP, Stan Musial, the White Sox won on the final day to clinch the title. The rising star led the junior circuit with a .360 average plus added 13 HRs and 71 RBIs. 19-game winner Harry Brecheen led the way on the mound. Boston finished only a single game behind thanks to the hitting of Phil Weintraub (.329 avg) and Hank Edwards (119 RBIs) and on the hill by Max Lanier (AL leading 2.15 ERA & 206 strikeouts) and 22-game winner Tex Hughson. Philadelphia ended in 3rd place, 3 games behind the White Sox, thanks to the pitching of the league's Outstanding Pitcher award winner, Dizzy Trout. Trout was 2nd in ERA (2.67) and strikeouts (173) along with the major league leading 26 wins.
The NL's title chase was not really as exciting as in the AL as the New York Giants, behind the pitching of Don Newhouser and Tommy Hughes, held a 7 game lead over the second place Brooklyn Dodgers on Labor Day and clinched the title with a week to go. Brooklyn, led by their new 1-2 power punch of Hank Greenberg and the NL's MVP, Ted Williams, finished 3 games behind. Williams became the second player in history, HOFer Ty Cobb was the other, to win the MVP/Outstanding Hitter award in both leagues in back-to-back seasons. Ted finished 2nd in the NL in average (.368) and led the majors in home runs (39). The Pittsburgh Pirates came back from going from best to worst and finished in third place, 10 games behind the front running Giants. Slugger Johnny Mize continued to lead the way for the Bucs.
Even the World Series had some excitement in it. After taking a quick 2 games to 0 lead at the Polo Grounds, the New York Giants dropped games 3 and 4 to allow the White Sox to battle back and tie the series. New York won game 5 behind the pitching of Hal Newhouser and headed back to the Polo Grounds needing only to win one game. Thanks to the pitching of de la Cruz, the Pale Hose evened the series by winning game 6 by a score of 6-1. Chicago took a quick 5-run lead after the first four innings then held on as the Giants scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th and 8th innings to pull within one. Unfortunately for the G-men, the come back fell short and the Chicago White Sox won their first world's championship.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Chicago 85 69 .552 -- New York 93 61 .604 --
Boston 84 70 .545 1 Brooklyn 88 66 .571 5
Philadelphia 82 72 .532 3 Pittsburgh 83 71 .539 10
St.Louis 80 74 .519 5 Chicago 77 77 .500 16
Washington 77 77 .500 8 Cincinnati 73 81 .474 20
Detroit 71 83 .461 14 Boston 70 84 .455 23
New York 70 84 .455 15 St.Louis 70 84 .455 23
Cleveland 67 87 .435 18 Philadelphia 62 92 .403 31
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
S.Musial,CHI .360 D.Walker,CIN .372
P.Weintraub,BOS .329 T.Williams,BRO .368
J.Heath,STL .320 B.Lewis,CHI .340
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
C.Keller,STL 35 T.Williams,BRO 39
A.Robinson,DET 26 H.Greenberg,BRO 36
J.Heath,STL 25 D.Gardella,CHI 33
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
H.Edwards,BOS 119 B.Nieman,BRO 106
J.Heath,STL 110 H.Greenberg,BRO 105
C.Keller,STL 109 J.Mize,PIT 99
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
M.Vernon,STL 105 J.Mize,PIT 127
C.Keller,STL 102 H.Greenberg,BRO 117
R.Cullenbine,CHI 97 T.Williams,BRO 114
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
G.Myatt,BOS 40 S.Stirnweiss,PIT 28
J.Hopp,NY 25 T.Wright,CIN 28
P.Reiser,STL 21 J.Russell,NY 25
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
M.Lanier,BOS 2.15 D.Newhouser,NY 2.09
D.Trout,PHI 2.67 H.Pollet,BRO 2.60
M.Candini,PHI 2.89 B.Feller,STL 2.87
Wins W Wins W
D.Trout,PHI 26 P.Derringer,PIT 19
T.Hughson,BOS 22 B.Feller,STL 19
N.Potter,STL 21 T.Hughes,NY 19
Saves SV Saves SV
G.Maltzberger,NY 15 B.Frey,NY 16
B.Sales,STL 15 R.Munger,PIT 15
C.Pickrel,PHI 12 J.Hetki,CHI 14
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
M.Lanier,BOS 206 B.Feller,STL 283
D.Trout,PHI 173 H.Newhouser,NY 180
H.Brecheen,CHI 153 D.Galehouse,PHI 144
1945 World Series
Game #1
Chicago (A) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 - 3 5 1
New York (N) 0 0 2 1 5 0 0 0 x - 8 11 0
H.Borowy, B.Fleming (5) and R.Mueller
M.Butcher and P.Gillespie
WP - M.Butcher (1-0)
LP - H.Borowy (0-1)
HR - CHI: R.Cullenbine (1), S.Musial (1)
Game #2
Chicago (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 0
New York (N) 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 x - 3 8 0
H.Brecheen, F.Papish (7) and R.Mueller, H.Danning (7)
H.Newhouser, B.Frey (9) and P.Gillespie
WP - H.Newhouser (1-0)
LP - H.Brecheen (0-1)
SV - B.Frey (1)
HR - NY: J.Russell (1)
Game #3
New York (N) 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 4 0 - 7 14 1
Chicago (A) 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 - 8 15 2
B.Muncrief, B.Frey (9), G.Lambert (10) and P.Gillespie
T.de la Cruz, A.Carrasquel (10) and R.Mueller
WP - A.Carrasquel (1-0)
LP - B.Frey (0-1)
HR - NY: T.Henrich 2 (2), S.Chapman (1) CHI: R.Cullenbine (2)
Game #4
New York (N) 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 4 8 1
Chicago (A) 4 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 x - 6 10 3
T.Hughes and P.Gillespie
H.Borowy and R.Mueller
WP - H.Borowy (1-1)
LP - T.Hughes (0-1)
HR - CHI: R.Mueller (1)
Game #5
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 - 3 9 0
Chicago (A) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 5 1
H.Newhouser and P.Gillespie
H.Brecheen and R.Mueller
WP - H.Newhouser (2-0)
LP - H.Brecheen (0-2)
HR - none
Game #6
Chicago (A) 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 2 - 6 11 1
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 6 0
T.de la Cruz and R.Mueller
B.Muncrief and P.Gillespie
WP - T.de la Cruz (1-0)
LP - B.Muncrief (0-1)
HR - none
Game #7
Chicago (A) 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 - 5 12 0
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 - 4 10 2
H.Borowy and R.Mueller
T.Hughes, G.Lambert (6), B.Frey (9) and P.Gillespie, T.Heath (9)
WP - H.Borowy (2-1)
LP - T.Hughes (0-2)
HR - none