The War raging in Europe since 1939 began to take a toll on the National Pasttime, as a few players, most notably Hank Greenberg, entered military service. The big wave would not hit until the next year, and would then begin to affect the quality of the game. Stateside, the Yankees ran away with the pennant and then won the World Series, although Ted Williams hit .406 for the second-place Red Sox. Joe DiMaggio set a record with his 56-game hitting streak. Only the Yankees and Red Sox finished over .500, with the White Sox at that mark, as the Tigers sank with the absence of Greenberg and the aging of Charlie Gehringer. Cleveland tied Detroit at fourth, St. Louis and Washington tied for 6th, and Philadelphia was last.
Ted Williams became the last .400 hitter, batting .406 for the season. He led in on-base, slugging, and OPS. Williams also led with 135 runs and 37 homers. Cecil Travis had 218 hits, Lou Boudreau 45 doubles, Jeff Heath 20 triples. George Case stole 33 bases. Joe DiMaggio had 348 total bases and 125 RBI in addition to a long hitting streak.
Among pitchers, Bob Feller had 25 wins and 260 strikeouts, while Thornton Lee led with a 2.37 ERA. Lee also had 22 wins for second place. Al Benton was second in ERA at 2.97, Charlie Wagner third at 3.07. Bobo Newsom was second in strikeouts with 175. Feller threw 343 innings. Johnny Murphy led with 15 saves. Lee pitched 30 complete games.
Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 42, Joe DiMaggio (New York) 41, Cecil Travis (Washington) 34, Charlie Keller (New York) 32, Luke Appling (Chicago) 29, Jeff Heath (Cleveland) 28, Tommy Henrich (New York) 26, Taffy Wright (Chicago) and Sam Chapman (Philadelphia) 25, Joe Gordon (New York) 24.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Thornton Lee (Chicago) 32, Bob Feller (Cleveland) 30, Eddie Smith (Chicago) and Al Benton (Detroit) 20, Dutch Leonard (Washington) 19, Bob Muncrief (St. Louis) 18, Sid Hudson (Washington) 17, Marius Russo (New York) 16.
WAR scores: Williams 11.3, DiMaggio 9.4, Travis 6.8 (then went to war and came back well past his prime), Keller 6.6, Gordon 5.1, Joe Cronin (Boston) 4.9, Appling and Chapman (then lost his prime to the war) 4.9, Heath 4.7 (career year), Henrich 4.4, Phil Rizzuto (New York) 4.3, Jimmie Foxx (Boston) 4.0.
Pitchers, Lee 8.2 (career year), Feller 7.5 (some say his war service saved his arm---I don't know), Smith 5.1 (best year), Muncrief 4.4 (rookie), Benton and Leonard 4.3, Charlie Wagner (Boston) 4.2, Denny Galehouse (St. Louis) 3.8, Mickey Harris (Boston) 3.6, Phil Marchildon (Philadelphia) and Tommy Bridges (Detroit) 3.4.
Actual award voting: MVP Top 10 | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+----+---+--+--+
1 Joe DiMaggio NYY 15 291 336 0.87 | 541 193 30 .357 1.083 4
2 Ted Williams BOS 8 254 336 0.76 | 456 185 37 .406 1.287 2
3 Bob Feller CLE 0 174 336 0.52 | 120 18 1 .150 .459 0| 25-13 343 3.15 1.394 260 2
4 Thornton Lee CHW 1 144 336 0.43 | 114 29 0 .254 .578 0| 22-11 300 2.37 1.166 130 1
5 Charlie Keller NYY 0 126 336 0.38 | 507 151 33 .298 .996 6
6 Cecil Travis WSH 0 101 336 0.30 | 608 218 7 .359 .930 2
7 Joe Gordon NYY 0 60 336 0.18 | 588 162 24 .276 .824 10
8 Jeff Heath CLE 0 37 336 0.11 | 585 199 24 .340 .982 18
9 Dick Newsome BOS 0 32 336 0.10 | 78 19 0 .244 .545 0| 19-10 214 4.13 1.469 58
10 Roy Cullenbine SLB 0 29 336 0.09 | 501 159 9 .317 .917 6
Top player: Ted Williams. Much has been made of this MVP vote over the years, and how Williams in his .406 season was robbed by DiMaggio's streak, or not. While Williams was certainly ahead offensively, when you add in defense they come in at a virtual dead heat, as shown by the WS and WAR numbers. Williams comes out slightly ahead in Win Shares, with a larger margin in WAR.
#1 Ted Williams, #2 Joe DiMaggio, #3 Cecil Travis, #4 Charlie Keller, #5 Joe Gordon.
Top pitcher: Thornton Lee, a fine pitcher, had to have the year of his life to beat out fireballing Bob Feller. It's close, with Feller's wins and strikeouts advantage balancing Lee's ERA lead, but both WS and WARP point to Lee by a nose.
#1 Thornton Lee, #2 Bob Feller, #3 Eddie Smith, #4 Dutch Leonard, #5 Al Benton.
Top rookie: Bob Muncrief turned in a fine year. He was never able to build on it, but was a member of the 1944 Browns' pennant winning rotation.
Top manager: Joe McCarthy returns to the top with the Yankees.
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