The NL provided some excitement as the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and St.Louis Cardinals were all in a dogfight for the 1946 pennant. Around the Fourth of July, Brooklyn had a slim 1.5 game lead over Pittsburgh and 4 games over St.Louis, who were closing in. By Labor Day, the Dodgers and Pirates were deadlocked and the Cardinals were 4.5 games back. Brooklyn took charge with a week and a half remaining and clinched the NL title a week later. Brooklyn was once again led by the 1-2 power punch of Ted Williams (NL MVP, .308-43-115) and Hank Greenberg (.295-40-134). Pittsburgh finished in second place, 4 games behind, thanks to the hitting of Johnny Mize, who belted a major league leading 50 HRs and was 3rd in the NL in average, batting .312. The Cardinals ended in 3rd place, 6 games behind, thanks to the pitching of Bob Feller. Feller finished 3rd in era (2.86), 2nd in wins (20) and led the majors in strikeouts (257) but was denied the league's Outstanding Pitcher award, which was given to Cincinnati's Claude Passeau, who led the majors with 21 victories and was 2nd in majors in ERA (2.59).
In the AL, the Detroit Tigers, who hadn't won the pennant since 1930, ran away with the title after taking the lead in the beginning of June and never looked back, eventually winning by 5 games over the Philadelphia Athletics and the St.Louis Browns. Vern Stephens led the Tigers with 103 RBIs and Hank Wyse (18 wins) led the mound staff. Philadelphia and St.Louis both finished 5 games behind and tied for 2nd place. The Athletics were led by the hitting of Willard Marshall (.287-26-101) and the pitching of Atlee Donald (16 wins, 2.99 ERA). The Browns were led by Mickey Vernon (.292-9-73) and Charlie Keller (.250-37-118).
During the World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers dominated the Detroit Tigers and defeated them easily, 4 games to 1, behind the hitting of Hank Greenberg and NL Rookie of the Year, Spider Jorgensen.
A special thing of note also happened this year. The New York Yankees, yearly contenders for the AL's cellar, broke the gentlemen's agreement and brought up Jackie Robinson, a player of color. Jackie Robinson firmly convinced one and all that talent was too great an asset to hide behind the excuse of dark skin color, as he batted .359 in 217 at bats late in 1946.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Detroit 86 68 .558 -- Brooklyn 90 64 .584 --
Philadelphia 81 73 .526 5 Pittsburgh 86 68 .558 4
St.Louis 81 73 .526 5 St.Louis 84 70 .545 6
Boston 76 78 .494 10 Boston 79 75 .513 11
Chicago 75 79 .487 11 Cincinnati 72 82 .468 18
Cleveland 73 81 .474 13 New York 70 84 .455 20
New York 73 81 .474 13 Philadelphia 68 86 .442 22
Washington 71 83 .461 15 Chicago 67 87 .435 23
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
S.Musial,CHI .332 G.Kell,CIN .324
E.Valo,BOS .331 T.Wright,CIN .324
G.Crawford,CHI .313 J.Mize,PIT .312
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
C.Keller,STL 37 J.Mize,PIT 50
B.Thomson,CLE 34 T.Williams,BRO 43
J.Heath,STL 32 H.Greenberg,BRO 40
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
C.Keller,STL 118 H.Greenberg,BRO 134
V.Stephens,DET 103 D.Gardella,BOS 123
H.Edwards,BOS 102 T.Williams,BRO 115
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
C.Keller,STL 113 T.Williams,BRO 127
E.Valo,BOS 112 J.Mize,PIT 124
S.Musial,CHI 104 E.Slaughter,PIT 107
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
A.Gionfriddo,DET 27 T.Wright,CIN 35
J.Hopp,NY 23 S.Stirnweiss,PIT 33
G.Myatt,BOS 22 H.Walker,CHI 28
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
T.Bonham,CLE 2.76 H.Newhouser,NY 2.39
D.Leonard,WAS 2.78 C.Passeau,CIN 2.59
E.Blackwell,CHI 2.85 B.Feller,STL 2.86
Wins W Wins W
A.Carter,NY 18 C.Passeau,CIN 21
H.Wyse,DET 18 B.Feller,STL 20
A.Donald,PHI 16 R.Munger,PIT 20
Saves SV Saves SV
A.Gerheauser,DET 16 C.Covington,BRO 21
A.Carrasquel,CHI 14 H.Eisenstat,PHI 19
C.Pickrel,PHI 13 J.Hallett,CHI 12
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
T.Hughson,BOS 208 B.Feller,STL 257
P.Roe,NY 189 H.Newhouser,NY 221
W.Spahn,CHI 177 F.Hutchinson,PIT 168
1946 World Series
Game #1
Detroit 0 1 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 - 7 10 0
Brooklyn 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 - 6 10 2
H.Wyse and A.Robinson
M.Dickson and E.Lombardi
WP - H.Wyse (1-0)
LP - M.Dickson (0-1)
HR - DET: Northey (1); BRO: H.Greenberg (1), G.Hermanski (1),
S.Jorgensen (1)
Game #2
Detroit 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 - 3 6 2
Brooklyn 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 x - 4 11 1
B.Savage, S.Cary (8) and A.Robinson
M.Harris, R.Barrett (8), S.Johnson (8), C.Covington (9) and E.Lombardi
WP - M.Harris (1-0)
LP - B.Savage (0-1)
SV - C.Covington (1)
HR - DET: V.Stephens (1); BRO: M.Harris (1)
Game #3
Brooklyn 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 6 0
Detroit 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 2
H.Pollet and E.Lombardi, J.Peacock (9)
S.Gerkin and A.Robinson
WP - H.Pollet (1-0)
LP - S.Gerkin (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
Brooklyn 1 0 1 0 0 2 1 4 0 - 9 14 1
Detroit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 1
M.Dickson and E.Lombardi
H.Wyse, S.Zoldak (8) and A.Robinson
WP - M.Dickson (1-1)
LP - H.Wyse (1-1)
HR - BRO: H.Greenberg (2), S.Jorgensen 2 (3)
Game #5
Brooklyn 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 5 10 1
Detroit 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 2 0
M.Harris and E.Lombardi
B.Savage, S.Cary (6), A.Gerheauser (9) and A.Robinson
WP - M.Harris (2-0)
LP - B.Savage (0-2)
HR - none