The 1943 major league baseball season began on April 20, 1943. The regular season ended on October 3, with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 40th World Series on October 5 and ended with Game 5 on October 11. In the fourth iteration of this World Series matchup (and a rematch of the previous year), the Yankees defeated the Cardinals, four games to one, capturing their tenth championship in franchise history, since their previous in . Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the St. Louis Cardinals from the season.
The 11th Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 13 at the Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Philadelphia Athletics. The American League won, 5âÂÂ3. This was also the first All-Star Game held at night.
In order to conserve rail transport during World War II, the 1943 spring training sites was limited to an area east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River. Spring training sites included the Chicago White Sox in French Lick, Indiana; the Washington Senators in College Park, Maryland; and the Yankees in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
The 1943 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.
American League Opening Day took place on April 20 with a game between the Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators, while National League Opening Day took place on the following day, featuring four teams. This was the first season since that both leagues opened on different days. The final day of the regular season was on October 3, which saw all sixteen teams play, also the first time since . The World Series took place between October 5 and October 11.
The 1943 season saw the following rule changes:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
11 tie games (4 in AL, 7 in NL), which are not factored into winning percentage or games behind (and were often replayed again) occurred throughout the season.
The postseason began on October 5 and ended on October 11 with the New York Yankees defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1943 World Series in five games.
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Over 77 home games, the Cleveland Indians played 48 games at Cleveland Stadium and 29 games at League Park. All Sunday home games took place at Cleveland Stadium. This would be the 9th of 12 seasons since that saw the Indians play at both venues.