1948 National League

The Boston Braves staff of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" got enough rain, apparently, to win the pennant. Actually, Bill Voiselle and Vern Bickford helped out on the mound, and Tommy Holmes, Al Dark and Bob Elliott led the offense as the Braves won their first pennant since the 1914 "miracle" team. They would not win another until they moved to Milwaukee. The Braves beat the Cardinals, Dodgers, Pirates, and Giants to win the flag. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chicago filled out the bottom of the standings. Stan Musial came back from an off year to nearly win the Triple Crown and lead the league in just about every batting category.

Musial was just one home run short of a Triple Crown. He led the league with a .376 average (Richie Ashburn was second at a mere .333) and 131 RBI (Johnny Mize was second at 125). He also led in on-base, slugging, and OPS, had 135 runs, 230 hits, 46 doubles, and 18 triples, all leading figures. His 39 homers were just short of Ralph Kiner and Mize at 40. Ashburn led with 32 steals.

Johnny Sain's 24 wins paced the loop. Harry Brecheen led with 149 strikeouts and a 2.24 ERA. Brecheen also led with 7 shutouts and was second with 20 wins. Dutch Leonard was second in ERA with a 2.51 mark. Harry Gumbert had 17 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Musial (St. Louis) 46, Johnny Mize (New York) and Ralph Kiner (Pittsburgh) 30, Bob Elliott (Boston) 27, Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 26, Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn) and Sid Gordon (New York) 25, Del Ennis (Philadelphia) 24, Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn), Andy Pafko (Chicago) and Whitey Lockman (St. Louis) 23, Richie Ashburn (Philadelphia) and Stan Rojek (Pittsburgh) 21, Al Dark and Jeff Heath (Boston) 20.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Johnny Sain (Boston) 28, Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 27, Johnny Schmitz (Chicago) 22, Johnny Vander Meer (Cincinnati) 20, Dutch Leonard (Philadelphia) 19, Rex Barney (Brooklyn) 18, Larry Jansen (New York) and Ted Wilks (St. Louis) 17, Preacher Roe (Brooklyn) and Bob Chesnes (Pittsburgh) 16.

WAR scores: Musial 11.5 (his peak), Mize 6.9 (last big year), Kiner 6.1, Elliott and Gordon 6.0, Robinson 5.5, Pafko 5.3, Slaughter 5.0, Reese 4.8, Lockman 4.7 (not quite a rookie--played too much in 1945), Heath 4.6, Gene Hermanski (Brooklyn) 4.2, Ashburn (rookie), Rojek (best year), and Dark (rookie) 3.8.

Pitchers, Brecheen 8.0 (career year), Sain 7.5, Leonard 5.4, Schmitz 5.0 (career year), Roe 4.5, Barney 4.4 (career year), Vander Meer 4.3 (last good year), Wilks 4.0, Jansen 3.9, Ralph Branca (Brooklyn) 3.3.

Actual award voting—MVP Top 20.
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 18 303 336 0.90 | 611 230 39 .376 1.152 7|
2 Johnny Sain BSN 5 223 336 0.66 | 115 25 0 .217 .485 0| 24-15 315 2.60 1.207 137 1
3 Alvin Dark BSN 1 174 336 0.52 | 543 175 3 .322 .786 4|
4 Sid Gordon NYG 0 72 336 0.21 | 521 156 30 .299 .927 8|
5 Harry Brecheen STL 0 61 336 0.18 | 82 12 0 .146 .387 0| 20-7 233 2.24 1.037 149 1
6 Pee Wee Reese BRO 0 60 336 0.18 | 566 155 9 .274 .753 25|
7 Ralph Kiner PIT 0 55 336 0.16 | 555 147 40 .265 .924 1|
7 Enos Slaughter STL 0 55 336 0.16 | 549 176 11 .321 .879 4|
9 Danny Murtaugh PIT 0 52 336 0.15 | 514 149 1 .290 .721 10|
10 Stan Rojek PIT 0 51 336 0.15 | 641 186 4 .290 .721 24|
11 Richie Ashburn PHI 0 48 336 0.14 | 463 154 2 .333 .810 32|
12 Johnny Schmitz CHC 0 37 336 0.11 | 84 11 0 .131 .328 0| 18-13 242 2.64 1.169 100 1
13 Bob Elliott BSN 0 33 336 0.10 | 540 153 23 .283 .897 6|
14 Warren Spahn BSN 0 31 336 0.09 | 90 15 1 .167 .452 0| 15-12 257 3.71 1.222 114 1
15 Jackie Robinson BRO 0 30 336 0.09 | 574 170 12 .296 .820 22|
16 Andy Pafko CHC 0 25 336 0.07 | 548 171 26 .312 .891 3|
17 Johnny Mize NYG 0 22 336 0.07 | 560 162 40 .289 .959 4|
18 Rex Barney BRO 0 15 336 0.04 | 84 14 0 .167 .353 0| 15-13 247 3.10 1.277 138
19 Johnny Vander Meer CIN 0 13 336 0.04 | 78 11 1 .141 .417 0| 17-14 232 3.41 1.414 120
20 Johnny Wyrostek CIN 0 9 336 0.03 | 512 140 17 .273 .799 7|

and Rookie of the Year: | 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 Alvin Dark BSN 27 27 48 0.56 | 543 175 3 .322 .786 4|
2 Gene Bearden CLE 8 8 48 0.17 | 90 23 2 .256 .650 0| 20-7 230 2.43 1.276 80 1
3 Richie Ashburn PHI 7 7 48 0.15 | 463 154 2 .333 .810 32|
4 Lou Brissie PHA 3 3 48 0.06 | 76 18 0 .237 .506 0| 14-10 194 4.13 1.531 127 5
4 Billy Goodman BOS 3 3 48 0.06 | 445 138 1 .310 .801 5|

Top player: Stan Musial by a wide margin. Stan the Man fell one HR short of a Triple Crown, and was on a second-place team, but the voters got this right. Bob Elliott got surprisingly little support, probably because he won the award the year before. If he hadn't, he might have won for the pennant-winning year.
#1 Stan Musial, #2 Bob Elliott, #3 Johnny Mize, #4 Ralph Kiner, #5 Jackie Robinson, #6 Andy Pafko.

Top pitcher: Johnny Sain and his 24 wins dominate here. He was also 3rd in ERA and strikeouts. Brecheen was 2nd in wins and first in ERA and strikeouts, but didn't have quite the innings of Sain.
#1 Johnny Sain, #2 Harry Brecheen, #3 Johnny Schmitz, #4 Johnny Vander Meer, #5 Dutch Leonard.

Top rookie: Richie Ashburn. Voters went for Al Dark on the pennant winners, but Dark was 26, and Ashburn played better.

Top manager: Billy Southworth, managing that rotation and delicate offense.

1948 American League

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.

1947 National League

It was an historic year, and the beginning of an era. 1947 was Jackie Robinson's rookie year with Brooklyn. It meant the breaking of the color line, the start of a Dodger dynasty, and the beginning of a tidal turn from the AL being the better league to NL dominance, all things that would continue for years to come. Brooklyn won the pennant with their controversial rookie 1B (who would switch to 2B the next year) while St. Louis finished 5 games back, with Boston 3rd at 8 games behind and New York 4th, 13 off the pace. Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh made up the second division.

Harry (The Hat) Walker won the batting title with a .363 average, Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner were the big sluggers with 51 HR each, and around the league it was a year of transition. Hank Greenberg played his only NL season this year, with Pittsburgh. Mize led with 138 RBI and 137 runs. Walker led in on-base, Kiner in slugging and OPS. Tommy Holmes led with 191 hits. Eddie Miller led with 38 doubles, Walker with 13 triples. Jackie Robinson stole 29 bases.

Warren Spahn established himself as a star pitcher, and was the ERA leader at 2.33. Ewell Blackwell, the sidearming "Whip," had a terrific year, leading the league with 22 wins and 193 strikeouts, and Hugh Casey came up big out of the bullpen for Brooklyn as relief pitching continued to evolve. Casey had 18 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players: Johnny Mize (New York) 32, Ralph Kiner (Pittsburgh) 30, Bob Elliott (Boston) 29, Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn) and Whitey Kurowski (St. Louis) 26, Stan Musial (St. Louis) 25, Willard Marshall (New York) and Harry Walker (St. Louis/Philadelphia) 24, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn) and Walker Cooper (New York) 23, Grady Hatton and Eddie Miller (Cincinnati) 22, Tommy Holmes (Boston), Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn) and Augie Galan (Cincinnati) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Warren Spahn (Boston) 32, Ewell Blackwell (Cincinnati) 28, Ralph Branca (Brooklyn) 26, Johnny Sain (Boston) 24, Dutch Leonard (Philadelphia) 23, Larry Jansen (New York) 20, Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 19, Johnny Schmitz (Chicago) and Murry Dickson and George Munger (St. Louis) 18.

WAR scores: Kiner 7.9, Mize 7.3, Elliott and Kurowski (last good year) 6.2, Reese 6.0, H. Walker 5.9, Marshall 5.4 (career year), Cooper 5.3, Musial 4.8 (an off-year for Stan the Man), Galan 3.9 (last good year), Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 3.8, D. Walker, Earl Torgeson (Boston) and Bobby Thomson (New York) 3.5, Robinson (rookie) and Eddie Stanky (Brooklyn) 3.4.

Pitchers, Spahn 8.5, Blackwell 8.3 (career year), Branca 6.6 (career year), Leonard 5.8, Jansen 4.8 (rookie), Brecheen 4.5, Munger 4.4, Dickson 4.1, Sain, and Joe Hatten (Brooklyn) 3.9, Al Brazle (St. Louis) 3.8, Kirby Higbe (Brooklyn/Pittsburgh) 3.5.

Actual award voting:
1947 National League Most Valuable Player (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 Bob Elliott BSN 9 205 336 0.61 | 555 176 22 .317 .927 3
2 Ewell Blackwell CIN 2 175 336 0.52 | 106 13 0 .123 .272 0| 22-8 273 2.47 1.179 193
3 Johnny Mize NYG 2 144 336 0.43 | 586 177 51 .302 .998 2
4 Bruce Edwards BRO 3 140 336 0.42 | 471 139 9 .295 .782 2
5 Jackie Robinson BRO 1 106 336 0.32 | 590 175 12 .297 .810 29
6 Ralph Kiner PIT 0 101 336 0.30 | 565 177 51 .313 1.055 1
7 Larry Jansen NYG 1 91 336 0.27 | 86 16 0 .186 .423 0| 21-5 248 3.16 1.202 104 1
8 Pee Wee Reese BRO 2 80 336 0.24 | 476 135 12 .284 .841 7
9 Whitey Kurowski STL 0 45 336 0.13 | 513 159 27 .310 .964 4
9 Harry Walker TOT 0 45 336 0.13 | +513 186 1 .363 .924 13
11 Ralph Branca BRO 0 40 336 0.12 | 97 12 0 .124 .317 0| 21-12 280 2.67 1.246 148 1
12 Hugh Casey BRO 0 37 336 0.11 | 18 1 0 .056 .161 0| 10-4 77 3.99 1.356 40 18
13 Dutch Leonard PHI 1 32 336 0.10 | 80 14 0 .175 .392 0| 17-12 235 2.68 1.196 103
13 Eddie Stanky BRO 0 32 336 0.10 | 559 141 3 .252 .702 3
15 Warren Spahn BSN 0 26 336 0.08 | 98 16 0 .163 .416 0| 21-10 290 2.33 1.136 123 3
16 Willard Marshall NYG 1 20 336 0.06 | 587 171 36 .291 .894 3
16 Johnny Sain BSN 0 20 336 0.06 | 107 37 0 .346 .775 0| 21-12 266 3.52 1.293 132 1
18 Walker Cooper NYG 0 19 336 0.06 | 515 157 35 .305 .926 2
19 Dixie Walker BRO 1 14 336 0.04 | 529 162 9 .306 .842 6
20 Stan Musial STL 0 12 336 0.04 | 587 183 19 .312 .902 4
20 Enos Slaughter STL 0 12 336 0.04 | 551 162 10 .294 .818 4


1947 Major League Rookie of the Year (both leagues)
| 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 Jackie Robinson BRO 0 129 165 0.78 | 590 175 12 .297 .810 29
2 Larry Jansen NYG 0 105 165 0.64 | 86 16 0 .186 .423 0| 21-5 248 3.16 1.202 104 1
3 Spec Shea NYY 0 67 165 0.41 | 56 11 0 .196 .530 0| 14-5 179 3.07 1.209 89 1
4 Ferris Fain PHA 0 43 165 0.26 | 461 134 7 .291 .837 4
5 Frank Baumholtz CIN 0 42 165 0.25 | 643 182 5 .283 .726 6

Top player: Ralph Kiner. Elliot won the award as a sort of career achievement trophy, but Kiner had the most impressive year, even is it was for a last-place team.
#1 Ralph Kiner, #2 Bob Elliott, #3 Johnny Mize, #4 Whitey Kurowski, #5 Pee Wee Reese, #6 Harry Walker.

Top pitcher: Warren Spahn in his breakout season, a tough choice over The Whip's lead in wins and strikeouts. Spahnie led in ERA.
#1 Warren Spahn, #2 Ewell Blackwell, #3 Ralph Branca, #4 Dutch Leonard, #5 Larry Jansen.

Top rookie: Jackie Robinson. Larry Jansen may have had a better season superficially, but he wasn't carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders while doing it.

Top manager: Burt Shotton, thrust into the Dodgers job when Leo Durocher was suspended for the year, and dealing with the Robinson debut, and winning the pennant all at the same time.

1947 American League

The Yankees won by a twelve game margin, after a three-year pennant drought. Ted Williams won the Triple Crown but Joe DiMaggio won the MVP. DiMag was 2nd on OPS and OPS+, but this was one of those years where you get an argument. It was a year of statistical parity, with Williams the only 100-RBI man, and Bob Feller the only pitcher to win 20. Williams was also the only hitter with 30 HR. Detroit was 2nd, with Boston 3rd and Cleveland 4th, while Philadelphia climbed to 5th. Chicago, Washington, and St. Louis brought up the rear.

Ted Williams won the Triple Crown with a .343-32-114 line. Second in those categories were Barney McCosky with a .328 average, Joe Gordon with 29 HR, and Tommy Henrich with 98 RBI. Williams led in on-base, slugging, and OPS, and with 125 runs scored. Other leaders included Johnny Pesky at 207 hits, Lou Boudreau at 45 doubles, Henrich with 13 triples, and Bob Dillinger with 34 steals.

Bob Feller led the pitchers with 20 wins and 196 strikeouts, followed by Phil Marchildon and Allie Reynolds at 19 wins, and Hal Newhouser with 176 strikeouts. Joe Haynes led in ERA at 2.42, followed by Feller at 2.68. Ed Klieman and Joe Page tied with 17 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 44, Joe DiMaggio (New York) 30, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 28, Tommy Henrich (New York) 27, Phil Rizzuto (New York) 26, Johnny Pesky (Boston), Joe Gordon (Cleveland) and Stan Spence (Washington) 25, George Kell (Detroit) and George McQuinn (New York) 24, Vern Stephens (St. Louis) 23.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 24, Bob Feller (Cleveland) 23, Fred Hutchinson (Detroit) 22, Ed Lopat (Cleveland), Phil Marchildon (Philadelphia), and Walt Masterson (Washington) 21, Joe Dobson (Boston) and Early Wynn (Washington) 20, Joe Haynes (Chicago) and Dick Fowler (Philadelphia) 18.

WAR scores: Williams 10.3, Boudreau 7.3, Gordon 6.9, DiMaggio 5.6, Henrich 5.3, McQuinn 4.7, Pesky 4.4, Rizzuto, Kell, and Roy Cullenbine (Detroit) 4.2, Snuffy Stirnweiss (New York), Ferris Fain (Philadelphia), and Luke Appling (Chicago) 3.8, Stephens and Bobby Doerr (Boston) 3.5.

Pitchers, Newhouser 5.9, Feller 5.4, Lopat 5.2, Masterson 5.0, Fowler 4.8, Dobson 4.7, Hutchinson 4.2, Marchildon 4.1 (career year), Haynes and Yankee reliever Joe Page 3.5, Allie Reynolds (New York) 3.2, Spec Shea (New York) 3.1, Wynn 2.9.

Actual award winner: MVP top 25
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 8 202 336 0.60 | 534 168 20 .315 .913 3
2 Ted Williams BOS 3 201 336 0.60 | 528 181 32 .343 1.133 0
3 Lou Boudreau CLE 1 168 336 0.50 | 538 165 4 .307 .811 1
4 Joe Page NYY 7 167 336 0.50 | 46 10 1 .217 .533 0| 14-8 141 2.48 1.253 116 17
5 George Kell DET 0 132 336 0.39 | 588 188 5 .320 .798 9
6 George McQuinn NYY 3 77 336 0.23 | 517 157 13 .304 .832 0
7 Joe Gordon CLE 0 59 336 0.18 | 562 153 29 .272 .842 7
8 Bob Feller CLE 0 58 336 0.17 | 98 18 0 .184 .500 0| 20-11 299 2.68 1.194 196 3
9 Phil Marchildon PHA 0 47 336 0.14 | 98 15 1 .153 .408 0| 19-9 277 3.22 1.334 128
10 Luke Appling CHW 0 43 336 0.13 | 503 154 8 .306 .797 8
11 Eddie Joost PHA 0 35 336 0.10 | 540 111 13 .206 .678 6
11 Barney McCosky PHA 0 35 336 0.10 | 546 179 1 .328 .795 1
13 Tommy Henrich NYY 0 33 336 0.10 | 550 158 16 .287 .857 3
14 Spec Shea NYY 0 23 336 0.07 | 56 11 0 .196 .530 0| 14-5 179 3.07 1.209 89 1
15 Yogi Berra NYY 0 18 336 0.05 | 293 82 11 .280 .775 0
15 Allie Reynolds NYY 0 18 336 0.05 | 89 13 0 .146 .366 0| 19-8 242 3.20 1.365 129 2
17 Bob Dillinger SLB 0 13 336 0.04 | 571 168 3 .294 .733 34
18 Johnny Pesky BOS 0 11 336 0.03 | 638 207 0 .324 .785 12
19 Ferris Fain PHA 0 9 336 0.03 | 461 134 7 .291 .837 4
19 Billy Johnson NYY 0 9 336 0.03 | 494 141 10 .285 .768 1
19 Stan Spence WSH 0 9 336 0.03 | 506 141 16 .279 .819 2
22 Fred Hutchinson DET 0 8 336 0.02 | 106 32 2 .302 .783 2| 18-10 220 3.03 1.238 113 2
23 Early Wynn WSH 0 7 336 0.02 | 120 33 2 .275 .656 0| 17-15 247 3.64 1.381 73
24 Bobby Doerr BOS 0 6 336 0.02 | 561 145 17 .258 .755 3
24 Buddy Rosar PHA 0 6 336 0.02 | 359 93 1 .259 .669 1

Top player: Ted Williams, the Triple Crown winner. DiMaggio won the MVP by one point, but he wasn't close to Williams in this year. Joe Page drew 7 first-place votes for a strong season, but was also not in the class of Williams. This was picking a member of the pennant-winning team run amuck.
#1 Ted Williams, #2 Joe DiMaggio, #3 Lou Boudreau, #4 Tommy Henrich, #5 Joe Gordon.

Top pitcher: Bob Feller, leader in wins and strikeouts. Feller would never strike out 200 again, let alone 300, but he was still a top pitcher.
#1 Bob Feller, #2 Hal Newhouser, #3 Fred Hutchinson, #4 Ed Lopat, #5 Joe Dobson.

Top rookie: Ferris Fain of Philadelphia had 19 Win Shares to 14 for Spec Shea of the Yankees. Fain batted .291 while Shea was 14-5. See NL for voting results.

Top manager: Connie Mack, as no one else really deserved it. The A's were a surprising 5th, so Mack is a sentimental pick.

1946 National League

A return from war brought a flood of players, battle-tested and war-hardened, back to the game. A certain toughness permeated the air. The baseball played immediately postwar was a very exciting brand, but would soon descend during the 1950s into some of the dullest baseball ever seen. The St. Louis Cardinals, with their hordes of ballplayers collected before the war returning to the fold, returned to the pennant, but it would also be their last pennant and World Series win for 18 years. They finished just two games ahead of Brooklyn in a terrific pennant race. Former St. Louis GM Branch Rickey had moved to Brooklyn, and would soon be working his magic there. Chicago was third and Boston was 4th. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and New York made up the second division.

Stan Musial easily won the batting title with a .365 mark. Musial also led in slugging and OPS, although Eddie Stanky edged him in on-base. Musial led with 124 runs, 228 hits, 50 doubles, and 20 triples. Ralph Kiner edged Johnny Mize 23 homers to 22, and Enos Slaughter led with 130 RBI. Pete Reiser led with 34 steals.

Howie Pollet led with 21 wins, followed by Johnny Sain at 20. The same order prevailed at ERA, with Pollet at 2.10 and Sain at 2.21. Johnny Schmitz had 135 strikeouts to Kirby Higbe's 134. Ken Raffensberger led with 6 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Musial (St. Louis) 44, Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 29, Eddie Stanky (Brooklyn) 28, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn) 27, Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn), Del Ennis (Philadelphia) and Whitey Kurowski (St. Louis) 26, Tommy Holmes (Boston) and Phil Cavarretta (Chicago) 25, Johnny Mize (New York) and Johnny Wyrostek (Philadelphia) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Howie Pollet (St. Louis) 27, Johnny Sain (Boston) 26, Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 20, Fritz Ostermueller (Pittsburgh) 19, Joe Beggs (Cincinnati) 17, Johnny Schmitz and Hank Wyse (Chicago) and Murry Dickson (St. Louis) 16, Joe Hatten (Brooklyn) 15.

WARP3 scores: Musial 9.8, Stanky 6.0, Reese 5.9, Mize 5.8, Cavarretta 5.3, Kurowski 5.1, Slaughter 5.0, Walker 4.6, Holmes 4.5, Ennis 4.4 (rookie), Johnny Hopp (Boston) 4.3, Pete Reiser (Brooklyn) 4.0.

Pitchers, Sain 6.4, Pollet 5.8, Brecheen 5.0, Schmitz 4.2, Ostermueller 3.9 (best year), Schoolboy Rowe (Philadelphia) 3.8, Hatten 3.7 (rookie), Ewell Blackwell (Cincinnati) 3.5, Wyse 3.3, Beggs 3.1 (best year).

WAR (fWAR), position players: Musial 9.6, Stanky and Reese 6.3, Cavarretta 5.5, Kurowski 5.4, Slaughter 5.3, Ennis 5.1, Walker and Holmes 4.8, Hopp 4.5, Herman and Marion 4.1, Hatton 3.6, Blattner and Wyrostek 3.5. Pitchers (bWAR): Sain 6.4, Pollet 5.8, Brecheen 5.0, Schmitz 4.2, Ostermueller 3.9, Rowe 3.8, Hatten 3.7, Blackwell 3.5, Wyse 3.5, Beggs 3.1, Cooper 3.0.

Actual award winners, MVP top 19:
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 22 319 336 0.95 | 624 228 16 .365 1.021 7
2 Dixie Walker BRO 0 159 336 0.47 | 576 184 9 .319 .839 14
3 Enos Slaughter STL 2 144 336 0.43 | 609 183 18 .300 .838 9
4 Howie Pollet STL 0 116 336 0.35 | 87 14 0 .161 .422 0| 21-10 266 2.10 1.180 107 5
5 Johnny Sain BSN 0 95 336 0.28 | 94 28 0 .298 .638 0| 20-14 265 2.21 1.177 129 2
6 Pee Wee Reese BRO 0 79 336 0.24 | 542 154 5 .284 .762 10
7 Eddie Stanky BRO 0 67 336 0.20 | 483 132 0 .273 .788 8
8 Del Ennis PHI 0 61 336 0.18 | 540 169 17 .313 .849 5
9 Pete Reiser BRO 0 58 336 0.17 | 423 117 11 .277 .789 34
10 Phil Cavarretta CHC 0 49 336 0.15 | 510 150 8 .294 .836 2
11 Buddy Kerr NYG 0 37 336 0.11 | 497 124 6 .249 .662 7
12 Johnny Hopp BSN 0 34 336 0.10 | 445 148 3 .333 .827 21
13 Eddie Waitkus CHC 0 21 336 0.06 | 441 134 4 .304 .748 3
14 Bruce Edwards BRO 0 20 336 0.06 | 292 78 1 .267 .704 1
15 Kirby Higbe BRO 0 18 336 0.05 | 77 10 0 .130 .286 0| 17-8 211 3.03 1.353 134 1
16 Harry Brecheen STL 0 14 336 0.04 | 83 11 0 .133 .307 0| 15-15 231 2.49 1.206 117 3
16 Johnny Mize NYG 0 14 336 0.04 | 377 127 22 .337 1.013 3
18 Grady Hatton CIN 0 12 336 0.04 | 436 118 14 .271 .791 6
19 Tommy Holmes BSN 0 11 336 0.03 | 568 176 6 .310 .801 7


Top player: Stan Musial, and the only surprise is that he did not get a unanimous vote. Slaughter snuck in their with two first-place votes. "Country" was good, but Musial led the league in average, runs, hits, doubles, triples, and total bases, and led in OPS with a 1021 to second-place Kurowski's 853. Or looked at another way, Musial's OPS+ was 183, while Del Ennis finished 2nd in that at 143. It was a dominant performance, but Slaughter led the league in RBI, foreshadowing the overreliance on that stat.
#1 Stan Musial, #2 Enos Slaughter, #3 Eddie Stanky, #4 Pee Wee Reese, #5 Whitey Kurowski, #6 Phil Cavarretta.

Top pitcher: Johnny Sain. Howie Pollet led in wins and ERA, but Sain was right behind him and pitched for a lesser team. The Cardinal defense helped Pollet immeasurably. Sain was third in strikeouts, Pollet out of the top five.
#1 Johnny Sain, #2 Howie Pollet, #3 Harry Brecheen, #4 Fritz Ostermueller, #5 Johnny Schmitz.

Top rookie: Del Ennis made a strong debut, laying the foundation for the Phillies' "Whiz Kids."

Top manager: Eddie Dyer took a crew of battle-hardened veterans to the pennant in his first year as skipper. He followed up with three straight seconds.

1946 American League

The war was over, the players were (mostly) back, and things got back to normal. The Red Sox stormed their way to a pennant, their first since 1918. The Sox won 104 games, while Detroit won 92 and New York won 87. Everyone else was under .500, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis, with Philadelphia losing 105 games. Rosters carried up to 29 players, to help catch the overflow of war heroes and sort things out.

Mickey Vernon won the batting title at .353, with Ted Williams at .342. Williams led in on-base, slugging, and of course OPS. He also led with 142 runs. Johnny Pesky had 208 hits to Vernon's 207. Vernon had 51 doubles to Stan Spence's 50. Hank Edwards had 16 triples. Hank Greenberg led with 44 homers and 127 RBI, with Williams second in both categories. George Case led with 28 steals.

Hal Newhouser led pitchers with a 1.94 ERA, followed by Spud Chandler at 2.10. Newhouser and Bob Feller tied with 26 wins. Dave "Boo" Ferris was right behind at 25. Feller led with 348 strikeouts, setting a modern record that would stand until Nolan Ryan came along. Bob Klinger led with 9 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 49, Johnny Pesky (Boston) 34, Mickey Vernon (Washington) 33, Hank Greenberg (Detroit) and Charlie Keller (New York) 31, Stan Spence (Washington) 30, Bobby Doerr (Boston) 27, Dom DiMaggio (Boston) and Luke Appling (Chicago) 26, Roy Cullenbine (Detroit) 25, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland), Joe DiMaggio (New York) and Buddy Lewis (Washington) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 33, Bob Feller (Cleveland) 32, Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 27, Tex Hughson (Boston) and Spud Chandler (New York) 25, Boo Ferriss (Boston) 23, Bill Bevens (New York) 21, Ed Lopat (Chicago) and Fred Hutchinson (Detroit) 19, Mickey Haefner (Washington) 17.

WARP3 scores: Williams 11.8, Pesky 6.9, Greenberg 6.6 (last big year), Keller 5.8 (last year as regular), Vernon, Doerr, and Appling 5.3, Cullenbine 5.2, J. DiMaggio 4.8, Spence and D. DiMaggio 4.5, George Kell (Philadelphia/Detroit) 4.1.

Pitchers, Feller 10.1, Newhouser 9.0, Trout 7.2, Hughson 6.6, Chandler 6.5, Bevens 5.9, Ferriss and Bobo Newsom (Philadelphia/Washington) 4.3, Lopat 4.2, Haefner 4.1, Virgil Trucks (Detroit) and Jesse Flores (Philadelphia) 3.9, Hutchinson 3.8.

WAR (fWAR), position players: Williams 12.4, Greenberg 7.8, Pesky 7.6, Keller 7.3, Appling 6.6, Doerr 6.5, Vernon 6.4, J. DiMaggio 5.8, Spence 5.6, D. DiMaggio 5.3, Kell 4.8, Boudreau and Edwards 4.5. Pitchers (bWAR): Feller 10.1, Newhouser 9.0, Trout 7.2, Hughson 6.6, Chandler 6.5, Bevens 5.9, Ferriss and Newsom 4.3, Lopat 4.2, Haefner 4.1, Flores and Trucks 3.9.

Actual award voting: MVP (top 15):
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+----+---+-----+-----+
1 Ted Williams BOS 9 224 336 0.67 | 514 176 38 .342 1.164 0
2 Hal Newhouser DET 3 197 336 0.59 | 103 13 2 .126 .388 1| 26-9 293 1.94 1.069 275 1
3 Bobby Doerr BOS 5 158 336 0.47 | 583 158 18 .271 .799 5
4 Johnny Pesky BOS 2 141 336 0.42 | 621 208 2 .335 .827 9
5 Mickey Vernon WSH 1 134 336 0.40 | 587 207 8 .353 .910 14
6 Bob Feller CLE 1 105 336 0.31 | 124 16 0 .129 .341 0| 26-15 371 2.18 1.158 348 4
7 Dave Ferriss BOS 1 94 336 0.28 | 115 24 0 .209 .503 0| 25-6 274 3.25 1.259 106 3
8 Hank Greenberg DET 2 91 336 0.27 | 523 145 44 .277 .977 5
9 Dom DiMaggio BOS 0 56 336 0.17 | 534 169 7 .316 .820 10
10 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 37 336 0.11 | 515 151 6 .293 .755 6
11 Rudy York BOS 0 28 336 0.08 | 579 160 17 .276 .808 3
12 Luke Appling CHW 0 26 336 0.08 | 582 180 1 .309 .762 6
13 Tex Hughson BOS 0 19 336 0.06 | 91 12 0 .132 .345 0| 20-11 278 2.75 1.090 172 3
14 Earl Caldwell CHW 0 18 336 0.05 | 18 3 0 .167 .514 0| 13-4 91 2.08 0.981 42 8
15 Charlie Keller NYY 0 17 336 0.05 | 538 148 30 .275 .938 1

Top Player: Ted Williams. This one isn't really close, although Pesky, Doerr and DiMaggio had standout seasons as well for the Bosox. Joe D. was hurt part of the year, Vernon was the batting titlist, but none could match the contributions of the Splendid Splinter. The amazing thing is that he was not a unanimous choice. That only speaks to an irrational hatred on the part of several writers.
#1 Ted Williams, #2 Pesky, #3 Greenberg, #4 Keller, #5 Vernon, #6 Doerr.

Top pitcher: Bob Feller, setting a new single-season strikeout record. Hal Newhouser was also terrific, with the same number of wins and a slightly lower ERA, but Feller's 348 K set a new standard for excellence.
#1 Feller, #2 Newhouser, #3 Trout, #4 Hughson, #5 Chandler.

Top rookie: Ellis Kinder, 3-3, 3.32 ERA for St. Louis. Not a good year for rookies, with all the returning talent around.

Top manager: Joe Cronin brought the Red Sox home with one of their best pitching staffs ever, and a balanced offense led by Williams.

1945 National League

The Cubs won their last pennant to date with a mid-season steal. The Yankees put pitcher Hank Borowy on waivers, and most teams passed in disbelief. The Cubs took a flier, and got a good pitcher for their trouble. The Cubs won by three games over perennial winners St. Louis, with Brooklyn 3rd, Pittsburgh 4th, and New York 5th. Boston and Cincinnati trailed. Philadelphia lost 108 games. The late season was peppered by the return of some ballplayers from overseas as the war came to an end, with a return to something close to normalcy in the offing.

Phil Cavarretta won the batting title with a .355 average, beating out Tommy Holmes at .352. Cavarretta led in on-base, Holmes in slugging and OPS. Eddie Stanky led with 128 runs, Red Schoendienst with 33 steals, and Dixie Walker with 124 RBI. Holmes led with 224 hits, 47 doubles, 13 triples, and 28 homers.

Red Barrett led the league with 23 wins and Hank Wyse won 22. Preacher Roe was tops with 148 strikeouts. Ray Prim's 2.40 ERA edged Claude Passeau's 2.46. Ace Adams and Andy Karl tied with 15 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Hack (Chicago) 34, Goody Rosen (Brooklyn) 31, Augie Galan (Brooklyn) and Phil Cavarretta (Chicago) 30, Tommy Holmes (Boston) 29, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn) 28, Eddie Stanky (Brooklyn) and Whitey Kurowski (St. Louis) 27, Andy Pafko (Chicago) 25, Buster Adams (Philadelphia/St. Louis) 24, Luis Olmo (Brooklyn) and Mel Ott (New York) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hank Wyse (Chicago) and Red Barrett (Boston/St. Louis) 24, Claude Passeau (Chicago) 22, Preacher Roe (Pittsburgh) and Ken Burkhart (St. Louis) 20, Nick Strincevich (Pittsburgh) 18, Hal Gregg (Brooklyn), Ray Prim (Chicago), Van Lingle Mungo (New York) and Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 17 each.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Holmes 8.6, Hack and Cavarretta 6.6, Galan 6.3, Stanky 5.6, Rosen 5.5, Walker 5.3, Kurowski 4.9, Pafko 4.1, Ott 4.0 (last good year), Jim Russell (Pittsburgh) 3.9.

Pitchers, Roe 5.9, Wyse 5.1, Barrett and Passeau (last big year) 4.9, Burkhart 4.2 (rookie), Strincevich and Brecheen 3.8, Harry Feldman (New York) and Hank Borowy (Chicago) 3.2, Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 3.0.

Actual Award Voting: MVP Top 20
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+---------+---+-----+----
1 Phil Cavarretta CHC 15 279 336 0.83 | 498 177 6 .355 .949 5
2 Tommy Holmes BSN 3 175 336 0.52 | 636 224 28 .352 .997 15
3 Red Barrett TOT 1 151 336 0.45 | + 98 12 0 .122 .274 0|+23-12 285 3.00 1.198 76 2
4 Andy Pafko CHC 4 131 336 0.39 | 534 159 12 .298 .816 5
5 Whitey Kurowski STL 0 90 336 0.27 | 511 165 21 .323 .894 1
6 Hank Borowy TOT 1 84 336 0.25 | 41 7 0 .171 .440 0| 11-2 122 2.13 1.243 47 1
7 Hank Wyse CHC 0 72 336 0.21 | 101 17 0 .168 .356 0| 22-10 278 2.68 1.175 77
8 Marty Marion STL 0 69 336 0.21 | 430 119 1 .277 .709 2
9 Dixie Walker BRO 0 66 336 0.20 | 607 182 8 .300 .820 6
10 Goody Rosen BRO 0 56 336 0.17 | 606 197 12 .325 .840 4
11 Stan Hack CHC 0 42 336 0.12 | 597 193 2 .323 .826 12
12 Harry Brecheen STL 0 31 336 0.09 | 57 7 0 .123 .351 0| 15-4 157 2.52 1.144 63 2
13 Mel Ott NYG 0 22 336 0.07 | 451 139 21 .308 .910 1
14 Augie Galan BRO 0 18 336 0.05 | 576 177 9 .307 .864 13
15 Johnny Hopp STL 0 17 336 0.05 | 446 129 3 .289 .758 14
16 Bob Elliott PIT 0 15 336 0.04 | 541 157 8 .290 .790 5
17 Luis Olmo BRO 0 13 336 0.04 | 556 174 10 .313 .818 15
18 Buster Adams TOT 0 12 336 0.04 | +634 182 22 .287 .793 3
19 Claude Passeau CHC 0 9 336 0.03 | 91 17 2 .187 .479 0| 17-9 227 2.46 1.163 98 1
20 Johnny Barrett PIT 0 8 336 0.02 | 507 130 15 .256 .775 25

Top player: Tommy Holmes. The voters went for batting champ Cavarretta, but Holmes led the league in homers, slugging, total bases, OPS, and times on base. He was 2nd in batting and RBI, 3rd in runs. Since the Cubs won, Holmes was a longshot in the voting.
#1 Tommy Holmes, #2 Stan Hack, #3 Phil Cavarretta, #4 Goody Rosen, #5 Augie Galan.

Top pitcher: Hank Wyse in a close contest with no clear standout. Choosing a winner is a matter of balancing all the factors.
#1 Hank Wyse, #2 Red Barrett, #3 Preacher Roe, #4 Claude Passeau, #5 Ken Burkhart.

Top rookie: Ken Burkhart in a very poor field. He would never have another good season.

Top manager: Charlie Grimm, guiding the Cubs to their title.

1945 American League

As the war was won first in Europe and then in Asia, some of the first players into the armed services began coming back as the season progressed. First among these was Hank Greenberg, who got in half a season with Detroit and sparked the Tigers to the pennant. Detroit beat out Washington by a game and a half, with St. Louis third and New York 4th. Cleveland was 5th, followed by Chicago and Boston, while Philadelphia was last. A controversy developed when Hank Borowy, a Yankee and All-Star, was exposed to waivers at mid-season and picked up by the Cubs. AL teams had passed, not expecting the Yankees to let go of a quality pitcher for the waiver price.

Snuffy Stirnweiss edged Tony Cuccinello for the batting title, .309 to .308. Stirnweiss also led in slugging, with Eddie Lake the leader in on-base. Stirnweiss led in runs with 107, hits with 195, triples with 22, and steals with 33. Wally Moses had 35 doubles, Vern Stephens 24 homers, Nick Etten 111 RBI.

Hal Newhouser won the pitching Triple Crown with 25 wins, 212 strikeouts, and a 1.81 ERA. Jim Turner had 10 saves. Second placers were Dave Ferriss with 21 wins, Al Benton had a 2.02 ERA, Nels Potter had 129 strikeouts.

Win Shares leaders, players; Snuffy Stirnweiss (New York) 34, Roy Cullenbine (Cleveland/Detroit) 31, Wally Moses (Chicago) 28, Eddie Lake (Boston) and Vern Stephens (St. Louis) 27, Joe Kuhel (Washington) 25, George Myatt (Washington) 23, Eddie Mayo (Detroit) and Nick Etten (New York) 22, Oscar Grimes (New York) and George Case (Washington) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 38, Nels Potter (St. Louis) 27, Dave "Boo" Ferris (Boston), Steve Gromek (Cleveland) and Roger Wolff (Washington) 24, Dutch Leonard (Washington) 19, Thornton Lee (Chicago) and Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 18.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Stirnweiss 8.0, Lake 5.7 (best year), Stephens 5.2, Cullenbine 5.1, Moses 4.8 (last good year), Kuhel 4.2 (last hurrah at 39), Mayo 4.1 (best year at 35), Myatt (best year) and Jeff Heath (Cleveland) 3.7, Buddy Lewis (Washington) 3.7, Case and Tony Cuccinello (Chicago) 3.2, Etten (Etten had a lousy glove) and Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 3.1.

Pitchers, Newhouser 8.9, Potter 5.7 (best year), Wolff 5.3 (career year), Gromek 4.6, Lee 3.4 (last hurrah), Leonard, Al Hollingsworth (St. Louis), and Al Benton (Detroit) 2.9, Ferris 2.8 (rookie), Joe Berry (Philadelphia) 2.6.

Actual award voting: MVP Top 20
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+---+-----+--+
1 Hal Newhouser DET 9 236 336 0.70 | 109 28 0 .257 .623 0| 25-9 313 1.81 1.114 212 2
2 Eddie Mayo DET 7 164 336 0.49 | 501 143 10 .285 .752 7
3 Snuffy Stirnweiss NYY 4 161 336 0.48 | 632 195 10 .309 .862 33
4 Dave Ferriss BOS 2 148 336 0.44 | 120 32 1 .267 .734 0| 21-10 265 2.96 1.315 94 2
5 George Myatt WSH 1 98 336 0.29 | 490 145 1 .296 .744 30
6 Vern Stephens SLB 0 94 336 0.28 | 571 165 24 .289 .825 2
7 Roger Wolff WSH 0 78 336 0.23 | 84 9 0 .107 .286 0| 20-10 250 2.12 1.012 108 2
8 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 70 336 0.21 | 345 106 3 .307 .783 0
9 George Case WSH 0 60 336 0.18 | 504 148 1 .294 .717 30
10 Paul Richards DET 0 35 336 0.10 | 234 60 3 .256 .670 4
11 Mike Tresh CHW 0 33 336 0.10 | 458 114 0 .249 .617 6
12 Joe Kuhel WSH 1 29 336 0.09 | 533 152 2 .285 .778 10
13 Roy Cullenbine TOT 0 26 336 0.08 | +536 146 18 .272 .846 2
14 Hank Greenberg DET 0 25 336 0.07 | 270 84 13 .311 .948 3
15 Nick Etten NYY 0 21 336 0.06 | 565 161 18 .285 .824 2
16 Tony Cuccinello CHW 0 18 336 0.05 | 402 124 2 .308 .780 6
17 Dizzy Trout DET 0 17 336 0.05 | 102 25 2 .245 .632 1| 18-15 246 3.14 1.344 97 2
18 Dutch Leonard WSH 0 16 336 0.05 | 78 18 0 .231 .497 0| 17-7 216 2.12 1.125 96 1
19 Roy Schalk CHW 0 13 336 0.04 | 513 127 1 .248 .595 3
20 Jeff Heath CLE 0 10 336 0.03 | 370 113 15 .305 .906

Best player: Snuffy Stirnweiss led the league in OPS, and was the top player. He was oddly behind Mayo in the MVP voting. Stirnweiss led the league in average, runs, hits, triples, and steals. He was a wartime wonder, though.
#1 Snuffy Stirnweiss, #2 Roy Cullenbine, #3 Eddie Lake, #4 Vern Stephens, #5 Wally Moses.

Best pitcher: What is odd is that Newhouser was not a unanimous MVP. Perhaps that is because he won the award the year before. He was the best in the league, and won the pitching Triple Crown.
#1 Hal Newhouser, #2 Roger Wolff, #3 Boo Ferris, #4 Nels Potter, #5 Steve Gromek.

Best Rookie: Boo Ferris had a short career, but he was very effective in those few years, starting here.

Best manager: Steve O'Neill gladly got Greenberg back in the lineup and won the World Series.

1944 National League

The War was at its hottest point, but the Cardinals maintained the status quo with another pennant on 105 wins. The Cards ran away with the flag, a status that would change when Stan Musial went into the military the next year. Pittsburgh was 2nd and Cincinnati 3rd. Below .500 were Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia. That made for an all-St. Louis World Series, which the Cardinals won. The press for players was becoming so great a 15-year old made his major league debut, still the youngest big league player ever: Joe Nuxhall.

Dixie Walker won the batting title at .357, followed by Stan Musial at .347. Musial led in on-base, slugging, and OPS. He also led with 51 doubles. Bill Nicholson led with 116 runs, 33 homers, and 122 RBI. Musial and Phil Cavarretta tied with 197 hits. Johnny Barrett had 19 triples and 28 steals to lead the league.

Bucky Walters led the league with 23 wins, Joe Heusser with a 2.38 ERA (edging Walters' 2.40), and Bill Voiselle led with 161 strikeouts. Ace Adams had 13 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Musial (St. Louis) 38, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn) 33, Augie Galan (Brooklyn) 32, Bill Nicholson (Chicago) and Jim Russell (Pittsburgh) 31, Frank McCormick (Cincinnati) 29, Johnny Hopp (St. Louis) 28, Tommy Holmes (Boston) and Bob Elliott (Pittsburgh) 27, Ray Mueller (Cincinnati) 26, Phil Cavarretta (Chicago), Mel Ott (New York) and Johnny Barrett (Pittsburgh) 25. MVP Marty Marion had 20.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 32, Bill Voiselle (New York), Rip Sewell (Pittsburgh) and Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 24, Jim Tobin (Boston) 23, Ed Heusser (Cincinnati) 20, Claude Passeau (Chicago), Ken Raffensberger (Philadelphia) and Ted Wilks (St. Louis) 18.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Musial 9.1, Nicholson 6.5, Galan 6.4, Walker, McCormick, and Hopp (career year) 6.0, Russell and Ott 5.4, Elliott, Barrett, and Phil Weintraub (New York) 4.4, Cavarretta 4.3, Holmes and Buster Adams (Philadelphia) 4.2, Marty Marion (St. Louis) 4.0.

Pitchers; Cooper 5.2, Sewell 4.9 (best year), Walters 4.5, Passeau 4.4, Wilks (rookie) and Fritz Ostermueller (Brooklyn/Pittsburgh) 4.3, Tobin 4.2 (last good year), Red Munger (St. Louis) 3.9, Nate Andrews (Boston) 3.8, Raffensberger 3.7, Heusser 3.4 (career year), Voiselle 3.0 (rookie, career year).

Actual award voting: MVP Top Ten | 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 Marty Marion STL 7 190 336 0.57 | 506 135 6 .267 .686 1
2 Bill Nicholson CHC 4 189 336 0.56 | 582 167 33 .287 .935 3
3 Dixie Walker BRO 3 145 336 0.43 | 535 191 13 .357 .963 6
4 Stan Musial STL 3 136 336 0.40 | 568 197 12 .347 .990 7
5 Bill Voiselle NYG 0 107 336 0.32 | 105 22 0 .210 .523 0| 21-16 313 3.02 1.260 161
5 Bucky Walters CIN 3 107 336 0.32 | 107 30 0 .280 .648 0| 23-8 285 2.40 1.123 77 1
7 Ray Mueller CIN 2 85 336 0.25 | 555 159 10 .286 .751 4
8 Walker Cooper STL 1 72 336 0.21 | 397 126 13 .317 .855 4
9 Mort Cooper STL 0 63 336 0.19 | 94 19 0 .202 .491 0| 22-7 252 2.46 1.138 97 1
10 Bob Elliott PIT 0 57 336 0.17 | 538 160 10 .297 .848 9

Top player: Stan Musial. It wasn't really close, but it was a strange year in the MVP voting with Musial finishing 4th in spite of batting .347 and leading the league in OPS for the pennant winners. Perhaps it was because Musial had won the year before and dropped ten points in batting average. Still, the voting was very odd and wildly split. Shortstop Marty Marion is one of the oddest awards choices ever. Even Babe Dahlgren got a first-place vote!

#1 Stan Musial, #2 Bill Nicholson HR and RBI leader, #3 Dixie Walker the batting champ, #4 Augie Galan, #5 Johnny Hopp.

Top pitcher: Veteran Bucky Walters had a last hurrah leading the league with 23 wins and finishing a close second in ERA.

#1 Bucky Walters, #2 Mort Cooper, #3 Bill Voiselle, #4 Max Lanier, #5 Rip Sewell.

Top rookie: Bill Voiselle, although there is some doubt about his rookie status. He led the league in strikeouts.

Top manager: Billy Southworth led the Cardinals to the pennant again.

1944 American League

It was the thick of World War II, and troops were island-hopping in the Pacific. The D-Day landing to retake continental Europe happened in June. More and more ballplayers were getting called into the service, and many saw combat. It was a time when anything could happen in baseball, and 1944 was the year that "even the Browns" could win the pennant, as the St. Louis Browns won their one and only AL title. It was a great pennant race, with Detroit finishing just a game back, and New York third at six games back. Boston finished at .500, followed by Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington. The remaining stars were mostly obviously handicapped, like Lou Boudreau and his bad ankles. Hal Newhouser burst onto the scene with a terrific year.

With the baseballs deadened (apparently rubber was harder to come by), offense was down in general, and stolen bases were up. Lou Boudreau won the batting title with a .327 average. Bob Johnson led in on-base, while Bobby Doerr edged Johnson for the slugging percentage crown by a fraction of a point. Doerr and Johnson were second and third in batting average. Boudreau also led in doubles with 45. Snuffy Stirnweiss led in runs with 125, hits with 205, steals with 55, and tied Johnny Lindell for the triples lead with 16. Nick Etten led with 22 home runs, and Vern Stephens with 109 RBI.

Hal Newhouser and Dizzy Trout were the top pitchers. Newhouser edged Trout in wins 29-27, while Trout returned the favor in ERA 2.12 to 2.22. Newhouser led with 187 strikeouts. Joe Berry, George Caster, and Gordon Maltzberger each had 12 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Snuffy Stirnweiss (New York) 35, Vern Stephens (St. Louis) 34, Stan Spence (Washington) 33, Bob Johnson (Boston) 31, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 28, Bobby Doerr (Boston) 27, Johnny Lindell (New York) 26, Nick Etten (New York) 25, Ken Keltner (Cleveland), Mike (Pinky) Higgins, Dick Wakefield, and Rudy York (Detroit) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 42, Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 35, Jack Kramer (St. Louis) 22, Tex Hughson (Boston), Hank Borowy (New York), Bobo Newsom (Philadelphia) and Nels Potter (St. Louis) 20, Joe Berry (Philadelphia) 18.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Stirnweiss 7.6, Johnson 6.9, Boudreau 6.8, Doerr 6.4, Spence 5.7, Stephens 5.2, Keltner 4.5, Lindell 4.4 (career year), Etten 4.1 (career year), Wakefield 3.9 (in half a season), Higgins 3.6 (last good year), Roy Cullenbine (Cleveland) 3.2.

Pitchers, Trout 8.3, Newhouser 7.1, Hughson 5.0, Potter 4.6, Kramer 4.4 (career year), Johnny Niggeling (Washington) 4.3, Newsom 3.7, Borowy 3.5, Bob Muncrief (St. Louis) 3.4, Berry (39-year-old rookie) 2.7.

Actual award voting: MVP Top Ten | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Max Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+--+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Hal Newhouser DET 7 236 336 0.70 | 120 29 0 .242 .553 1| 29-9 312 2.22 1.172 187 2
2 Dizzy Trout DET 10 232 336 0.69 | 133 36 5 .271 .745 2| 27-14 352 2.12 1.127 144
3 Vern Stephens SLB 4 193 336 0.57 | 559 164 20 .293 .826 2
4 Snuffy Stirnweiss NYY 1 129 336 0.38 | 643 205 8 .319 .849 55
5 Dick Wakefield DET 2 128 336 0.38 | 276 98 12 .355 1.040 2
6 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 84 336 0.25 | 584 191 3 .327 .843 11
7 Bobby Doerr BOS 0 75 336 0.22 | 468 152 15 .325 .927 5
8 Stan Spence WSH 0 56 336 0.17 | 592 187 18 .316 .877 3
9 Nels Potter SLB 0 52 336 0.15 | 82 13 0 .159 .378 0| 19-7 232 2.83 1.211 91
10 Bob Johnson BOS 0 51 336 0.15 | 525 170 17 .324 .959 2

Top player: Snuffy Stirnweiss. The MVP votes went to the two outstanding pitchers, but Stirnweiss had a great year of his own. He led the league in runs, hits, steals, and times on base, and played a great second base. He was a longshot for any award, as the Yankees fell from the pennant, but Stirnweiss had a great year.

#1 Snuffy Stirnweiss, #2 Lou Boudreau leading in average and doubles, #3 Bob Johnson, the veteran OPS leader, #4 Vern Stephens of the pennant winners and league RBI leader, #5 Stan Spence, third in OPS.

Top pitcher: Dizzy Trout. It was a strange MVP vote, with Trout getting more first-place votes but Newhouser winning the poll. Trout had a lower ERA and more innings, so he gets this nod. Newhouser had more wins, 29 to 27, and more strikeouts.

#1 Dizzy Trout, #2 Hal Newhouser, #3 Tex Hughson, #4 Jack Kramer, #5 Nels Potter.

Top rookie: Most good young players were in the service, but Joe Berry had a strong debut out of the bullpen for Philadelphia, with 12 saves. He was second in the league in games pitched.

Top manager: Luke Sewell, who brought the Browns in for that sole pennant.

1943 National League

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.

1943 American League

Most of the best players in the league were off fighting a war, and most of the minor leaguers who would otherwise have replaced them were gone too. Those who remained were injured in some way, or older veterans not as much in demand by the armed forces. Many minor league veterans got a second chance during this period. The New York Yankees won the pennant again, 13.5 games ahead of the Senators, with Cleveland third, Chicago fourth, and Detroit fifth. St. Louis and Boston trailed, while the Philadelphia A's were last.

Luke Appling at 36 years old won the batting title with a .328 average, as just four qualifiers batted .300. Dick Wakefield, Ralph Hodgin, and Doc Cramer were the other .300 hitters. Appling led in on-base, Rudy York in slugging, and Charlie Keller in OPS. George Case scored 102 runs and stole 62 bases, as his type of running game came back into vogue with offense generally down. Wakefield led in hits with 200 and doubles with 38. York led with 34 homers and 118 RBI. Johnny Lindell and Wally Moses tied for the triples lead with 12.

Spud Chandler led pitchers with 20 wins and a 1.64 ERA. Dizzy Trout tied him with his own 20 wins. Allie Reynolds led with 151 strikeouts, and Gordon Maltzberger had 14 saves. Bet you never heard of him before.

Win Shares leaders, players; Luke Appling (Chicago) 40, Charlie Keller (New York) 36, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 32, Joe Gordon (New York) and Stan Spence (Washington) 28, Roy Cullenbine (Cleveland) 27, Rudy York (Detroit) 26, George Case (Washington) 25, Bobby Doerr (Boston), Jeff Heath (Cleveland) and Dick Wakefield (Detroit) 24, Vern Stephens (St. Louis) 23.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Spud Chandler (New York) 29, Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 23, Tex Hughson (Boston) and Tiny Bonham (New York) 20, Early Wynn (Washington) 19, Orval Grove (Chicago) 18, Tommy Bridges (Detroit) 17, Virgil Trucks (Detroit) and Butch Wensloff (New York) 16.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Boudreau 6.7, Appling and Keller 6.5, Gordon 5.7 (then off to the service), York 5.5, Spence 4.4, Cullenbine 4.2, Case and Doerr 4.0, Bill Dickey (New York) 3.6, Heath 3.5, Bob Johnson (Washington) 3.3, Stephens 3.2, Wakefield (rookie) and Jerry Priddy (Washington) 3.0.

Pitchers, Chandler 6.0, Trout 4.6, Bonham 4.5, Hughson and Bridges (last good year) 4.4, Johnny Niggeling (St. Louis/Washington) 3.6, Denny Galehouse (St. Louis) 3.5, Trucks (then into the service) and Jesse Flores (Philadelphia) 3.3, Nels Potter (St. Louis) 3.1.

Actual award voting (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 Spud Chandler NYY 12 246 336 0.73 97 25 2 .258 .658 0 20-4 253 1.64 0.992 134
2 Luke Appling CHW 5 215 336 0.64 585 192 3 .328 .825 27
3 Rudy York DET 1 152 336 0.45 571 155 34 .271 .893 5
4 Billy Johnson NYY 3135 336 0.40 592 166 5 .280 .710 3
5 Bob Johnson WSH 1 116336 0.35 438 116 7 .265 .762 11
6 Dick Wakefield DET 0 72 336 0.21 633 200 7 .316 .811 4
7 Nick Etten NYY 0 61 336 0.18 583 158 14 .271 .775 3
8 Bill Dickey NYY 2 58 336 0.17 242 85 4 .351 .937 2
9 Vern Stephens SLB 0 49 336 0.15 512 148 22 .289 .839 3
10 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 40336 0.12 539 154 3 .286 .776 4

Top player: Luke Appling, batting champ, 4th in steals, and the White Sox' 36-year-old shortstop. He went into working for the war effort for the duration after this season.
#1 Luke Appling, #2 Lou Boudreau, #3 Charlie Keller, #4 Joe Gordon, #5 Rudy York.

Top pitcher: Spud Chandler dominated the league with a 20-4 record, leading in wins, ERA, and WHIP.
#1 Spud Chandler, #2 Dizzy Trout, #3 Tiny Bonham, #4 Tex Hughson, #5 Tommy Bridges.

Top rookie: Dick Wakefield got a big bonus to sign, but never did much outside of this season.

Top manager: Joe McCarthy kept the Yankees on top in spite of depleted ranks. This would be the last World Series win of McCarthy's illustrious managerial career.

1942 National League

The U.S. had entered the war in Europe and Asia, making it truly a World War. Ballplayers were getting drafted into the military, but it didn't affect the NL as much yet, as many of the National's stars were veterans beyond prime drafting age. That would change as the war went on and demand for manpower increased. On the field, the Cardinals outlasted the Dodgers in one of the great pennant races, with St. Louis winning 106 games to Brooklyn's 104. The Dodgers were probably the best second-place team ever. St. Louis also beat the Yankees in the World Series. New York was 3rd and Cincinnati 4th. Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Boston were also-rans, while Philadelphia lost 109 and finished dead last. The continually downtrodden Phillies were to undergo a nickname change to Blue Jays, and be operated by the league for awhile as the owner went bankrupt.

Ernie Lombardi, now with Boston, won the batting title at .330. Enos Slaughter was second at .318, Stan Musial third at .315. Elbie Fletcher led in on-base, Johnny Mize in slugging, Mel Ott in OPS. Ott also led with 118 runs and 30 HR. Mize and Dolph Camilli had 26 homers for second. Mize led with 110 RBI, Camilli had 109. Slaughter led with 188 hits, 17 triples, and 292 total bases. Marty Marion led with 38 doubles, Pete Reiser with 20 steals.

Mort Cooper led the league with 22 wins and a 1.78 ERA, while Johnny Vander Meer led with 186 strikeouts. Johnny Beazley won 21. He was also second in ERA with a 2.13 mark, and Curt Davis third at 2.36. Cooper had 10 shutouts and Jack Tobin 28 complete games. Hugh Casey led with 13 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 37, Mel Ott (New York) 35, Johnny Mize (New York) 32, Dolph Camilli and Pete Reiser (Brooklyn), Bill Nicholson (Chicago) and Stan Musial (St. Louis) 28, Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn) 27, Stan Hack (Chicago) and Elbie Fletcher (Pittsburgh) 26, Lonny Frey (Cincinnati) 23, Bob Elliott (Pittsburgh) and Marty Marion (St. Louis) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 29, Johnny Beazley (St. Louis) 22, Ray Starr and Johnny Vander Meer (Cincinnati) 21, Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 20, Claude Passeau (Chicago) 19, Curt Davis (Brooklyn) and Tommy Hughes (Philadelphia) 18, Larry French (Brooklyn) 18.

WARP3 scores: Slaughter 7.1 (career best year, and off to the military), Ott 7.0 (last big year), Mize 6.6 (and into the service), Reese 6.2, Camilli 5.9 (last good year), Musial 5.8 (rookie), Nicholson 5.5, Reiser 5.4 (and into the military), Fletcher 4.9, Marion 4.8 (best season), Hack 4.6, Frey 4.5, Billy Herman (Brooklyn) 3.8.

Pitchers, Cooper 6.8 (career year), Starr 4.4 (career year at age 36), Beazley 4.1 (rookie, off to war and never the same), Vander Meer 3.8 (best year), Davis 3.6, French 3.2 (final year), Bill Lohrmann (St. Louis/New York) 2.8, Howie Krist (St. Louis) 2.6, Max Lanier (St. Louis) 2.5.

WAR, position players: Slaughter 7.0, Ott 6.6, Nicholson 6.1, Mize 6.0, Musial 5.7, Reese 5.6, Frey 5.5, Hack 5.3, Camilli 5.2, Fletcher 5.1, Marion 5.0, Reiser 4.6. Pitchers, Cooper 6.8, Starr 4.4, Beazley 4.1, Vander Meer 3.8, Davis 3.6, French 3.2, Lohrman 2.8, Krist 2.6, Lanier 2.5.

Actual award voting: (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 Mort Cooper STL 13 263 336 0.78 | 103 19 0 .184 .402 0| 22-7 279 1.78 0.987 152
2 Enos Slaughter STL 6 200 336 0.60 | 591 188 13 .318 .906 9
3 Mel Ott NYG 4 190 336 0.57 | 549 162 30 .295 .912 6
4 Mickey Owen BRO 0 103 336 0.31 | 421 109 0 .259 .642 10
5 Johnny Mize NYG 0 97 336 0.29 | 541 165 26 .305 .901 3
6 Pete Reiser BRO 0 91 336 0.27 | 480 149 10 .310 .838 20
7 Marty Marion STL 1 81 336 0.24 | 485 134 0 .276 .718 8
8 Dolph Camilli BRO 0 42 336 0.12 | 524 132 26 .252 .843 10
9 Bob Elliott PIT 0 39 336 0.12 | 560 166 9 .296 .774 2
10 Claude Passeau CHC 0 33 336 0.10 | 105 19 2 .181 .429 0| 19-14 278 2.68 1.286 89

Top player: Enos Slaughter was 5th in OPS+, but it was close, and he was a far better defensive player than the guys ahead of him. Slaughter led in hits, total bases and triples, was 2nd in batting average and runs.
#1 Enos Slaughter, #2 Mel Ott, #3 Johnny Mize, #4 Bill Nicholson, #5 Stan Musial.

Top pitcher: Mort Cooper led in wins and ERA, 2nd in strikeouts.
#1 Mort Cooper, #2 Johnny Beazley, #3 Johnny Vander Meer, #4 Whit Wyatt, #5 Curt Davis.

Top rookie: Stan Musial hit .315 for the pennant winners, while Johnny Beazley was #2 in wins and ERA.

Top manager: Billy Southworth guided the Cardinals in to the winner's circle.

1942 American League

Some of the top players were off to military service. Hank Greenberg was discharged the day before Pearl Harbor was attacked, and reenlisted the day after. Bob Feller and Cecil Travis, as well as many lesser stars, shipped out. On the field, it was the Yankees again, by 9 games over Boston. The Browns climbed to a third place finish, and the other teams were below .500. In order: Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia.

Ted Williams won the Triple Crown, with a .356 average, 36 HR, and 137 RBI. He led in on-base, slugging, and OPS, in total bases and walks, and in runs with 141. Johnny Pesky led in hits with 205 and was second in average at .331. Chet Laabs was second in homers with 27, Joe DiMaggio second in RBI with 114. Don Kolloway had 40 doubles, Stan Spence 15 triples, and George Case 44 steals.

Tex Hughson led pitchers with 22 wins, followed by Tiny Bonham's 21. Ted Lyons had a 2.10 ERA, followed by Bonham at 2.27 and Spud Chandler at 2.38. Hughson and Bobo Newsom had 113 strikeouts, and Johnny Murphy 11 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 46, Charlie Keller (New York) 34, Joe DiMaggio (New York) 32, Joe Gordon (New York) 31, Les Fleming (Cleveland) and Stan Spence (Washington) 29, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky (Boston) 28, Bob Johnson (Philadelphia) 26, Phil Rizzuto (New York) and Walt Judnich (St. Louis) 25.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Tex Hughson (Boston) 28, Ted Lyons (Chicago) and Tiny Bonham (New York) 21, Johnny Humphries (Chicago) and Jim Bagby, Jr. (Cleveland) 20, Spud Chandler (New York) 19, Hal White (Detroit) 18, Al Benton and Hal Newhouser (Detroit) and Johnny Niggeling (St. Louis) 17.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement): Williams 11.0 (then off to war), Gordon 8.4, Keller 7.2, J. DiMaggio 6.8 (then into the military), Pesky (rookie, then into the military) and Rizzuto (then into the military) 5.4, Judnich 5.0 (then off to war), D. DiMaggio (then off to war) and Bobby Doerr (also Boston) 4.6, Fleming 4.1 (rookie, then off to war. It was his only year as an everyday player.), Harlond Clift (St. Louis) 3.8, Chet Laabs (St. Louis) 3.7, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 3.6, Johnson 3.3, Jeff Heath (Cleveland) 3.2.

Pitchers, Hughson 5.6, Bonham and White (rookie, career year) 4.4, Lyons 4.3 (last full season), Benton 4.2, Niggeling 3.8, Humphries 3.4 (career year), Tommy Bridges (Detroit) 3.3, Newhouser, Chandler 5.5, and Virgil Trucks (Detroit) 3.2, Hank Borowy (New York) 3.0.

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 Gordon NYY 12 270 336 0.80 | 538 173 18 .322 .900 12
2 Ted Williams BOS 9 249 336 0.74 | 522 186 36 .356 1.147 3
3 Johnny Pesky BOS 2 143 336 0.43 | 620 205 2 .331 .791 12
4 Vern Stephens SLB 1 140 336 0.42 | 575 169 14 .294 .774 1
5 Tiny Bonham NYY 0 102 336 0.30 | 74 9 0 .122 .288 0| 21-5 226 2.27 0.987 71
6 Tex Hughson BOS 0 92 336 0.27 | 102 18 0 .176 .442 0| 22-6 281 2.59 1.185 113 4
7 Joe DiMaggio NYY 0 86 336 0.26 | 610 186 21 .305 .875 4
8 Stan Spence WSH 0 65 336 0.19 | 629 203 4 .323 .817 5
9 Phil Marchildon PHA 0 39 336 0.12 | 84 20 0 .238 .535 0| 17-14 244 4.20 1.455 110 1
10 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 34 336 0.10 | 506 143 2 .283 .749 7

Top hitter: Ted Williams. Everyone thinks he was robbed in 1941, but he really was ripped off in 1942, winning the Triple Crown but losing the MVP in a close vote. Gordon was great, but Teddy Ballgame was better. Most of the top players were drafted or volunteered after this season. Many had cushy duty, and continued to play ball while in uniform, but some like Williams served combat duty.
#1 Ted Williams, #2 Joe Gordon, #3 Charlie Keller, #4 Joe DiMaggio, #5 Johnny Pesky.

Top pitcher: Tex Hughson. Without Bob Feller, this was a wide-open field. Hughson led in wins, tied for the lead in strikeouts, and was 2nd in ERA.
#1 Tex Hughson, #2 Tiny Bonham, #3 Ted Lyons, #4 Johnny Niggeling, #5 Spud Chandler.

Top rookie: Johnny Pesky delivered a .331 average and led the league in hits. Hal White turned in a solid year on the mound.

Top manager: Joe McCarthy pushing the buttons again.

1941 National League

Brooklyn's Dodgers won their first pennant in 21 years after a furious pennant race with the Cardinals, finishing 2.5 games ahead. The two teams were obviously the class of the league, trading the lead back and forth all season, and at no time did more than four games separate them. Two-time defending champ Cincinnati placed third. Pittsburgh was 4th, followed by New York, Chicago and Boston. Philadelphia brought up the rear, dropping 111 games. Brooklyn featured a four-man gang of Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, Dolph Camilli and Pete Reiser, and strong pitching from Kirby Higbe and Whit Wyatt.

Pete Reiser won the batting title at .343, and also led in slugging and OPS. He just couldn't break the habit of running into outfield walls. Reiser led in runs with 117 and triples with 17. Elbie Fletcher led in on-base, Stan Hack in hits with 186, Reiser and Johnny Mize tied with 39 doubles, Danny Murtaugh led with 18 steals. Dolph Camilli had the finest season of his career, leading the NL with 34 homers and 120 RBI.

For the pitchers, Kirby Higbe and Whit Wyatt won 22 games each, while Elmer Riddle and Bucky Walters won 19. Riddle had a 2.24 ERA with Wyatt second at 2.34 and Ernie White third at 2.40. Johnny Vander Meer had 202 strikeouts with Wyatt second again at 176.

Win Shares leaders, players; Pete Reiser (Brooklyn) 34, Stan Hack (Chicago) 30, Dolph Camilli (Brooklyn) 29, Elbie Fletcher (Pittsburgh) 28, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn), Mel Ott (New York) and Johnny Mize (St. Louis) 26, Joe Medwick (Brooklyn), Lonnie Frey (Cincinnati) and Vince DiMaggio (Pittsburgh) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Whit Wyatt (Brooklyn) 28, Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 27, Elmer Riddle (Cincinnati) 26, Ernie White (St. Louis) 22, Kirby Higbe (Brooklyn) 21, Johnny Vander Meer (Cincinnati) and Lon Warneke (St. Louis) 19.

WARP3 scores: Reiser 8.2 (career year of an injury-riddled career), Camilli 6.8, Hack 6.4, Fletcher 6.3, Walker 5.9, Mize 5.4, Medwick 5.0, Arky Vaughan (Pittsburgh) 4.9, Ott 4.5, Bill Nicholson (Chicago) 4.2, Frey and Jimmy Brown (St. Louis) 4.1, DiMaggio 4.0.

Pitchers, Wyatt 6.7 (career year), Walters 5.6, Riddle 5.1(rookie), White 4.4 (rookie, career year), Vander Meer 4.0, Jim Tobin (Boston) 3.9, Hal Schumacher (New York) 3.8, Higbe and Warneke (last good year) 3.6.

WAR leaders, position players: Reiser 7.7, Camilli 7.1, Fletcher 5.9, Hack 5.8, Mize 5.6, Walker 5.5, Ott 5.0, Medwick 4.6, Brown 4.2, Jurges and V. DiMaggio 4.0. Pitchers: Wyatt 6.7, Walters 5.6, Riddle 5.1, White 4.4, Vander Meer 4.0, Tobin 3.9, Schumacher 3.8, Higbe and Warneke 3.6, Derringer and Melton 3.2.

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 Dolph Camilli BRO 19 300 336 0.89 | 529 151 34 .285 .962 3
2 Pete Reiser BRO 2 183 336 0.54 | 536 184 14 .343 .964 4
3 Whit Wyatt BRO 0 151 336 0.45 | 109 26 3 .239 .639 0| 22-10 288 2.34 1.058 176 1
4 Jimmy Brown STL 1 107 336 0.32 | 549 168 3 .306 .769 2
5 Elmer Riddle CIN 0 98 336 0.29 | 71 16 0 .225 .538 0| 19-4 217 2.24 1.103 80 1
6 Ernie White STL 0 77 336 0.23 | 79 15 0 .190 .460 0| 17-7 210 2.40 1.138 117 2
7 Kirby Higbe BRO 0 64 336 0.19 | 112 21 0 .188 .448 0| 22-9 298 3.14 1.262 121 3
8 Johnny Hopp STL 0 61 336 0.18 | 445 135 4 .303 .813 15
9 Johnny Mize STL 0 48 336 0.14 | 473 150 16 .317 .941 4
10 Dixie Walker BRO 1 34 336 0.10 | 531 165 9 .311 .843 4

Top player: Pete Reiser. Not sure why the hustling batting champ didn't win the vote, but the veteran HR and RBI champ Camilli did. This was the only year Reiser could stay healthy the whole season. It was pretty close, but Reiser's defensive value in CF puts him over the top.
#1 Pete Reiser, #2 Dolph Camilli, #3 Stan Hack, #4 Elbie Fletcher, #5 Dixie Walker, #6 Johnny Mize.

Top pitcher: Whit Wyatt had the year of his lifetime, tying teammate Higbe for the lead in wins and placing #2 in ERA and strikeouts.
#1 Whit Wyatt, #2 Bucky Walters, #3 Elmer Riddle, #4 Ernie White, #5 Johnny Vander Meer.

Top rookie: Elmer Riddle, just barely a rookie, had a strong season.

Top manager: Leo Durocher brought the Dodgers home in front.

1941 American League

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.

1940 National League

The Cincinnati Reds won their second straight pennant, and second ever World Series. This was their first untainted World's Championship, as the first time had been over the 1919 Black Sox. The Reds outpaced Brooklyn by 12 games. St. Louis was 3rd and Pittsburgh 4th, followed by Chicago, New York, and Boston. Philadelphia lost 103 games to finish last. Cincinnati won with pitching and defense, a hallmark of manager Bill McKechnie, but would become infected with another McKechnie hallmark, the sacrifice of too much offense to get defense. The offense was already slipping.

Debs Garms ran away with the batting title at .355: Ernie Lombardi was second at .319. Elbie Fletcher led in on-base, while Johnny Mize topped the slugging and OPS boards. Mize led with 43 HR and 137 RBI, and also in total bases. Arky Vaughan led with 113 runs and also 15 triples. Stan Hack and Frank McCormick tied with 191 hits, while Lonny Frey stole 22 bases.

Bucky Walters led with 22 wins and a 2.48 ERA, while Kirby Higbe led with 137 strikeouts. Claude Passeau was second in strikeouts and ERA and tied for second in wins. The league lead in saves was seven.

Win Shares leaders, players; Johnny Mize (St. Louis) 33, Arky Vaughan (Pittsburgh) 31, Frank McCormick and Billy Werber (Cincinnati) 27, Elbie Fletcher (Pittsburgh) 26, Dolph Camilli (Brooklyn) and Stan Hack (Chicago) 25, Chet Ross (Boston), Lonnie Frey (Cincinnati) and Mel Ott (New York) 24, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn), Terry Moore and Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 32, Claude Passeau (Chicago) 28, Paul Derringer (Cincinnati) 24, Kirby Higbe (Philadelphia) 21, Hugh Mulcahy (Philadelphia) 19, Dick Errickson (Boston), Larry French (Chicago), Junior Thompson and Jim Turner (Cincinnati), and Lon Warneke (Chicago) 18.

WAR scores: Vaughan 7.4, Mize 7.0, Frey 6.6, McCormick 6.0, Fletcher 5.5, Hack 5.4, Camilli, Ott, and Eddie Miller (Boston) 5.1, Werber 5.0 (last good year), Moore (career year) and Debs Garms (Pittsburgh) 4.3, Ross 4.1 (rookie, only year as regular), Slaughter and Jimmy Gleeson (Chicago) 4.0.

Pitchers, Walters 6.4, Passeau 6.2 (career year), French 4.5, Derringer 4.3, Rip Sewell (Pittsburgh) 4.2, Errickson 4.1 (career year), Higbe, Warneke, Whit Wyatt and Freddie Fitzsimmons (both Brooklyn) and Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 3.7.

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 Frank McCormick CIN 16 274 336 0.82 | 618 191 19 .309 .850 2
2 Johnny Mize STL 6 209 336 0.62 | 579 182 43 .314 1.039 7
3 Bucky Walters CIN 0 146 336 0.43 | 117 24 1 .205 .488 2| 22-10 305 2.48 1.092 115
4 Paul Derringer CIN 1 121 336 0.36 | 108 18 0 .167 .370 0| 20-12 297 3.06 1.105 115
5 Freddie Fitzsimmons BRO 0 84 336 0.25 | 47 5 0 .106 .304 0| 16-2 134 2.81 1.080 35 1
6 Dixie Walker BRO 0 71 336 0.21 | 556 171 6 .308 .793 3
7 Harry Danning NYG 0 64 336 0.19 | 524 157 13 .300 .803 3
8 Stan Hack CHC 0 61 336 0.18 | 603 191 8 .317 .834 21
9 Ernie Lombardi CIN 1 38 336 0.11 | 376 120 14 .319 .871 0
10 Billy Werber CIN 0 36 336 0.11 | 584 162 12 .277 .777 16

Top player: Johnny Mize led in homers and OPS by large margins, and also led in RBI. He was 5th in average.
#1 Johnny Mize, #2 Arky Vaughan, #3 Frank McCormick, #4 Billy Werber, #5 Stan Hack.

Top pitcher: Bucky Walters again, a big reason the Reds won these two pennants.
#1 Bucky Walters, #2 Claude Passeau, #3 Paul Derringer, #4 Lon Warneke, #5 Whit Wyatt.

Top rookie: Chet Ross had a strong rookie year for Boston but could never repeat it.

Top manager: Bill McKechnie, but his style would soon overwhelm the team.

1940 American League

The Detroit Tigers won the pennant, the only interruption of the Yankees' run of six pennants in seven years. It wasn't easy, as this was the best AL pennant race in years, with the Indians one game back and the Yankees two games back. Chicago and Boston tied for 4th, just 8 behind. Boston led the early going, then Detroit and Cleveland swapped the lead back and forth. The Yankees made a run at the end. St. Louis and Washington were also-rans, while Philadelphia lost 100. The Yankee offense struggled as the loss of Lou Gehrig was felt, especially when Bill Dickey got old and Frankie Crosetti hit just .194. The pitching also struggled a bit.

Joe DiMaggio won another batting title at .352, edging Luke Appling at .348 and Ted Williams at .344. Williams led in on-base, while Hank Greenberg led in slugging and OPS, as well as total bases, doubles (50), home runs (41) and RBI (150). Williams led with 134 runs. Playing in the toughest hitters' park, DiMaggio led in OPS+. Barney McCoskey led with 19 triples and George Case with 35 steals.

Bob Feller dominated the pitching categories again with another Triple Crown. He had 27 wins, 261 strikeouts, and a 2.61 ERA. Bobo Newsom was second in all categories with 21 wins, 164 strikeouts, and a 2.83 ERA. Al Benton led with 17 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Hank Greenberg (Detroit) and Joe DiMaggio (New York) 31, Ted Williams (Boston) and Lou Boudreau (Cleveland) 30, Luke Appling (Chicago) 28, Hal Trosky (Cleveland) 27, Rudy York (Detroit) and Joe Gordon (New York) 26, Joe Cronin and Jimmie Foxx (Boston), Barney McCosky (Detroit) and Charlie Keller (New York) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Feller (Cleveland) 34, Bobo Newsom (Detroit) 26, Johnny Rigney (Chicago) 24, Eldon Auker (St. Louis) 22, Dutch Leonard and Ken Chase (Washington) 20, Thornton Lee (Chicago) 19, Eddie Smith (Chicago) and Schoolboy Rowe (Detroit) 18.

WAR scores: DiMaggio 7.3, Greenberg 6.4, Williams 6.0, Gordon 5.8, Appling 5.6, Boudreau (first year as regular) and Keller 5.4, Foxx 4.6, York 4.4, McCosky 4.0, Harlond Clift (St. Louis) 3.9, Joe Kuhel (Chicago) 3.5, Trosky (last good year), Frankie Hayes (Philadelphia) and Charlie Gehringer (Detroit) 3.4.

Pitchers, Feller 9.4, Newsom 7.3, Rigney 6.0, Auker 5.0 (last good year), Leonard and Rowe 4.9, Chase (career year) and Tommy Bridges (Detroit) 4.8, Lee and Johnny Babich (Philadelphia) 4.4, Smith 3.9.

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 Hank Greenberg DET 16 292 336 0.87 | 573 195 41 .340 1.103 6
2 Bob Feller CLE 6 222 336 0.66 | 115 18 2 .157 .481 0| 27-11 320 2.61 1.133 261 4
3 Joe DiMaggio NYY 0 151 336 0.45 | 508 179 31 .352 1.051 1
4 Bobo Newsom DET 1 120 336 0.36 | 107 23 0 .215 .484 0| 21-5 264 2.83 1.269 164
5 Lou Boudreau CLE 1 119 336 0.35 | 627 185 9 .295 .814 6
6 Jimmie Foxx BOS 0 110 336 0.33 | 515 153 36 .297 .993 4
7 Schoolboy Rowe DET 0 62 336 0.18 | 67 18 1 .269 .752 1| 16-3 169 3.46 1.260 61
8 Rudy York DET 0 61 336 0.18 | 588 186 33 .316 .993 3
9 Rip Radcliff SLB 0 55 336 0.16 | 584 200 7 .342 .858 6
10 Luke Appling CHW 0 54 336 0.16 | 566 197 0 .348 .862 3

Top player: Hank Greenberg. Almost a dead heat between Greenberg and DiMaggio, but Greenberg holds the trump card of the pennant-winning team.
#1 Hank Greenberg, #2 Joe DiMaggio, #3 Ted Williams, #4 Lou Boudreau, #5 Luke Appling.

Top pitcher: Bob Feller by a margin rarely seen. Triple crown winner.
#1 Bob Feller, #2 Bobo Newsom, #3 Johnny Rigney, #4 Elden Auker, #5 Dutch Leonard.

Best rookie: Walt Judnich edges out Dom DiMaggio. Both lost significant parts of their careers, and a shot at the Hall of Fame, to war service. Judnich hit .303 with 24 HR and 89 RBI for St. Louis, and DiMaggio hit .301 and played great defense for Boston.

Best manager: Del Baker brought the Tigers home in front after a terrific pennant race.

1939 National League

The Cincinnati Reds won their first pennant in 20 years by beating out the Cardinals; the margin was 4.5 games. The Reds had a comfortable lead for much of the summer, with the Cardinals making a run at the end. Brooklyn was third, Chicago fourth, and New York 5th. Pittsburgh and Boston trailed, while Philadelphia finished last, losing 106 times. Cincy and St. Louis fought it out, with the best pitching defeating the best hitting. But each team was 2nd in the other's specialty.

Johnny Mize won the batting title at .349, and also led with 28 home runs. He led the league in slugging, OPS, and total bases as well. Billy Werber led with 115 runs, Frank McCormick with 209 hits and 128 RBI. Enos Slaughter had 52 doubles, Billy Herman 18 triples, while Stan Hack and Lee Handley tied with 17 steals.

Bucky Walters won a pitching Triple Crown, leading the league with 27 wins and a 2.29 ERA, and tying Claude Passeau with 117 strikeouts. Paul Derringer had 25 wins, Curt Davis 22, Luke Hamlin 20. Bob Bowman had a 2.60 ERA, Carl Hubbell 2.75.

Win Shares leaders, players; Johnny Mize (St. Louis) 33, Dolph Camilli (Brooklyn) and Mel Ott (New York) 28, Harry Danning (New York) 27, Billy Herman (Chicago), Lonnie Frey, Ival Goodman, Frank McCormick, and Billy Werber (all Cincinnati) and Arky Vaughan (Pittsburgh) 25, Joe Medwick (St. Louis) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 38, Paul Derringer (Cincinnati) 26, Curt Davis (St. Louis) 22, Hugh Casey (Brooklyn) and Claude Passeau (Philadelphia/Chicago) 21, Bill Lee (Chicago) 20, Luke Hamlin (Brooklyn) and Bob Bowman (St. Louis) 19, Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 18.

WAR scores: Mize 7.4, Camilli 6.2, Frey 6.0, Ott 5.8, Goodman 5.4, McCormick and Billy Myers (Cincinnati) 5.2, Vaughan 4.9, Werber 4.5, Herman 4.3, Danning (career year), Max West (Boston) and Billy Jurges (New York) 4.2, Medwick 4.1.

Pitchers, Walters 7.7 (career year), Passeau 5.3, Derringer 4.8, Bowman 4.6 (rookie, only good year), Lee 4.5, Casey 4.4 (rookie), Hamlin 4.1 (career year), Larry French (Chicago) 3.7, Junior Thompson (Cincinnati) 3.2, Cooper 3.1 (rookie).

WAR, position players: Mize 7.9, Camilli 6.8, Frey 6.2, Ott 5.9, Goodman and Myers 5.5, McCormick 5.4, Vaughan 5.3, Werber 4.8, Medwick 4.7, West 4.6, Herman 4.4, Slaughter 4.3. Pitchers: Walters 7.7, Passeau 5.3, Derringer 4.8, Bowman 4.6, Lee 4.5, Casey 4.4, Hamlin 4.1, French 3.7, Thompson 3.2, Cooper 3.1.

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 Bucky Walters CIN 18 303 336 0.90 | 120 39 1 .325 .790 1| 27-11 319 2.29 1.125 137
2 Johnny Mize STL 1 178 336 0.53 | 564 197 28 .349 1.070 0
3 Paul Derringer CIN 2 174 336 0.52 | 110 23 0 .209 .453 0| 25-7 301 2.93 1.183 128
4 Frank McCormick CIN 2 159 336 0.47 | 630 209 18 .332 .869 1
5 Curt Davis STL 0 106 336 0.32 | 105 40 1 .381 .855 0| 22-16 248 3.63 1.319 70 7
6 Jimmy Brown STL 1 99 336 0.29 | 645 192 3 .298 .719 4
7 Joe Medwick STL 0 81 336 0.24 | 606 201 14 .332 .886 6
8 Leo Durocher BRO 0 52 336 0.15 | 390 108 1 .277 .695 2
9 Harry Danning NYG 0 33 336 0.10 | 520 163 16 .313 .838 4
10 Luke Hamlin BRO 0 32 336 0.10 | 103 13 1 .126 .319 0| 20-13 270 3.64 1.146 88

Top hitter: Johnny Mize, the top man on the top offense. If the Cards win the pennant, he wins the MVP. The pitcher from the pennant winners beat him out. Mize led the league in average and homers, and was 3rd in RBI.
#1 Johnny Mize, #2 Dolph Camilli, #3 Mel Ott, #4 Lonny Frey, #5 Ival Goodman, #6 Frank McCormick.

Top pitcher: Bucky Walters swept the Reds along to the pennant, winning the pitchers' triple crown.
#1 Bucky Walters, #2 Paul Derringer, #3 Claude Passeau, #4 Bill Lee, #5 Hugh Casey.

Top rookie: Hugh Casey of Brooklyn was quite effective, beating out one-year wonder and reliever Bowman. Mort Cooper would have the best career.

Top manager: Bill McKechnie got the Reds back to the top.

1939 American League

The Yankees won their fourth straight pennant and then won their fourth straight World Series by sweeping the Reds. They took the pennant by a 17-game margin, with Lou Gehrig forced to the sidelines by the disease that would take his life and now bears his name. It was easy to believe that New York would continue to win the Series for the foreseeable future. Boston finished second, followed by Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit, all over .500. Washington was mediocre, Philadelphia lost 97 games, and St. Louis lost 111.

Joe DiMaggio won the batting title with a .381 average. Veteran Jimmie Foxx was second at .360, and led in other percentage categories; on-base, slugging, and OPS. Yankees third baseman and leadoff man Red Rolfe led in runs with 139, hits with 213, and doubles with 46. Foxx led in home runs with 35, and rookie teammate Ted Williams led in RBI with 145. DiMaggio had 126, Bob Johnson 114, Hank Greenberg 112. George Case led with 51 steals.

Veteran Lefty Grove led in ERA with a 2.51 mark, but phenom Bob Feller led in innings, wins with 24 and strikeouts with 246. Feller and Bobo Newsom tied for the lead in complete games, while Red Ruffing led with five shutouts. Johnny Murphy led with 19 saves, edging Clint Brown at 18.

Win Shares leaders, players; Joe DiMaggio (New York) 34, Ted Williams (Boston) 32, Jimmie Foxx (Boston) and Red Rolfe (New York) 30, Bob Johnson (Philadelphia) 29, Bill Dickey (New York) 27, Ken Keltner (Cleveland) 26, Joe Gordon and George Selkirk (New York) 25, Luke Appling (Chicago) and Hank Greenberg (Detroit) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Feller (Cleveland) 32, Bobo Newsom (St. Louis/Detroit) 26, Lefty Grove (Boston) 23, Red Ruffing (New York) 22, Dutch Leonard (Washington) 21, Ted Lyons and Johnny Rigney (Chicago) 20, Tommy Bridges (Detroit) 19, Thornton Lee (Chicago) and Al Milnar (Cleveland) 18.

WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: DiMaggio 8.9, Foxx 7.1, Rolfe 6.9, Williams 6.8 (rookie), Gordon 6.5, Johnson 6.0 (best year), Selkirk 5.9 (best year), Dickey (last great season) and Buddy Lewis (Washington) 5.3, Greenberg 5.2, Hal Trosky (Cleveland) and Charlie Keller (New York) 5.1, Keltner (breakthrough year) and Charlie Gehringer (Detroit) 4.6, Appling 4.3.

Pitchers, Feller 8.6, Newsom 7.5, Grove 6.5 (last strong year), Ruffing 5.1 (last 20-win season), Bridges 4.8, Leonard 4.6, Mel Harder (Cleveland) 4.5, Lyons 4.4, Rigney 4.3, Milnar 3.9 (best year), Lefty Gomez (New York) 3.8, Lee 3.7.

WAR, position players: DiMaggio 9.1, Foxx 8.0, Williams 7.9, Gordon and Rolfe 7.3, Johnson 7.2, Greenberg 6.6, Selkirk 6.4, Lewis 6.2, Dickey and Trosky 5.9, Keller and Keltner 5.5. Pitchers: Feller 8.6, Newsom 7.5, Grove 6.5, Ruffing 5.1, Bridges 4.8, Leonard 4.6, Harder 4.5, Lyons 4.4, Rigney 4.3, Milnar 3.9, Gomez 3.8, Lee 3.7.

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 15 280 336 0.83 | 462 176 30 .381 1.119 3
2 Jimmie Foxx BOS 1 170 336 0.51 | 467 168 35 .360 1.158 4| 0-0 1 0.00 0.000 1
3 Bob Feller CLE 3 155 336 0.46 | 99 21 0 .212 .599 0| 24-9 297 2.85 1.244 246 1
4 Ted Williams BOS 0 126 336 0.38 | 565 185 31 .327 1.045 2
5 Red Ruffing NYY 0 116 336 0.35 | 114 35 1 .307 .689 1| 21-7 233 2.93 1.226 95
6 Bill Dickey NYY 3 110 336 0.33 | 480 145 24 .302 .915 5
7 Dutch Leonard WSH 1 71 336 0.21 | 95 21 0 .221 .482 0| 20-8 269 3.54 1.233 88
8 Bob Johnson PHA 0 52 336 0.15 | 544 184 23 .338 .993 15
9 Joe Gordon NYY 0 43 336 0.13 | 567 161 28 .284 .876 11
10 Mike Kreevich CHW 1 38 336 0.11 | 541 175 5 .323 .826 23

Top player: Joe DiMaggio, as the voters were right on the money. Joe D. was right behind Foxx in OPS, and was also one of the greats with the glove.
#1 Joe DiMaggio, #2 Jimmie Foxx, #3 Ted Williams, #4 Red Rolfe, #5 Bob Johnson, #6 Bill Dickey.

Top pitcher: Bob Feller led in wins and strikeouts and was 3rd in ERA, and threw a lot more innings than the guys ahead of him.
#1 Bob Feller, #2 Bobo Newsom, #3 Lefty Grove, #4 Red Ruffing, #5 Dutch Leonard.

Top rookie: Ted Williams posted one of the great rookie seasons ever.

Top manager: Joe McCarthy guided the Yankees to the pinnacle again.