SENATORS REPEAT AS AL CHAMPS
The Washington Senators survived a 4 team battle to win their second straight American League Pennant. Detroit, Chicago and the Yankees all spent at least a day alone in first place between August and October but in the end the Senators experience won out.
In what was essentially the exact same team as last year's World Championship club, the Senators used a balanced offenese to win the Pennant. It featured 4 regulars batting over .300. First baseman Johnny Mize hit .328 and drove in 95 runs, outfielders Tom Miller (.302,14,87) and Dixie Walker (.369,6,49) did well despite missing some time with injuries. Leftfielder Wally Berger had the big bat hitting 20 homers and driving in 110 runs. Catcher Harry Danning proved last season was no fluke by hitting .346 and finishing third in the batting race. Lefty Gomez (17-15), Lou Fette (17-7) and Harry Gumbert (14-16) were the top of the rotation. Schoolboy Rowe, who won 19 games a year ago, struggled the last half of the season and lost his job in the rotation to minor league veteran Jud McLaughlin.
The White Sox and Tigers finished in a tie for second. Chicago had the best pitching staff in the league led by Markle Award winner Johnny Vander Meer (26-6, 1.73). The Tigers had a star hurler of their own in Mike Ryba (25-9, 3.03). Aside from Goose Goslin (.321,10,84) the Yankees had no offensive punch and had to settle for fourth place. Veteran Yankee hurler Pat Caraway (20-11) enjoyed his second 20 win season.
The 5th place Browns were an exciting team to watch leading the American League in runs. The offense featured Pepper Martin (.320,11,98), Arky Vaughan (.353,4,52) and Smead Jolley (.343,11,108). Nels Potter (16-15) was their only consistant starter. The Indians had homerun king Hank Greenberg (.308,28,105) and rookie of the year George Myatt (.317,4,47). Greenberg joined the Indians in June from the Red Sox. It was the biggest trade of the year as Cleveland also added 20 year old second base prospect Bobby Doerr from Boston in exchange for pitcher Spud Chandler. The deal for the 31 year old Chandler was a desperate attempt by the Red Sox to inject some life into the league's worst pitching staff. Chandler had a decent season finishing 17-17 but it couldn't get the Red Sox out of the second division. With a pair of 27 year olds in Frank McCormick (.309,2,49) and Jim Bucher (.276,0,49) ready to play regularly at first and second base the Red Sox felt they could part win Greenberg and Doerr. However, you can't help but think this is the type of deal that gives all the upside to the Indians and is bound to come back and haunt the Red Sox.
Boston did have plenty of offense led by Joe Dimaggio (.364,14,111), who won his second career MVP award, and Lloyd Waner (.398,3,84) who won his 4th career batting title. Waner joined the Red Sox as a free agent from Cleveland in the off-season. Philadelphia finished last despite a monster season from Babe Phelps (.326,27,120). Phelps led the league in rbi's and finished second to Greenberg in home runs.
American League W L PCT GB AVG ERA
Washington 87 67 .565 -- .284 4.08
Chicago (A) 84 70 .545 3 .270 3.21
Detroit 84 70 .545 3 .289 3.91
New York 83 71 .539 4 .286 3.87
St Louis(A) 76 78 .494 11 .304 4.52
Cleveland 73 81 .474 14 .275 4.54
Boston (A) 70 84 .455 17 .298 5.09
Philadelphia (A) 59 95 .383 28 .279 4.79
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1938 ALL STAR GAME
The 1938 allstar game turned into the Les Burke show as the veteran Cincinnati secondbaseman had 3 hits including a 2 run homer to lead the Nationals to a convincing 7-1 victory. The win gives the National League a 22-16 lead in the series. Chuck Klein of the Giants had 2 rbi's to help make a winner of Brooklyn's Carl Hubbell. Johnny Vander Meer of the White Sox took the loss. The only American League run came on an rbi single from Philadelphia's Charlie Gehringer.
OTHER NOTES
Dizzy Dean of the Giants tossed just the second no-hitter in 12 years when he blanked Brooklyn 4-0 on June 19th. A 2 out walk to shortstop Buster Chatham ruined the perfect game. It was the only blemish on Dean's record that day.
There were 30 no-hitters in the first 26 years of the HOB2 but just 2 in the 12 years since. Fred Heimach of Detroit tossed the last no-hitter in 1934. Dean's gem was the fourth no-hitter thrown by a Giants hurler, joining Christy Mathewson (1901), Jack Chesbro (1906) and Lucky Wright (1914). Wright's was the only perfect game in league history.
On May 4th Mel Harder of Cincinnati fanned 18 Chicago Cubs batters in a 5-1 Reds win. It was one shy of Walter Johnson's record 19 k's set in 1915. Freddy Lindstrom was the only Chicago hitter not to get fanned by Harder, who got Dolph Camilli and Bob Johnson to whiff 4 times each.
On August 15th Lou Gehrig became just the 7th man to reach the 3000 hit plateau. Gehrig had a 4th inning single off of the Braves George Hockette to reach the milestone. Gehrig also joined Babe Ruth as the only members of the 500 home run club when he took Brooklyn's Wally Hebert deep on September 12th. Gehrig finished the season with 503 roundtrippers, a far cry from Ruth's 713
On July 16th Ted Lyons of the Cardinals beat Cincinnati 7-3 for his 300th career victory. Lyons, who enjoyed his best seasons in Pittsburgh and won 5 Markle Awards, became just the 7th player to win 300. He would win just 2 more games this season as he suffered a back injury in his next start.
Next up the 1938 World Series between Washington and Pittsburgh.