In the 1940s, Major League Baseball continued its popularity with the nation and provided plenty of excitement, including big performances from two stars and the historic shattering of the “color barrier” in professional baseball.
The decade also saw dominance from the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, the two teams that have won more championships than any other. But any discussion of the best baseball moments in the 1940s must start with Jackie Robinson.
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
This isn’t just one of the best baseball moments in the 1940s, but one of the best baseball moments in history. On April 15, 1947, Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making him the Black man to play in the modern era of MLB. He won the first-ever Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and opened the door for a host of Black baseball stars that entered in the league over the next decade.
Jackie Robinson Early Life & MLB Career
Yankees, Cardinals Dominate
Baseball fans looking for variety in the 1940s must have felt thankful for the 1940 Cincinnati Reds, 1945 Detroit Tigers, and 1948 Cleveland Indians. Those three clubs are the only ones who won a World Series between 1940 and 1949 that weren’t the Yankees (who won four) and the Cardinals (who won two). People would get more of the same in the 1950s from the Yankees: the team’s 1949 championship was the first of five in a row.
Best Moments of Detroit Tigers Baseball
The 1944 St. Louis Series
For the first and only time, two teams from St. Louis played each other in the 1944 World Series, with the Cardinals defeating the St. Louis Browns. All the games were played in the stadium the two teams shared, Sportsman’s Park. The Browns, who started playing in St. Louis in 1901, moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and became the Baltimore Orioles.
The 1944 series is one of only four World Series with all games played in one stadium. The 1921 and 1922 series between the New York Giants and New York Yankees were all played at the Polo Grounds. The 2020 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays were played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teams That Have Never Won a World Series
Ted Williams Hits .400
Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, including going six for 8 at the plate in the last game of the season, a game he could have sat out to protect his then-.400 average. He’s the last player to hit .400 for the season. Amazingly, he lost the Most Valuable Player award in 1941 to the next guy on the list.
Life and Career of Ted Williams
Joe DiMaggio’s Hitting Streak
As Williams kept getting hits, so did DiMaggio, playing for the rival Yankees. Between May 15 and July 17 of 1941, DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games, another record that stands to this day. DiMaggio had a history of this sort of thing. Few may know that at the age of 26 in 1933, DiMaggio hit safely in 61 straight games while playing in the Pacific Coast League.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged MLB teams to keep playing during World War II, which they did despite losing many players to the military. However, in the Midwest, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League started in 1943, created by Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley to keep interest in baseball during the war years. The teams included the Rockford Peaches, Racine Belles, Fort Wayne Daisies and Kenosha Comets. The league stopped playing in 1954. It is the subject of the popular 1992 film, “A League of Their Own.”
These mark some of the best baseball moments of the 1940s, a very eventful decade in MLB history. It also raised the popularity of the game to new heights, setting the stage for baseball becoming even more popular through television in the 1950s.
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