The 1944 major league baseball season began on April 18, 1944. The regular season ended on October 1, with the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. In an all-St. Louis postseason, the postseason began with Game 1 of the 41st World Series on October 4 and ended with Game 6 on October 9. The Cardinals defeated the Browns, four games to two, capturing their fifth 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 12th Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 11 at the Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The National League won, 7âÂÂ1.
The season is notable for greatly relaxing restrictions on night games.
This was Kenesaw Mountain Landis' last season of his 24-year tenure as commissioner, following his death in November. He would be succeeded by Happy Chandler.
During the final days of the 1943 Winter Meetings prior to the season's start, commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis (who, according to a number of baseball authors, has had racism ascribed to him for actively perpetuating the baseball color line) invited singer Paul Robeson, and three black journalists, Ira F. Lewis of the Pittsburgh Courier, John H. Sengstacke of The Chicago Defender, and Howard Murphy of the Baltimore Afro-American, to plead their case in favor of integration in baseball, marking the first time a black person had spoken directly with the leaders of Organized Baseball about this topic. In response, Landis read a joint American League-National League statement stating that "There is no rule, formal or informal, or any understanding â unwritten, subterranean or sub-anything â against the hiring of Negro players by the teams of organized baseball."
However, it would not be until after Landis' death in November 1944 that baseball would begin to move towards breaking the color line. With the support from incoming commissioner Happy Chandler, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson in late-October to their top minor-league affiliate, the Montreal Royals, eventually breaking the major-league color barrier following his promotion to the majors in .
The 1944 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 took place on April 18, featuring fourteen teams. The final day of the regular season was on October 1, which saw all sixteen teams play, continuing the trend since the previous season. The World Series took place between October 4 and October 9.
A unique three-way exhibition game, formatted as a round-robin, was held at the Polo Grounds, which saw the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New York Yankees play a game on June 26 to sell war bonds to aid in the U.S. war effort in World War II, in which they would raise $6 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The Dodgers defeating the Yankees and Giants, winning the game 5âÂÂ1âÂÂ0, respectively. Including a $50 million donation from New York City, a total of $56 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) was raised or the war effort.
The 1944 season saw the following rule change:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
11 tie games (3 in AL, 8 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 4 and ended on October 9 with the St. Louis Cardinals defeating the St. Louis Browns in the 1944 World Series in six games.
<section begin=Bracket/> <section end=Bracket/>
Over 78 home games, the Cleveland Indians played 43 games at Cleveland Stadium and 35 games at League Park. All Sunday home games took place at Cleveland Stadium. All Saturday home games took place at League Park. This would be the 10th of 12 seasons since that saw the Indians play at both venues.
Carl Hubbell had his No. 11 retired by the New York Giants. This was the first number retired by the team.