1940 Major League Baseball season

The 1940 major league baseball season began on April 16, 1940. The regular season ended on September 29, with the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 37th World Series on October 2 and ended with Game 7 on October 8. The Reds defeated the Tigers, four games to three, capturing their second championship in franchise history, since their previous in . Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the New York Yankees from the season.

The eighth Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 9 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri, hosted by the St. Louis Cardinals. The National League won, 4–0.

Schedule

The 1940 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the season (except for ) and would be used until in the American League and in the National League.

Opening Day, April 16, featured all sixteen teams, the first since the season. The final day of the regular season was on September 29, which also saw all sixteen teams play, the first since the season. This was the first time since that all sixteen teams played their first and last games on the same days. The World Series took place between October 2 and October 8.

Rule changes

The 1940 season saw the following rule changes:

• The scoring sacrifice fly, exempting a batter from a time at bat when a runner scored after the putout on a fly ball, was eliminated after being reimplemented the previous season, given that sacrifices nearly doubled. The sacrifice fly would be reimplemented in .
• When a run scores as result of a batter hitting into a double play, he is no longer awarded a run batted in.
• In the American League, a rule attempting to curb the four-consecutive World Series winning New York Yankees was implemented, limiting any defending champion team from trading with other American League teams, except through waivers. A champion team could purchase a player outright only when the other seven teams waived such transaction. The rule would eventually be repealed following the season.

Teams

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

Standings

American League

National League

Tie games

8 tie games (3 in AL, 5 in NL), which are not factored into winning percentage or games behind (and were often replayed again) occurred throughout the season.

American League

• Chicago White Sox, 1
• Cleveland Indians, 1
• Detroit Tigers, 1
• New York Yankees, 1
• St. Louis Browns, 2

National League

• Brooklyn Dodgers, 3
• Cincinnati Reds, 2
• Pittsburgh Pirates, 2
• St. Louis Cardinals, 3

Postseason

The postseason began on October 2 and ended on October 8 with the Cincinnati Reds defeating the Detroit Tigers in the 1940 World Series in seven games.

Bracket

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Managerial changes

Off-season

In-season

League leaders

American League

¹ American League Triple Crown pitching winner

National League

Milestones

Batters

Cycles

• Harry Craft (CIN):
• Craft hit for his first cycle and seventh in franchise history, on June 8 against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• Harry Danning (NYG):
• Danning hit for his first cycle and 12th in franchise history, on June 15 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• Johnny Mize (STL):
• Mize hit for his first cycle and ninth in franchise history, in game one of a doubleheader on July 13 against the New York Giants.
• Buddy Rosar (NYY):
• Rosar hit for his first cycle and ninth in franchise history, on July 19 against the Cleveland Indians.
• Joe Cronin (BOS):
• Cronin hit for his second cycle and seventh in franchise history, on August 2 against the Detroit Tigers.
• Joe Gordon (NYY):
• Gordon hit for his first cycle and 10th in franchise history, on September 8 against the Boston Red Sox.

Other batting accomplishments

• Jimmie Foxx (BOS):
• Became the second player in Major League history to hit 500 home runs in game one of a doubleheader on September 24 against the Philadelphia Athletics.

Pitchers

No-hitters

• Bob Feller (CLE):
• Feller threw his first career no-hitter and sixth no-hitter in franchise history, by defeating the Chicago White Sox 1–0 on April 16. Feller walked five and struck out eight.
• Tex Carleton (BRO):
• Carleton threw his first career no-hitter and eighth no-hitter in franchise history, by defeating the Cincinnati Reds 3–0 on April 30. Carleton walked two and struck out four.

Awards and honors

Regular season

Other awards

Home field attendance

Venues

Over 82 home games, the Cleveland Indians played 49 games at Cleveland Stadium and 33 games at League Park. All Sunday home games took place at Cleveland Stadium. This would be the 6th of 12 seasons since that saw the Indians play at both venues.

Retired numbers

• Willard Hershberger had his No. 5 retired by the Cincinnati Reds, though his number would enter circulation just two years later. His number would later be re-retired to honor Johnny Bench in . This was the first number retired by the team.

See also

• 1940 in baseball (Events, Births, Deaths)

References

External links

• 1940 Major League Schedule at Baseball Reference