Champions Major League Baseball World Series: Cincinnati Reds over Detroit Tigers (4–3) All-Star Game, July 9 at Sportsman's Park: National League, 4–0
Other champions Amateur World Series: Cuba Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: East, 11–0 Mexican League: Azules de Veracruz
Awards and honors
Most Valuable Player Hank Greenberg (AL) – OF, Detroit Tigers Frank McCormick (NL) – 1B, Cincinnati Reds The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Bob Feller – P, Cleveland Indians The Sporting News Most Valuable Player Award Hank Greenberg (AL) – OF, Detroit Tigers Frank McCormick (NL) – 1B, Cincinnati Reds The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Bill McKechnie – Cincinnati Reds
Statistical leaders American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Joe DiMaggio (NYY) .352 Debs Garms (PIT) .355 Ed Mayweather (SNS) .376 Monte Irvin (NE) .380 HR Hank Greenberg (DET) 41 Johnny Mize (STL) 43 Turkey Stearnes (KCM) 5 Buster Clarkson (NE)Bill Hoskins (BEG)Buck Leonard (HOM)Henry McHenry (PHS)Lennie Pearson (NE) 8 RBI Hank Greenberg (DET) 150 Johnny Mize (STL) 137 Turkey Stearnes (KCM) 33 Howard Easterling (HOM) 45 W Bob Feller1 (CLE) 27 Bucky Walters (CIN) 22 Frank Bradley (KCM)Lefty Calhoun (SNS)Jack Matchett (KCM) 6 Ray Brown (HOM) 17 ERA Bob Feller1 (CLE) 2.61 Bucky Walters (CIN) 2.48 George Walker (KCM) 1.29 Ray Brown (HOM) 2.07 K Bob Feller1 (CLE) 261 Kirby Higbe (PHI) 137 Preacher Henry (CBR) 63 Henry McHenry (PHS) 86 1 American League Triple Crown pitching winner
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
Independent teams final standings Several All Star teams played against individual teams of established leagues. vs. All Teams Independent Clubs W L T Pct. GBNorth All Stars100—Taylor's All Stars0101Satchel Paige All Stars0201½
Events January
January 4 The contestants in last year's World Series, the Cincinnati Reds and champion New York Yankees, make an all-pitcher trade when Cincinnati obtains right-hander Joe Beggs from the Bombers for left-hander Lee Grissom. Beggs, 29, spent all of last season in the minors as a starting pitcher; converted to a reliever in 1940, he'll help the Reds to another National League pennant, winning 12 games and saving seven others. The St. Louis Browns claim side-arming knuckleball hurler Johnny Niggeling on waivers from the Reds. January 10 The Chicago White Sox obtain shortstop/second baseman Skeeter Webb from the Cleveland Indians for middle infielders Ollie Bejma and Johnny Gerlach. The Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Wes Ferrell as a free agent. Ferrell, 31, has gone 191–127 (4.03) with six 20-or-more-victory seasons during his 13-year American League career, which ended when the Yankees released him on May 28, 1939; he'll make only one official appearance as a Dodger (on May 10) before drawing his release on May 14, 1940. January 14 Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis voids the Detroit Tigers' December 1939 trade that would have sent pitcher George Coffman and second baseman Benny McCoy to the Philadelphia Athletics for outfielder Wally Moses, because the Tigers—via "fake agreements [and] cover-up deals"—had illegally impeded the careers of McCoy and 90 other "farmhands" through secret working agreements with minor-league teams. McCoy and the other 90 men are declared free agents, and Coffman and Moses are sent back to their former clubs. On January 16, Landis issues new rules intended to eliminate secret agreements and covert player transfers between major- and minor-league teams. Detroit major- and minor-leaguers granted freedom today by the ruling also include Roy Cullenbine, Guy Curtright, Dutch Dietz, Danny Gardella, Paul Gillespie, Catfish Metkovich, Dee Phillips, Johnny Sain, Bryan Stephens and Tommy Tatum."Transactions for 1940." Retrosheet. The Landis decision leaves only 78 players in the entire Detroit organization, including 35 on the Tigers' MLB roster, 30 with the team-owned Beaumont Exporters of the high-level Texas League, and 13 with the Henderson Oilers of the Class C East Texas League. January 20 – The Cleveland Indians swap outfielders with the Tigers, acquiring outfielder Beau Bell from Detroit for Bruce Campbell. Former All-Star Bell, 32, led the American League in hits (218) and doubles (51) in . January 23 – The Boston Bees release veteran right-hander Fred Frankhouse, 35, ending the hurler's 13-year National League career. January 29 – Benny McCoy, liberated from the Detroit Tigers 15 days ago, signs with the Philadelphia Athletics as a free agent after a multi-team bidding war. The Athletics, who had tried to trade for McCoy last month, ultimately "get their man," but it costs Connie Mack a record $45,000 bonus. McCoy, 24, hit.302 in 55 games after Detroit recalled him from Toledo in July 1939. January 30 The Tigers keep dealing, obtaining lefty-swinging catcher Billy Sullivan Jr. from the St. Louis Browns for pitcher George Coffman, whose earlier trade, with McCoy, to Philadelphia had been voided by Commissioner Landis. The Browns make a second deal, purchasing the contract of outfielder Wally Judnich, 24, from the Newark Bears, one of the New York Yankees' top minor-league affiliates. January 31 Eight of the 14 MLB stadia will host night baseball in 1940, with today's announcement that St. Louis' Sportsman's Park will install lights by May. Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates revealed that Forbes Field will be illuminated this season, and the New York Giants earlier announced plans to bring lights to the Polo Grounds.
The Boston Red Sox release catcher Moe Berg, ending his playing career after 15 MLB seasons and 663 games played. In the short term, Berg, 37, joins manager Joe Cronin's staff as a coach, but beginning in , the master linguist will take up a new occupation as an espionage agent for the United States and its Allies, working against the Axis powers. The Brooklyn Dodgers purchase the contract of veteran right-hander Tex Carleton from Milwaukee of the American Association. Carleton, 33, won 94 games and was a member of three NL champions between and as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs.
February February 1 – Speaking at Boston's annual baseball writers' dinner, Larry MacPhail, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, attacks Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis' recently released 3,000-word plan to reform minor league baseball by "abolishing all farm systems." MacPhail claims that the presidents of 15 minor leagues have contacted him, worried that their circuits will have to shut down for the coming season if Landis' plan becomes reality. On February 6, at their late-winter confab, National League owners will vote unanimously to establish a four-man subcommittee to study Landis' reforms, but to delay any changes in the major-minor league agreement until the current pact expires in January 1942. February 2 – The election of a Negro National League president ends in a deadlock, with three owners voting for incumbent Tom Wilson and three voting for New York City businessman C. B. Powell. February 5 – The Brooklyn Dodgers sign outfielder Roy Cullenbine, 26, who appeared in 75 games for the 1939 Detroit Tigers. Cullenbine, granted free agency January 14 by Commissioner Landis in his ruling that punished the Tigers for manipulation of players' contracts in their farm system, will get a reported $25,000 for signing with Brooklyn. February 8 – The St. Louis Browns purchase the contract of right-hander Elden Auker from the Boston Red Sox. Auker, 29, will win 16 games for the 1940 Brownies. February 11 – Minor-league czar William G. Bramham expels for life the manager of the 1939 Lenoir Indians of the Class D Tar Heel League for forging signatures on players' contracts. The club's president and five directors are fined and suspended for the same offense. February 12 – The Red Sox sell the contract of last season's regular left-fielder, Joe Vosmik, to the Dodgers. A former All-Star who has batted.311 with 1,550 hits in ten American League seasons, the 29-year-old veteran is dealt so that the Red Sox can move sophomore slugging star Ted Williams from right field to Vosmik's old left-field position. February 13 After only one season, MLB's Rules Committee again eliminates the "sacrifice fly" rule, deciding that batters who hit run-scoring fly balls will be charged with an official at bat in 1940. The contemporary SF rule, which credits the hitter with a sacrifice and does not cost him an at bat, won't return for good until . Major- and minor-league owners and officials and Kenesaw Mountain Landis reach a compromise that preserves the farm system model while preventing abuses such as those committed by the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals in recent seasons that ultimately led to the free agency of over 150 players. February 15 – The Philadelphia Athletics sign catcher Buddy Hancken as a free agent. Hancken will appear in just one game in the majors, this May 14, as a defensive replacement for Earle Brucker, catching one inning in a 9–7 win over the Cleveland Indians. February 20 – The Brooklyn Dodgers acquire a "substantial" ownership interest in their top farm system affiliate, the Montreal Royals of the International League. February 23 – A compromise by Alex Pompez ends a three-week stalemate among Negro National League clubs over the election of a league president and the role of promoter Eddie Gottlieb. League president Tom Wilson, vice president Ed Bolden, and secretary Cumberland Posey are all reelected for the 1940 season. Newark Eagles owner Abe Manley, who opposed Wilson's reelection, becomes league treasurer. Gottlieb is allowed to continue promoting the majority of games at Yankee Stadium, but the New York Black Yankees are empowered to promote a double-header at their own home field. February 29 – A federal judge rules in favor of Grace Comiskey, widow of J. Louis Comiskey, and awards her ownership of the Chicago White Sox. The First National Bank of Chicago, intent on selling the team, had contested the will, arguing that it contained no specific language granting her the team upon her husband's death.
March
March 3 – The Boston Bees sell the contract of outfielder Debs Garms to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although he records only 385 plate appearances, Garms, 32, will breeze to the National League batting crown (127-for-358, .355) in the season to come. March 13 – Vowing that his arm feels "swell," erstwhile holdout Dizzy Dean signs his 1940 contract and leaves for the Chicago Cubs' Catalina training camp. Dean, 30 years old and a future Hall of Famer, has been struggling with a sore arm since a broken toe suffered in the 1937 MLB All-Star Game caused him to alter his pitching motion. He was 6–4 (3.36) in only 19 games and 96 innings pitched for the 1939 Cubs. March 17 – In Tampa, the National League defeats the American League, 2–1, in a special, charity exhibition game organized by former President Herbert Hoover to benefit the Finnish Relief Fund. The contest, broadcast on the Mutual radio network, raises more than $20,000 to help citizens of Finland whose homes and businesses were destroyed in 1939's attack from the Soviet Union. Tampa native Al López scores the winning run in the bottom of the ninth off losing hurler Bob Feller before 13,180 fans. March 23