Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: May 2021

1941 and the end of innocence

(originally posted 3/15/15, updates in blue)

(When I originally posted this, I had only worked on the American League side, and only the hitting. This is a more complete ranking, with both leagues involved, as well as adding the pitching. As this blog and formula is constantly changing, I had not yet had a legitimate way of ranking the pitching performances, but that has changed since.)

One of the reasons I finally started this project was to figure out some of the historic performances and how they compare to modern day figures. To find a reliable statistical norm that is a continual formula that can measure true worth and value and compare those to the norm for each season

One of the joys of baseball, or most other sports, is the argument over best players, greats at this, greatest at that, etc. My formula just adds fuel to the fire and may agree with your argument or contradict it. But hopefully will regenerate some interest. Ultimately, I plan to reveal the best single season offensive performance here.

Now it is worth noting that in this era, post season awards are voted on by the sportswriters. No knock on them, but they do get things wrong. Sometimes horribly wrong. Sometimes, justifiably wrong. They are human, and as such, can be vindictive. I bring this up because of the 1941 American League season.

Before we get into the analysis, let's look at some of the significant historical events of 1941. Of course, it would be the last season before the United States entered into World War II. But the military was active in drafting players in advance of that.

Pitcher Hugh “Losing Pitcher” Mulcahy would be the first major league player drafted into the military for World War II. He was drafted in March of 1941 and would serve four years in the Army. He earned his unfortunate nickname mainly due to the fact that in eight seasons, he never had more wins than losses. He was an All-Star in 1940, a season that had him lose 22 games.

Tigers great Hank Greenberg was also drafted, in May of that year. Hank, who was reportedly earning $55,000 per season for the Tigers, was now earning $21 per month for the Army. He would be discharged later in 1941 because of a change in the law releasing men over twenty-eight from duty.

Then Pearl Harbor happened. The attack was on December 7^th, and the thirty-year-old Greenberg re-enlisted on December 9^th. He would serve 3 and a half years in the army.

On to the field of play, the Dodgers and Cardinals had some bad blood brewing between the two, and as a result, there were a couple of bean-ball issues between them. It had gotten so that the Dodgers became the first team to use protective batting helmets to protect themselves.

Mel Ott of the Giants would become the first National League player to reach 400 career home runs. (He would also be the first to 500, finishing at 511).

Lefty Grove of the Red Sox would win his 300^th game. He would retire at the end of the season, having lost just 141 games, the lowest ever by a 300-game winner. Included in that win total was a record twenty straight home wins, dating back to 1938.

The Chicago Cubs, not really known for their innovations, became the first team to add an organist to play during breaks in the action. The rest of the teams would follow suit eventually.

The perplexing St. Louis Browns finished at 70-84 for the season, 31 games out of first place, but they had the fifth highest batting average. They just could not score runs. They set the Major League record (that still stands) of leaving 1,334 runners on base.

Speaking of the Browns...

There were rumors of a plan in place to relocate the franchise to Los Angeles, becoming the first Major League team on the West Coast. The plan apparently fell through after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which made team (and probably insurance companies) leery of the increased air travel that would ensue. So the major league stayed put for the forseeable future.

On May 15^th, the Yankees were 14-15 after a 13-1 loss to the White Sox. Center-fielder Joe DiMaggio singled in a 13-1 loss. He would then go on to get a hit in the next 55 consecutive games, the streak ending in Cleveland on July 17^th. Joltin' Joe hit .408 during the streak, scored 56 runs and had 55 runs batted in. And he struck out just seven times during the two-month span.

More importantly, the Yankees played at a .759 clip, winning 41 games, and propelling them to the American League pennant by 17 games over the Red Sox.

Sadly, on June 2^nd, Yankee great Lou Gehrig lost his battle with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The crippling disease that now bears his name took his life at thirty-seven years...

(Babe Ruth bidding farewell to his former teammate and fellow legend)

With all of the headlines being garnered in the American League, the National League did still play their season as well. Not as many headlines from the Senior Circuit, but some noteworthy performances as such. Most notably twenty-year-old St. Louis Cardinals rookie Stan Musial, who hit .426 in just twelve games.

On to the season at hand. The Yankees returned to the World Series in 1941, after finishing send to the Tigers in 1939. They faced the Brooklyn Dodgers, making their first World Series since the 1920 Brooklyn Robins lost to the Cleveland Indians 5 games to 2.

The Yankees would win the 1941 Series 4 games to 1, giving the Yankees their ninth World Championship.

The power rankings for 1941 bears this out, as the top 5 teams in the Majors were:

Brooklyn NL Champions

Yankees World Champions

Cardinals 2^nd in NL

Red Sox 2^nd in AL

Reds 3^rd in NL

Overall, the National League pitchers statistically were 12.9% better than their American League counterparts, partially because they did not have to face Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio. As such, the American League batters fared 11.1% better than the National League.

Let's look at the little talked about American League pitching first, shall we?

First, their overall numbers, our top ten looks like this:

Name	Team	W-L	ERA	Saves
Thornton Lee	White Sox	22-11	2.37	1
Johnny Murphy	Yankees	8-3	1.98	15
Red Ruffing	Yankees	15-6	3.54	0
Bob Feller	Indians	25-13	3.15	2
Marius Russo	Yankees	14-10	3.09	1
Al Benton	Tigers	15-6	2.97	7
Lefty Gomez	Yankees	15-5	3.74	0
Dutch Leonard	Senators	18-13	3.45	0
Ted Lyons	White Sox	12-10	3.70	0
Spud Chandler	Yankees	10-04	3.19	4

Then compared to their teams, we get:

Dutch Leonard	Above
Thornton Lee	Above
Al Benton	Above
Bob Muncrief	Browns	13-9	3.65	1
Phil Marchildon	Athletics	10-15	3.57	0
Bob Feller	Above
Jack Knott	Athletics	13-11	4.40	0
Sid Hudson	Senators	13-14	3.46	0
Denny Galehouse	Browns	09-10	3.64	0
Charlie Wagner	Red Sox	12-08	3.07	0

Combining the numbers and crunching them gives a final top ten ranking of:

Thornton Lee 4^th in MVP

Dutch Leonard 20^th in MVP

Bob Feller 3^rd in MVP

Al Benton 19^th in MVP (tied)

Johnny Murphy no votes

Red Ruffing 25^th in MVP

Sid Hudson no votes

Charlie Wagner no votes

Ted Lyons 15^th in MVP (tied)

Marius Russo no votes

Now looking at the National League pitchers, the top performers:

Elmer Riddle	Reds	19-4	2.24	1
Whit Wyatt	Dodgers	22-10	2.34	1
Ernie White	Cardinals	17-7	2.40	2
Bucky Walters	Reds	19-15	2.83	2
Johnny Vander Meer	Reds	16-13	2.82	0
Curt Davis	Dodgers	13-7	2.97	2
Max Butcher	Pirates	17-12	3.05	0
Kirby Higbe	Dodgers	22-9	3.14	3
Lon Warneke	Cardinals	17-9	3.15	0
Paul Derringer	Reds	12/14/16	3.31	1

And against their team averages, we get this list:

Elmer Riddle	Above
Ted Hughes	Phillies	9-14	4.45	0
Johnny Podganjy	Phillies	9-12	4.62	0
Max Butcher	Above
Hal Schumacher	Giants	12-10	3.36	1
Claude Passeau	Cubs	14-14	3.35	0
Whit Wyatt	Above
Bucky Walters	Above
Jim Tobin	Braves	12-12	3.10	0
Cy Blanton	Phillies	6-13	4.51	0

Combining, we get these top pitching performers in the National League:

Elmer Riddle 5^th in MVP

Whit Wyatt 3^rd in MVP

Ernie White 6^th in MVP

Bob Muncrief no votes

Bucky Walters 28^th in MVP

Max Butcher no votes

Johnny Vander Meer no votes

Hal Schumacher no votes

Claude Passeau no votes

Jim Tobin 21^st in MVP (tie)

Okay, so now onto the offensive rankings.

We will build excitement by highlighting the National League first. Overall rankings, including Runs Created per Game (R/G) rankings:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	R/G
Pete Reiser	Dodgers	14	76	.343	1.31
Joe Medwick	Dodgers	18	88	.318	1.28
Dolph Camili	Dodgers	34	120	.285	1.19
Johnny Mize	Cardinals	16	100	.317	1.20
Enos Slaughter	Cardinals	13	76	.311	1.19
Terry Moore	Cardinals	6	68	.294	1.21
Mel Ott	Giants	27	90	.286	1.03
Elbie Fletcher	Pirates	11	74	.288	1.05
Babe Young	Giants	25	104	.265	1.11
Cookie Lavagetto	Dodgers	1	78	.277	1.15

And against their teams, we get:

Nick Etten	Phillies	14	79	.311	0.95
Danny Litwhiler	Phillies	18	66	.305	0.79
Johnny Mize	Above
Mel Ott	Above
Babe Young	Above
Pete Reiser	Above
Enos Slaughter	Above
Frank McCormick	Reds	17	97	.269	1.02
Dom Dallessandro	Cubs	6	85	.272	1.09
Stan Hack	Cubs	7	45	.317	0.99

So, getting to our overall rankings, our top ten National League hitters were:

Pete Reiser 2^nd in MVP

Johnny Mize 9^th in MVP

Joe Medwick no votes

Dolph Camili NL NVP

Enos Slaughter 19^th in MVP (tied)

Nick Etten 28^th in MVP (tied)

Mel Ott 19^th in MVP (tied)

Babe Young 21^st in MVP (tied)

Elbie Fletcher 14^th in MVP

Dom Dallessandro no votes

Now before we get to the American League, a little background may be needed.

Most people know that in 1941 twenty-three-year-old Ted Williams, in just his third big league season, was the last player to hit .400. And most should know that he was at .3999 going into the last day of the season. And that he could have sat out and had his average rounded to .400. And that he played both games of a doubleheader (yes youngsters, a star playing in both games of a doubleheader, one game right after the other, not one of these newfangled day/night deals. AND since the Yankees had clinched the league title a week before, both games of the twin-bill were essentially meaningless). And that he went 6 for 8 to finish the season at .406.

Teddy Ballgame’s batting average was .143 points higher than the major league average, and 52.6% greater than the AL combined league average. His stat line was .406/.735/.553 against the AL’s .266/.389/.341.

With all that, he was not voted the Most Valuable Player that season.

Joe DiMaggio was.

Williams finished second to DiMaggio. There were 24 voters then, DiMaggio got 15 first place votes, and Williams got 8.

Travesty? Maybe. The Yankees did win the pennant that year by 17 games, so maybe the reasoning for DiMaggio winning the popularity contest.

Or was it the publicity all season. Remember that summer, DiMaggio captivated the nation with his 56-game hitting streak. So that may have carried him to the MVP, being the one thing that everyone talked about.

It is also known that Williams was not a fan of the sportswriters, nor were they fans of him. And since they were the ones that had the vote, many voted against him for one reason or another.

Looking further at the Yankees and Red Sox from 1941, both stars had a fairly good supporting cast, advantage Ted Williams on that front. Williams also had a lineup that featured future Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin, and Bobby Doerr, with support from Jim Tabor. While DiMaggio's lineup featured a vastly underrated Charlie Keller and Hall of Famers Bill Dickey and Joe Gordon.

The Yankees had five different players score more than 100 runs in 1941(Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Joe Gordon, Red Rolfe, and Tommy Heinrich), while the Red Sox had just two (Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio).

The argument could then be made as the Most VALUABLE Player, DiMaggio did more for the Yankees. Joe was responsible for 15.2% of the Red Sox' runs that year, compared to Teddy Ballgame's 14.6%.

But there is another player whom you probably are not familiar with, who had an extremely good season for a team that did not finish in the money. Jeff Heath. He finished 8th in the MVP voting that year, but offensively had a very, very productive season. Quite possibly, his numbers may have won him an award in any other season of that decade, but as it was, he had the 5th best raw number that season, comparing his number to the league average.

Let's delve into those raw numbers first:

Ted Williams	Red Sox	37	120	.406	1.52
Joe DiMaggio	Yankees	30	125	.357	1.56
Charlie Keller	Yankees	33	122	.298	1.36
Cecil Travis	Senators	7	101	.359	1.32
Jeff Heath	Indians	24	123	.341	1.25
Jimmie Foxx	Red Sox	19	105	.300	1.28
Sam Chapman	Athletics	25	106	.322	1.24
Joe Cronin	Red Sox	16	95	.311	1.24
Bob Johnson	Athletics	22	107	.275	1.23
Roy Cullenbine	Browns	9	98	.317	1.15

And then against their teams, we get:

Jeff Heath	Above
Joe DiMaggio	Above
Ted Williams	Above
Taffy Wright	White Sox	10	97	.322	1.16
Cecil Travis	Above
Sam Chapman	Above
Charlie Keller	Above
Bob Johnson	Above
Rudy York	Tigers	27	111	.259	1.13
Luke Appling	White Sox	1	57	.314	0.97

In crunching the numbers, the final rankings come in as follows:

Ted Williams 2^nd in MVP

Joe DiMaggio AL MVP

Charlie Keller 5^th in MPV

Jeff Heath 8^th in MVP

Cecil Travis 6^th in MVP

Sam Chapman 12^th in MVP

Jimmie Foxx no votes

Taffy Wright 25^th in MVP (tied)

Bob Johnson no votes

Joe Cronin 11^th in MVP

So it goes back to one's interpretation of the term "Most Valuable" player. Williams had by far the best season, but didn't make the post-season. DiMaggio had a great season as well, and did play in October, but would the Yankees have made it without his help? And where would the second place Red Sox have finished without Williams in the middle of their lineup every day?

This is where the debates rage on. In my opinion, Williams was the player of the year, beyond a doubt. But was he most valuable? With apologies to Mr. DiMaggio, I believe so.

To sum up, if I were to have voted in 1941, and I was voting for Pitcher and Player of the league for each league, my votes would have been:

NATIONAL LEAGUE