1940s Baseball: Who Were The Best Players?

Baseball experienced an amazing transformation from the beginning of the 1940s to the end of the 40s.

In 1940, the game was played in daylight by Caucasian players. By 1949 games were being played at night, with African-American players in the same major league.

As always, the decade wasn’t short on stars. Guys like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Bob Feller all earned their stripes on the field, but they also earned them off the field.

When the United States entered World War II, she took a lot of her baseball players (and other athletes) off to war too.

At times, Major League Baseball felt like it was being reduced to a circus sideshow because so many of the good players were gone.

But when they came back in 1946, baseball had begun to emerge from its cocoon of segregation as Branch Rickey did the unthinkable — he signed an African-American to a Major League Baseball team.

Racist-charged energy filled up the stadiums that Robinson played, but he kept on. Eventually more African-American players would join other teams, and surely nothing can be said for the struggle that they all went through, but their struggle did not go in vain — as baseball would be better than ever before with everybody playing together.

The Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals had a stranglehold on the National League during most of the 1940s. The last player to bat over .400 was Ted Williams, in 1941 when he batted .406.

List of World Series Winners in the 1940s

Year	Winning Team	Series	Losing Team
1940	Cincinnati Reds (NL)	4–3	Detroit Tigers (AL)
1941	New York Yankees (AL)	4–1
1942	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)	4–1	New York Yankees (AL)
1943	New York Yankees (AL)	4–1	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)
1944	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)	4–2	St. Louis Browns (AL)
1945	Detroit Tigers (AL)	4–3	Chicago Cubs (NL)
1946	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)	4–3	Boston Red Sox (AL)
1947	New York Yankees (AL)	4–3	Brooklyn Dodgers (NL)
1948	Cleveland Indians (AL)	4–2	Boston Braves (NL)
1949	New York Yankees (AL)	4–1	Brooklyn Dodgers (NL)

List of National League MVPs in the 1940s

1940	Frank McCormick	Cincinnati	1B	R
1941	Dolph Camilli	Brooklyn	1B	L
1942	Mort Cooper	St. Louis	P	R
1943	Stan Musial	St. Louis	OF	L
1944	Marty Marion	St. Louis	SS	R
1945	Phil Cavarretta	Chicago	1B	L
1946	Stan Musial	St. Louis	1B	L
1947	Bob Elliott	Boston	3B	R
1948	Stan Musial	St. Louis	OF	L
1949	Jackie Robinson	Brooklyn	2B	R

List of American League MVPs in the 1940s

1940	Hank Greenberg	Detroit	OF
1941	Joe DiMaggio	New York	OF
1942	Joe Gordon	New York	2B
1943	Spud Chandler	New York	P
1944	Hal Newhouser	Detroit	P
1945	Hal Newhouser	Detroit	P
1946	Ted Williams	Boston	OF
1947	Joe DiMaggio	New York	OF
1948	Lou Boudreau	Cleveland	SS
1949	Ted Williams	Boston	OF

More 1940s Baseball