The War was heating up in Europe and in the Pacific, and more healthy young men, such as baseball players, were being called into service. A few remained, though. The Cardinals took the pennant again with 105 wins, far ahead of Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh. The Cardinals lost the World Series to the Yankees. Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia were in the second division, while New York dropped to last, losing 98.
Stan Musial easily won the batting title at .357, outdistancing Babe Herman at .330. Musial also led in on-base, slugging, and OPS. He also led with 220 hits, 48 doubles, and 20 triples. Arky Vaughan led with 112 runs and 20 steals, even though he was 31. Bill "Swish" Nicholson led with 28 HR and 128 RBI. He was the only guy over 20 HR and one of three to top 100 RBI. The others were Bob Elliott at 101 and Herman with 100.
Max Lanier led pitchers with a 1.90 ERA, and the three-way tie for the lead in wins included Mort Cooper, Elmer Riddle, and Rip Sewell all with 21. Johnny Vander Meer led with 174 strikeouts and Les Webber had 10 saves.
Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Musial (St. Louis) 39, Bill Nicholson (Chicago) 31, Augie Galan (Brooklyn) 29, Arky Vaughan (Brooklyn) 28, Billy Herman (Brooklyn) and Eric Tipton (Cincinnati) 27, Lonnie Frey (Cincinnati), Bob Elliott (Pittsburgh) and Lou Klein (St. Louis) 25, Ray Mueller (Cincinnati) 24, Tommy Holmes (Boston) 23.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 28, Nate Andrews (Boston) 25, Jim Tobin (Boston) 24, Elmer Riddle (Cincinnati), Rip Sewell (Pittsburgh) and Max Lanier (St. Louis) 23, Al Javery (Boston) 20, Hiram Bithorn (Chicago), Johnny Vander Meer (Cincinnati) and Schoolboy Rowe (Philadelphia) 19.
WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Musial 8.9, Nicholson 6.8, Galan 6.0, Vaughan 5.7 (last year as regular), Herman (last good year) and Klein (only year as regular) 5.3, Elliott 4.9, Tipton (career year) and Frey (last good year) 4.7, Elbie Fletcher (Pittsburgh) 4.4.
Pitchers, Cooper 4.9, Bithorn 4.8, Sewell 4.0, Lanier 3.9 (best year), Andrews and Whit Wyatt (Brooklyn) 3.8, Riddle 3.4, Claude Passeau (Chicago) and Max Butcher (Pittsburgh) 3.3, Vander Meer 3.2, Howie Pollet (St. Louis) 3.1, Rowe 3.0.
Actual award voting: (MVP Top 11) 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 Stan Musial STL 13 267 336 0.79 617 220 13 .357 .988 9
2 Walker Cooper STL 5 192 336 0.57 449 143 9 .318 .812 1
3 Bill Nicholson CHC 5 181 336 0.54 608 188 29 .309 .917 4
4 Billy Herman BRO 0 140 336 0.42 585 193 2 .330 .815 4
5 Mort Cooper STL 0 130 336 0.39 100 17 1 .170 .416 0 21-8 274 2.30 1.120 141 3
6 Rip Sewell PIT 0 127 336 0.38 105 30 0 .286 .642 7 21-9 265 2.54 1.289 65 3
7 Elmer Riddle CIN 0 68 336 0.20 93 18 0 .194 .461 0 21-11 260 2.63 1.314 69 3
8 Bob Elliott PIT 0 52 336 0.15 581 183 7 .315 .820 4
9 Frank McCormick CIN 0 26 336 0.08 472 143 8 .303 .758 2
10 Eddie Miller CIN 0 24 336 0.07 576 129 2 .224 .564 8
10 Clyde Shoun CIN 1 24 336 0.07 42 13 0 .310 .689 0 14-5 147 3.06 1.204 61 7
Top player: Stan Musial by a large margin. Musial led in average, doubles, triples, hits, and OPS. He also led the pennant winners. Not even a close race.
#1 Stan Musial, #2 Bill Nicholson, the home run and RBI leader, #3 Augie Galan the walks leader, #4 Arky Vaughan in his last year as a regular, #5 Billy Herman.
Top pitcher: Mort Cooper, leader in wins, 2nd in ERA and strikeouts. He did benefit from the stellar Cardinal defense, but his other numbers make it impossible to pick anyone else.
#1 Mort Cooper, #2 Hiram Bithorn (the pride of the Dominican Republic), #3 Nate Andrews, #4 Rip Sewell, #5 Max Lanier.
Top rookie: Most young players were in the service. Lou Klein debuted at 24 and hit .287 and played 2B everyday for the pennant-winning Cardinals.
Top manager: Billy Southworth brought his team home on top. Hard to argue with that.
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