1949 Major League Baseball season

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1949 MLB season
League Major League Baseball
Sport Baseball
Duration April 18 – October 9, 1949
Regular season
Season champions AL: New York Yankees
NL: Brooklyn Dodgers
Season MVP AL: Ted Williams (BOS)
NL: Jackie Robinson (BRO)
World Series
Champions New York Yankees
  Runners-up Brooklyn Dodgers
Finals MVP Joe Page (NYY)
MLB seasons

The 1949 Major League Baseball season.

Regular season standings

American League
Rank Club Wins Losses Win %   GB
1st New York Yankees 97 57 .630
2nd Boston Red Sox 96 58 .623 1
3rd Cleveland Indians 89 65 .578 8
4th Detroit Tigers 87 67 .565 10
5th Philadelphia Athletics 81 73 .526 16
6th Chicago White Sox 63 91 .409 34
7th St. Louis Browns 53 101 .344 44
8th Washington Senators 50 104 .325 47
National League
Rank Club Wins Losses Win %   GB
1st Brooklyn Dodgers 97 57 .630
2nd St. Louis Cardinals 96 58 .623 1
3rd Philadelphia Phillies 81 73 .526 16
4th Boston Braves 75 79 .487 22
5th New York Giants 73 81 .474 24
6th Pittsburgh Pirates 71 83 .461 26
7th Cincinnati Reds 62 92 .403 35
8th Chicago Cubs 61 93 .396 26

World series

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1949 World Series
New York Yankees (4) vs. Brooklyn Dodgers (1)
Babe Ruth Award: Joe Page, RP, New York
Game Date Score Series
(NYY-BRO)
Location Attendance Time
1 October 5 Yankees 1, Dodgers 0 1–0 Yankee Stadium 66,224 2:24
2 October 6 Dodgers 1, Yankees 0 1–1 Yankee Stadium 70,053 2:30
3 October 7 Yankees 4, Dodgers 3 2–1 Ebbets Field 32,788 2:30
4 October 8 Yankees 6, Dodgers 4 3–1 Ebbets Field 33,934 2:42
5 October 9 Yankees 10, Dodgers 6 4–1 Ebbets Field 33,711 3:04

Awards and honors

1949 Award Winners
  American League National League
Award Player Position Team Player Position Team
Most Valuable Player Ted Williams LF BOS Jackie Robinson 2B BRO
Rookie of the Year Roy Sievers OF SLB Don Newcombe RHP BRO

Statistical leaders

  American League National League
Type Name Stat Name Stat
AVG George Kell, DET .343 Jackie Robinson, BRO .342
HR Ted Williams, BOS 43 Ralph Kiner, PIT 54
RBI Vern Stephens, BOS
Ted Williams, BOS
159 Ralph Kiner, PIT 127
SB Bob Dillinger, SLB 20 Jackie Robinson, BRO 37
Wins Mel Parnell, BOS 25 Warren Spahn, BSN 21
ERA Mike Garcia, CLE 2.36 Dave Koslo, NYG 2.50
SO Virgil Trucks, DET 153 Warren Spahn, BSN 151

All-Star game

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July 12, 1949
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
American League 4 0 0 2 0 2 3 0 0 11 13 1
National League 2 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 7 12 5
Starting pitchers:
AL: Mel Parnell
NL: Warren Spahn
WP: Virgil Trucks (1–0)   LP: Don Newcombe (0–1)   Sv: Vic Raschi (1)
Home runs:
AL: None
NL: Ralph Kiner (1), Stan Musial (1)

Feats

Cycles

Records

American League

National League

Career Milestones

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Notable events

January–March

  • January 28 – The New York Giants sign their first black players, outfielder Monte Irvin and pitcher Ford Smith, and assign them to a minor league affiliate at Jersey City. Irvin will eventually go on to have a Hall of Fame career for the Giants, but Smith never reaches the major leagues.
  • February 7 – Joe DiMaggio signs a $100,000 contract with the New York Yankees. It is the first six-figure contract in major league history.
  • March 2 – A slumping Joe DiMaggio leaves spring training in Florida to have his ailing right heel examined at Johns Hopkins Hospital. DiMaggio is assured that surgery is unnecessary and returns to the Yankees. The as yet undiagnosed heel ailment will continue to plague DiMaggio throughout the season.

April–May

June–July

August

  • August 3 – Boston Red Sox pitcher Ellis Kinder strikes out 14 batters in a 9–3 win over the St. Louis Browns. It is the most strikeouts by a Sox pitcher since Smoky Joe Wood struck out 15 in 1911.
  • August 5 – Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox appears in a major league-record 2,154th game, surpassing Rabbit Maranville's previous mark. Appling will finish his career with 2,218 games played.
  • August 6 – Adrian Zabala sets a National League record by balking three times in the Giants' 3–1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite the loss, the Cardinals remain 1/2 game ahead in the National League by virtue of the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers' loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
  • August 7 – In the first game of a doubleheader against the Browns, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra suffers a fractured thumb when he is hit by a pitch after hitting a three-run home run in his previous at bat. The injury will keep Berra out of the Yankee lineup until September. The Yankees win the game, 20–2.
  • August 8 – Carl Furillo returns to the Dodgers' lineup after an injury and collects two hits and a run scored in Brooklyn's 2–1 win over the rival Giants. The win keeps the Dodgers tied with the Cardinals for first place. Furillo will hit .431 over the final eight weeks of the season and finish at .322, fourth best in the league.
  • August 9 – Dom DiMaggio's 34-game hitting streak comes to an end in the Boston Red Sox' 6–3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Hitless in his first four at-bats, Dom hits a sinking line drive in the eighth that his brother Joe catches at the shoestrings. The resurgent Red Sox move within 5½ games of the Yankees with the win.
  • August 15 – With the defending National League-champion Boston Braves struggling at 55–54 and dogged by rumors of clubhouse dissension, manager Billy Southworth takes a leave of absence and is replaced for the rest of the season by Johnny Cooney.
  • August 17 – The St. Louis Cardinals move back into first place with a 4–3 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
  • August 21 – The New York Giants receive a forfeit victory over the Philadelphia Phillies when fans at Shibe Park bombard the field with bottles after umpire George Barr rules that Phillie Richie Ashburn trapped a line drive. The forfeiture is the first in the majors since 1942. The Giants were leading 4–2 with one out in the ninth inning when the forfeit was declared.
  • August 22 – The New York Yankees acquire Johnny Mize from the New York Giants in exchange for $40,000. At the time, the Yankees' lead over the now second-place Boston Red Sox is down to 2½ games.
    • The Boston Braves score two runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 7–6. One of the runs comes on Eddie Stanky's first home run of the season. The loss is Brooklyn's sixth in seven games and drops the Dodgers two games behind the Cardinals.
  • August 26 – With a doubleheader sweep of the White Sox, the Red Sox close to within 1½ games of the Yankees. The Red Sox win the first game, 11–4, behind Mel Parnell, who becomes the majors' first 20-game winner of the season, and Ted Williams, who slams his 31st and 32nd home runs of the season. The Red Sox take the second game, 10–7.
  • August 28 – In the first game of a doubleheader in Chicago, Tommy Henrich crashes into the wall while chasing a Chuck Kress fly ball and fractures two vertebrae. The injury will sideline Henrich for three weeks. In the second game, the newly acquired Johnny Mize dislocates his shoulder. With the exception of seven pinch-hit appearances, he will miss the rest of the regular season. The Yankees are also playing without Yogi Berra, who fractured his thumb earlier in the month. Despite the injuries, the Yankees sweep the doubleheader by scores of 8–7 and 7–5.

September

  • September 4 – The Cardinals sweep a doubleheader against the Reds, 6–4 and 11–2, to push their lead over the Dodgers to 2½ games.
  • September 5 – The Yankees sweep a Labor Day doubleheader at Shibe Park against the Athletics. Joe DiMaggio hits a grand slam and drives in five runs in the Yankees' 13–4 win in the opener. The Yankees take the second game, which was shortened by darkness, 5–2. The Yankees lead over the Red Sox now stands at 1½ games.
  • September 8 – In an 8–0 win over the Chicago Cubs, Red Schoendienst steals the St. Louis Cardinals' 17th and final base of the season, setting a major league record for fewest steals in a season.
  • September 9 – At Yankee Stadium, Ellis Kinder wins his 19th game of the season as the Red Sox pound the Yankees, 7–1, cutting the Yankees' lead in the American League to 1½ games.
  • September 10 – Stan Musial's two-out, two-run home run in the top of the ninth gives the Cardinals a 6–5 win over the Cincinnati Reds, which maintains St. Louis' one-game lead in the National League.
  • September 11 – The Washington Senators set a major league record for the most base on balls in an inning by surrendering 11 in the third inning during a 20–5 rout at the hands of the New York Yankees.[2]
    • Stan Musial blasts three home runs as the Cardinals sweep a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 7–5 and 7–4, to extend their lead over the Dodgers to 1½ games.
  • September 13 – Ralph Kiner ties a major league record held by six players with his 4th grand slam of the season. In the Pirates' 11–6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, Kiner hits 2 home runs and drives in 6 runs. The 2 home runs come in his first 2 at-bats of the game. Kiner had homered in his final 2 at-bats in yesterday's game, making it 4 home runs in 4 consecutive at-bats over 2 games. It is the 2nd time in his career that Kiner has accomplished the feat.
  • September 14 – Ellis Kinder wins his 20th game of the season, shutting out the Detroit Tigers, 1–0, at Fenway Park. It is also Kinder's 10th consecutive win. Kinder joins teammate Mel Parnell as a 20-game winner. It is the last time this century that the Red Sox will feature a pair of 20-game winners.
  • September 18 – The injury-plagued Yankees receive another blow when Joe DiMaggio is stricken with pneumonia. Without DiMaggio, the Yankee still top the Indians, 7–3, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Red Sox, however, keep pace with an 11–5 rout of the visiting White Sox to remain 2½ games behind the Yanks. Ted Williams hits his 39th and 40th home runs of the season and drives in 6 runs, giving him 153 RBIs for the season. Teammate Vern Stephens also hits his 40th home run and drives in his 150th run.
  • September 19 – The Yankees stretch their lead of the idle Red Sox to 3 games with a 6–0 blanking of the Indians.
  • September 21 – The Yankees squander an 8–1 lead at Yankee Stadium and fall to the Chicago White Sox, 9–8. Coupled with the Red Sox' 9–6 victory over the Indians, the Yankees lead shrinks to 2 games.
    • The Cardinals and Dodgers split a doubleheader at Sportsman's Park, leaving the Cards in front by 1½ games. The Cards take the first game, 1–0, while the Dodgers answered back with a 5–0 win in the second.
  • September 22 – The Dodgers amass 19 hits and 13 walks in a 19–6 rout of the host Cardinals, bringing the Bums to within a 1/2 game of first-place. Carl Furillo has 7 RBIs for Brooklyn. In a losing effort, Stan Musial hits his 32nd home run of the season—his 21st against lefties, a major league record for a left-handed batter that will later be matched by Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1996 and 1998.
  • September 24 – At Fenway Park, the Red Sox defeat the Yankees, 2–0, to draw within a game of first-place New York. Ted Williams belts his 42nd home run and Ellis Kinder wins his 13th straight game, moving to 4–0 on the season against the Yankees.
  • September 25 – A 6–1 by the Cardinals over the Cubs, coupled with the Dodgers' 5–3 loss to the Phillies, gives the Cards a 1½ game lead in the National League.
    • The Yankees, in first-place all season despite 71 injuries that kept players out of games, fall into a first place tie with the Red Sox after losing to Boston, 4–1, at Fenway Park. Ted Williams hits his 43rd home run of the season, and Mel Parnell allows four hits in winning his 25th game of the season. Joe DiMaggio, still out of the lineup with pneumonia, listens to the game from his hospital bed.
  • September 26 – Before 67,634 at Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox come away with a 7–6 win and move into sole possession of first place when Johnny Pesky scores on a disputed squeeze play. The Sox rally from a 6–3 deficit by scoring four runs in the eighth. The winning run scores when Bobby Doerr drops a surprise squeeze bunt in front of Tommy Henrich, playing first base, and Pesky slides under the catcher's tag at home plate. Umpire Bill Grieve calls Pesky safe, and Casey Stengel is fined for a post-game confrontation with the ump. Now ahead by one game, the Sox depart for a three-game set in Washington before going back to New York for a final two-game showdown against the Yankees.
  • September 27 – Vic Raschi wins his 20th game of the season as the Yankees top the A's, 3–1. The Yankees remain one game back, however, by virtue of the Red Sox' 6–4 win over the Senators.
  • The Cardinals fall to the Pirates, 6–4, cutting their lead over the idle Dodgers to 1 game.
  • September 28 – The American League race deadlocked again after the Yankees win a seesaw battle against the A's, 7–5, and the Red Sox fall to the Senators, 2–1, on a wild pitch by Mel Parnell in the bottom of the 9th. Joe DiMaggio, down 18 pounds from his bout with pneumonia, takes batting practice for the Yankees.
  • September 29 – The Cardinals fall to the Pirates and former Cardinal Murry Dickson, 7–2. It is Dickson's 5th win of the season against his former team. Meanwhile, the Dodgers sweep a doubleheader against the Braves, 9–2 and 8–0, moving them ahead of the Cardinals by a 1/2 game in the National League.
  • September 30 – The Red Sox move ahead of the Yankees by a game when they defeat the Senators, 11–9, and the Yankees are defeated by Dick Fowler and the A's, 4–1. Aided by 14 walks, the Sox win the game despite being outhit by the Senators, 18–5.
    • Ralph Kiner hits his 54th home run of the season and 16th in the month of September as the Pirates defeat the Reds, 3–2.

October

Movies

It Happens Every Spring

The Stratton Story

Deaths

References

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