The Cleveland Indians won their first pennant and World Series since 1920, also their last World Championship to date. Lou Boudreau was the best .355-hitting manager ever, and rookie Gene Bearden teamed with Bob Lemon and Bob Feller to give the Indians three outstanding pitchers. The Indians outlasted Boston by one game and the Yankees by 2.5, with Philadelphia 4th and Detroit 5th. St. Louis, Washington and Chicago each lost at least 90 games. Ted Williams won the batting title while Joe DiMaggio led in HR and RBI, but Cleveland took home the hardware.
Williams had a .369 average to Boudreau's .355. Teddy Ballgame also led in on-base, slugging, and OPS. Tommy Henrich led with 138 runs and 14 triples. Bob Dillinger led with 207 hits and 28 steals. DiMaggio had 39 HR and 155 RBI. Williams had 44 doubles.
Hal Newhouser led the league in wins with 21. Bob Feller led with 164 strikeouts, and teammate rookie Gene Bearden led with a 2.43 ERA. Fellow Clevelander Russ Christopher edged Joe Page in saves, 17 to 16. Bob Lemon had 10 shutouts.
Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 39, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) and Joe DiMaggio (New York) 34, Tommy Henrich (New York) 29, Bobby Doerr (Boston) 27, Dom DiMaggio (Boston) and Eddie Joost (Philadelphia) 26, Vern Stephens (Boston), Ken Keltner (Cleveland) and Hank Majeski (Philadelphia) 25, Joe Gordon (Cleveland) 24, Pat Mullin (Detroit) 22, Ferris Fain (Philadelphia) 21, Johnny Pesky (Boston), Dale Mitchell (Cleveland), Hoot Evers (Detroit) and Jerry Priddy (St. Louis) 20.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 27, Bob Lemon (Cleveland) 26, Gene Bearden (Cleveland) 22, Joe Dobson (Boston) and Carl Scheib (Philadelphia) 20, Mel Parnell (Boston) and Ned Garver (St. Louis) 18, Dick Fowler (Philadelphia) 17, Virgil Trucks (Detroit) and Allie Reynolds (New York) 16.
WAR scores: Boudreau 10.5 (career year), Williams 8.9, J. DiMaggio 7.4, Gordon 6.4, Keltner 6.2 (last good year), Henrich 6.0, Doerr 5.2, Stephens 4.9, Larry Doby (Cleveland) 3.9, D. DiMaggio 3.7, Joost, Majeski, and Priddy 3.6, Fain and Pesky 3.2, Mullin 3.1 (career year).
Pitchers, Newhouser 6.3, Lemon 6.0, Bearden 5.7 (rookie, only good year), Ray Scarborough (Washington) 4.8, Parnell 4.2, Garver 4.0 (rookie), Trucks and Cliff Fannin (St. Louis) 3.7, Dobson 3.5, Fowler and Walt Masterson (Washington) 3.3, Scheib (career year) and Bob Feller (Cleveland) 3.2, Reynolds 3.1, Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 3.0.
Actual award winners: MVP Top 21.
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+-+
1 Lou Boudreau CLE 22 324 336 0.96 | 560 199 18 .355 .987 3
2 Joe DiMaggio NYY 2 213 336 0.63 | 594 190 39 .320 .994 1
3 Ted Williams BOS 0 171 336 0.51 | 509 188 25 .369 1.112 4
4 Vern Stephens BOS 0 121 336 0.36 | 635 171 29 .269 .821 1
5 Bob Lemon CLE 0 101 336 0.30 | 119 34 5 .286 .818 0| 20-14 294 2.82 1.226 147 2
6 Joe Gordon CLE 0 63 336 0.19 | 550 154 32 .280 .879 5
6 Tommy Henrich NYY 0 63 336 0.19 | 588 181 25 .308 .945 2
8 Gene Bearden CLE 0 52 336 0.15 | 90 23 2 .256 .650 0| 20-7 230 2.43 1.276 80 1
9 Hal Newhouser DET 0 48 336 0.14 | 92 19 0 .207 .513 0| 21-12 272 3.01 1.278 143 1
10 Eddie Joost PHA 0 39 336 0.12 | 509 127 16 .250 .788 2
11 Hank Majeski PHA 0 23 336 0.07 | 590 183 12 .310 .822 2
11 Vic Raschi NYY 0 23 336 0.07 | 81 19 0 .235 .563 0| 19-8 223 3.84 1.266 124 1
11 Birdie Tebbetts BOS 0 23 336 0.07 | 446 125 5 .280 .752 5
14 Ken Keltner CLE 0 18 336 0.05 | 558 166 31 .297 .917 2
15 Jerry Priddy SLB 0 16 336 0.05 | 560 166 8 .296 .834 6
16 George Kell DET 0 14 336 0.04 | 368 112 2 .304 .772 2
17 Hoot Evers DET 0 13 336 0.04 | 538 169 10 .314 .831 3
18 Al Zarilla SLB 0 11 336 0.03 | 529 174 12 .329 .871 11
19 Bob Dillinger SLB 0 10 336 0.03 | 644 207 2 .321 .799 28
19 Bobby Doerr BOS 0 10 336 0.03 | 527 150 27 .285 .891 3
19 Jim Hegan CLE 0 10 336 0.03 | 472 117 14 .248 .724 6
Top player: Lou Boudreau. WAR is right and Win Shares is wrong: Boudreau was the man in 1948. Williams and DiMaggio had worthy seasons, but no one has ever had a better campaign than the Year of Boudreau.
#1 Lou Boudreau, #2 Ted Williams, #3 Joe DiMaggio, #4 Ken Keltner, #5 Joe Gordon, #6 Tommy Henrich.
Top pitcher: Bob Lemon. Hal Newhouser had one more win, but Lemon had a better ERA and helped pitch his team to the pennant.
#1 Bob Lemon, #2 Hal Newhouser, #3 Gene Bearden, #4 Joe Dobson, #5 Mel Parnell.
Top rookie: Gene Bearden was a one-year wonder, as batters learned to lay off his dipping knuckleball. But his 20-win season was invaluable to the Indians' efforts.
Top manager: Everything Lou Boudreau did went right this year.
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