Headline events of the year The Chicago Cubs became the first Major League Baseball franchise to install a music organ for fan entertainment. It was one of the only innovations ever to be introduced at Wrigley Field, which 47 years later earned a backward reputation as the last ballpark to install lights. Joe DiMaggio hits in 56 consecutive games. After being hitless in the 57th game, he hit safely in 16 more consecutive games for a streak of 72 of 73 games. Ted Williams ended the season with a .406 batting average. No hitter (qualifying for the batting title) has hit over .400 since the 1941 season.
Champions Major League Baseball World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn Dodgers (4–1) All-Star Game, July 8 at Briggs Stadium: American League, 7–5
Other champions IV Amateur World Series: Venezuela Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: East, 8–3
Awards and honors MLB Most Valuable Player Award Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees, OF Dolph Camilli, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1B The Sporting News Most Valuable Player Award Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees, OF Dolph Camilli, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1B The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Ted Williams (AL) – OF, Boston Red Sox The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Billy Southworth (NL) – St. Louis Cardinals
Statistical leaders Any team shown in indicates a previous team a player was on during the season. Any team shown in italics indicates a team a player was on from a different league. Any stat from said different league is not calculated to determine the league leader.
American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Ted Williams (BOS) .406 Pete Reiser (BRO) .343 Lyman Bostock (BBB) .466 Monte Irvin (NE) .387 HR Ted Williams (BOS) 37 Dolph Camilli (BRO) 34 Willard Brown (KCM)Ted Strong (KCM) 6 Buck Leonard (HOM) 13 RBI Joe DiMaggio (NYY) 125 Dolph Camilli (BRO) 120 Willard Brown (KCM) 32 Bill Hoskins (BEG/) 50 W Bob Feller (CLE) 25 Kirby Higbe (BRO)Whit Wyatt (BRO) 22 Hilton Smith (KCM) 9 Terris McDuffie (HOM) 11 ERA Thornton Lee (CWS) 2.37 Elmer Riddle (CIN) 2.24 Gready McKinnis (BBB) 1.04 Bill Byrd (BEG) 2.23 K Bob Feller (CLE) 260 Johnny Vander Meer (CIN) 202 Hilton Smith (KCM) 57 Dave Barnhill (NYC) 109
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
Negro league baseball final standings All Negro leagues standings below are per MLB and Seamheads. Negro American League final standings
Negro National League final standings
Negro National League postseason Homestead Grays over New York Cubans (3–1)
Independent teams final standings The Negro American League All Star team played against two league teams. vs. All Teams Independent Clubs W L T Pct. GBNAL All Stars110—
Events January
January 4 – Clark Griffith, president of the Washington Senators, sells the contract of right-hander Joe Haynes to the Chicago White Sox. Haynes, 23, is engaged to Griffith's niece Thelma; the couple will marry in the fall. January 8 – The Baseball Writers' Association of America announces in The Sporting News the poll results for its 1940 Major League All-Star team: Hank Greenberg‚ LF; Joe DiMaggio‚ CF; Ted Williams‚ RF; Frank McCormick‚ 1B; Joe Gordon‚ 2B; Luke Appling‚ SS; Stan Hack‚ 3B; Harry Danning‚ C. The pitchers are Bob Feller‚ Bucky Walters‚ and Paul Derringer. January 21 – Bob Feller signs with the Cleveland Indians for a reported $30,000. January 31 – The Brooklyn Dodgers sign .340 lifetime hitter and future Hall of Famer Paul Waner; "Big Poison," 37, had been released by his original employers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, last December 5 after 15 seasons, 2,154 games and 2,868 hits.
February February 3 – The Boston Red Sox sell the contract of right-hander Joe Heving to the Cleveland Indians. Primarily a relief pitcher, the 40-year-old Heving went 12–7 (4.01) with 21 games finished and three saves for the 1940 Bosox. February 4 – Pitcher Tot Pressnell changes address for the third time since the end of the 1940 season when the Cincinnati Reds sell his contract to the Chicago Cubs. Pressnell, 34, had previously been dealt by the Brooklyn Dodgers to the St. Louis Cardinals in November, then to Cincinnati in December. He'll get into 29 games (28 in relief) for the 1941 Cubs. February 7 – The Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians exchange right-handed pitchers, with Chicago obtaining Johnny Humphries, 25, for relief pitcher Clint Brown, 37. February 8 – With Boston Bees majority owner Charles F. Adams ordered by Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis to dispose of his stock in the franchise—among Adams' holdings is race track Suffolk Downs—a surprise candidate offers to buy the National League club: its field manager, Casey Stengel. The 50-year-old Stengel, a successful oil industry investor off the baseball diamond, has teamed with Brooklyn jewelry manufacturer Max C. Meyer and enters the bidding to acquire Adams' controlling interest. February 19 – The Cleveland Indians pay ousted manager Ossie Vitt a $2,500 bonus on the orders of the Commissioner's office. Vitt, fired last October after missing the American League pennant by a single game and key players' embarrassing "Crybaby Rebellion" against his managerial regime, was due the bonus because of an attendance clause in his contract. February 25 – Days after the start of spring training, the New York Yankees send Babe Dahlgren to the Boston Bees in a cash transaction. Dahlgren, who took over the Bombers' first base job from Lou Gehrig on May 2, 1939, after Gehrig's historic 2,130-consecutive-games-played streak, will be replaced in the New York lineup by rookie Johnny Sturm.
March
March 4 – Grace Comiskey becomes the first woman to become president of an American League club when she is elected to the post by the Chicago White Sox' board of directors. The team's presidency had been vacant since the death of her husband, J. Louis Comiskey, on July 18, 1939; the ChiSox, founded by J. Lou's father at the turn of the 20th century, recently reverted to full Comiskey family control after a period of trusteeship overseen by the First National Bank of Chicago. March 8 – Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Hugh Mulcahy becomes the first Major League Baseball player drafted into the armed forces via the Selective Service system established last year by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in anticipation of World War II. More than 100 major leaguers will be drafted within the next two years; two of them, Washington Senators outfielder Elmer Gedeon and Philadelphia Athletics catcher Harry O'Neill, will be killed in action. March 9 – The Brooklyn Dodgers slap a $200 fine on onetime staff ace Van Lingle Mungo and temporarily kick him off the team after Mungo "falls off the water wagon" during spring training in Havana. The inebriated pitcher brawls with a jealous husband after he's discovered, naked, with the man's wife and another woman in a room at the Dodgers' hotel. Banished from Cuba, Mungo, 29, is eventually reinstated by the Dodgers, but appears in only two games before he's sent down to Montreal on May 15, never to return to the Brooklyn squad. March 19 – The Boston Bees purchase the contract of third baseman Ducky Detweiler from the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Interstate League. March 23 – New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio, a hold out and late arrival in spring training, plays in his first Grapefruit League game. March 28 – The Yankees sell the contract of right-hander Steve Sundra to the Washington Senators. Sundra, 31, went 11–1 (2.76) for the world-champion 1939 Bombers before suffering through a terrible campaign.
April
April 13 – In their final pre-season tune-up, the New York Yankees win their third game in a row over the host Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 3–0. The Dodgers had come into this final series with an 11-game winning streak, including four triumphs against the Yankees at their training camp. April 14 – The 1941 MLB season kicks off with the Presidential Opener in Washington. Left-hander Marius Russo tosses a three-hitter and Joe DiMaggio drives home the winning tally in the top of the first, as the Yankees defeat the Senators, 3–0, at Griffith Stadium before 32,000 fans. Franklin D. Roosevelt throws the ceremonial first pitch for the ninth time. April 15: The Cincinnati Reds open defense of their World Series championship with a 7–3 defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals at Crosley Field before 34,940. Lon Warneke gets the better of Paul Derringer, and five home runs are struck, including blows from Enos Slaughter and Johnny Mize of St. Louis (eventual Hall of Famers); Cincinnati first baseman Frank McCormick hits two homers himself. Shortstop Lou Stringer commits four errors in his debut with the Chicago Cubs, setting a National League record for a player in his first game. Stringer does better on offense, adding a pair of hits and two runs batted in. Chicago defeats the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7–4, backed by strong pitching from starter Claude Passeau and a clutch home run from Bill "Swish" Nicholson. The win is Jimmie Wilson's first as the Cubs' manager. Two expected NL contenders make a deal, when the Brooklyn Dodgers reacquire pitcher Newt Kimball from the St. Louis Cardinals in a cash transaction. April 20: Behind six runs batted in from Joe DiMaggio and five from Joe Gordon—who has temporarily changed defensive positions, from second base to first—the New York Yankees bash the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park, 19–5. The 19 runs will be the most scored by a single team in any AL or NL game in 1941. The New York Giants attract 56,314 fans to the Polo Grounds, to date the biggest crowd ever to view an MLB game at the Upper Manhattan stadium, but they lose to the arch-rival Brooklyn Dodgers, 10–9, when Dolph Camilli tallies an unearned run in the top of the ninth. The Dodgers become the first club in Major League Baseball history to wear protective headgear. Each batter's cap features a plastic lining designed to fend off the effects of beanballs. It's a cautious response to the numerous beanball wars that plagued the 1940 season which saw players such as Joe Medwick and Billy Jurges, among others, hospitalized. However, the liners are so thin, they are hardly noticeable, and most players disdain using them. April 22 – Restless general manager Larry MacPhail picks up another arm for the Brooklyn bullpen: he's two-time NL saves leader Mace Brown, 31, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a cash transaction. April 23 – The Dodgers remain in the headlines when standout sophomore center-fielder Pete Reiser is struck in the head by an Ike Pearson fastball in the third inning of Brooklyn's 4–0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Ebbets Field. Reiser, 22, is carried off on a stretcher and admitted to Caledonian Hospital. Expected to be out of action for two weeks, he will return to a Dodger box score in seven days. It's the first life-threatening injury of Reiser's big-league career, which will be marked by comebacks from serious injuries caused by beanballs and his fearless play. April 29: J. A. Robert Quinn, newly installed principal owner, and the reorganized board of directors of Boston's National League baseball club, known as the Bees since 1936, vote to immediately return to its previous nickname, the Braves. Its home ballpark, known since 1936 as either "National League Park" or "The Beehive," returns to its original moniker, Braves Field. The new ownership group, which takes control of the Braves from Charles F. Adams, includes local contractors Louis R. Perini, C. Joseph Maney and Guido Rugo—the "Three Little Steam Shovels"—as minority investors. The New York Giants return righty Bump Hadley, 36 and in his 16th season, to the New York Yankees, who in turn send him on to the Philadelphia Athletics for cash considerations.