The 1949 major league baseball season began on April 18, 1949. The regular season ended on October 2, with the Brooklyn Dodgers 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 46th World Series on October 5 and ended with Game 5 on October 9. In the third iteration of this Subway Series World Series matchup, the Yankees defeated the Dodgers, four games to one, capturing their 12th championship in franchise history, since their previous in , and their first in a five-run World Series. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Cleveland Indians from the season.
The 16th Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 12 at Ebbets Field in New York, New York, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The American League won, 11âÂÂ7, for their fourth straight win.
With the Negro National League folding and the Negro American League losing their major-league status prior to the 1949 season, as per MLB's 2020 designation of Negro Leagues, the National and American Leagues remain as the sole major-leagues of baseball, a fact which continues to the present day.
On July 8, the New York Giants become the fourth team in professional baseball to break the color line when they fielded Hank Thompson (who previously integrated the St. Louis Browns, becoming the only player to integrate two teams) and Monte Irvin.
The 1949 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 four teams. The final day of the regular season was on October 2, which saw all sixteen teams play, continuing the trend from . The World Series took place between October 5 and October 9.
The 1949 season saw the following rule changes:
8 tie games (2 in AL, 6 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 9 with the New York Yankees defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1949 World Series in five games.
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