The Fluctuating '40s

With his majestic swing, Ted Williams had four of the top six hitting seasons in major league baseball in the 1940s, according to a point system used by the author. This despite missing three full seasons because of military service.

Stan Musial did plenty of rounding the bases in the 1940s with four of the top 10 hitting seasons in the major leagues. He was the only player to break through Ted Williams' grip on the top six.

By Phil Ellenbecker

  "Fluctuating '40s' is kind of a lame title, but Fabulous had already been taken by the '50s, and fluctuating is somewhat descriptive of the 1940s. There was certainly fluctuation with the players, with World War II taking away a large chunk of them, including many of baseball's very best. And there was also a lot of ebb and flow put up in the numbers by the players, whomever they were. Some of that had to do with WWII itself and cutbacks made in the U.S.

  Because of a shortage of rubber supplies A.G. Spalding & Bros., which manufactured balls for Major League Baseball, was forced in 1942 to replace the baseball core’s natural rubber shell with less-elastic balata, the same substance used to make the hard outer shell of golf balls. Hank Greenberg led the American League in homers with 41 in 1940, but by 1944 the league-leading total had dropped to Nick Etten's 22. Vern Stephens led the next year with 24. And even after crude rubber baseballs returned in 1946, Ralph Kiner hit only 23 homers to lead the NL in 1946. Yet Kiner hit 51 and 54 to lead the NL in 1947 and '49. So homers were back by the end of the decade.

  Some dives in numbers can't really be explained by the equipment or the comings and goings of players. With all the players back in 1946, Bob Feller struck out 348 batters. At the time that was the second-highest post-1900 total in major league history, one behind Rube Waddell in 1904. Yet despite leading the league in Ks the next two years, Feller's totals dropped to 196 and 164.

  So anyway, on with my decade-by-decade look at the best players of each 10 years and the best individual seasons by those players. I've already covered the '50s, '60s and '70s.

   Now here's my disclosure notice: The “study” consisted of pulling out a Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia and looking over the listing of league leaders in several categories for each year. The top five were listed in some instances, the top four in others – don’t ask me how that line was drawn. The major categories almost all included the top five. In a couple instances just the top three were listed. Sometimes just two. I think a large number of players tied had something to do with less than four, and space limitations may have come into play. I gave five points for the top ranking, four for second and so on down. Where just four were listed, it went 5-4-3-2. If there was a tie, I divided the total number of points between the rankings by the number of players who were tied. Example: Three players tied for second – 4+3+2=9 divided by 3=3 points for each player.

  The categories: hitting -- batting average, total bases, hits, runs, slugging average, RBIs, walks, doubles, homers, steals, homer-percentage, triples; pitching  – winning percentage, saves, hits/nine innings, strikeouts/nine innings, ERA, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, wins, complete games, walks/nine innings, games pitched.

  What I came up with I think gives a fairly representative presentation of the top players and seasons. There are enough categories included to give a balance between the counting stats that reward durability and reliability and the rate stats that address pure performance. Offense takes in power, speed, batting eye and contact; pitching -- power, control, durability and dominance (i.e., shutouts). Mind you, the numbers, other than the rankings I assigned, don’t matter here, just how the players ranked in comparison with their peers. Which I think is the best way to rate players, how they rate relative to others. The 54 homers Kiner hit to lead the NL in 1949 don't matter any more than Etten's 22 to lead the AL in '45. They were simply the best over their peers in that particular year in that particular category.

Bob Feller,  who lost three full years and most of 1945 to military service, had at three seasons in the top 10 among major league pitchers in the 1940s, including the top mark in 1940.

Hal Newhowser had three of the top 10 pitching seasons in the major leagues in the 1940s, tied with Bob Feller for the most top 10s.

  So here's how the players and their numbers panned out:

Top 10 pitching seasons

1. Bob Feller, 1940, 46

2. Hal Newhowser, 1945, 45

3. Mort Cooper, 1942, 42

4 (tie). Harry Brecheen, 1948, Hal Newhowser, 1944 and Bob Feller, 1946, each with 40

7. Hal Newhowser, 1946, 39

8. Ewell Blackwell, 1947, 38 1/2

9. Bob Feller, 1947, 36

10. Spud  Chandler, 1943, 35 1/2

  Bob Feller, who lost three full years and most of 1945 to military service, and Hal Newhowser each had three seasons in the Top10, each with two in the top four. Feller had the best season with 46 in 1940, followed by Newhowser's 45 in 1945. However, if you were to assign points on their top 10 rankings (10-9-8 and so on down), Newhowser with his added seventh-place finish would edge Feller with his ninth, 19-18.

  (It should be noted that Newhowser didn't miss any seasons because of military service. He was classified 4-F, unfit for duty because of a heart valve abnormality, although he tried to slip through military screening.)
  Feller and Newhouser each had two seasons leading all major league pitchers in points.

  Sticking within the leagues, Feller and Newhouse naturally led the AL with three seasons in the top 10, Newhouser's all within the top five and Feller's all within the top six. Feller led the league in points for four seasons, two straight twice in '40-41 and '46-'47. Newhowser led in '44 and '45 for the other multiple-season leader.

  Mort Cooper was the lone NL hurler with multiple Top 10 seasons with two. He had the top NL mark of the decade with 42, which ranked third overall. He and teammate Harry Brecheen were the only pitchers to break through Feller and Newhouser's dominance of the overall rankings, with Brecheen's 40 in 1948 tying for fourth place. Cooper and Bucky Walters tied for most league-leading seasons with two apiece, Cooper's coming back-to-back in '42-43.

Top 10 hitting seasons

1. Ted Williams, 1949, 47 1/2

2. Stan Musial, 1948, 45

3. Stan Musial, 1949, 43 1/2

4. Ted Williams, 1942, 42 1/2

5. Ted Williams, 1947, 42

6. Ted Williams, 1946, 40

7. Tommy Holmes, 1945, 39 2/3

8. Stan Musial, 1946, 38 1/2

9. Snuffy Stinweiss, 1945, 38

10. Stan Musial, 1943, 35 1/2

  Ted Williams, despite missing three full seasons because of military service, had four seasons in the top 10, all in the top six, led by his 47 1/2 in 1949. Although most known for being the last to eclipse a .400 batting average with .406 in 1941, his '41 season of 35 doesn't quite crack the list. Despite his dominance in the decade, Williams won only two American League MVP awards, in '49 and '46. In his fourth- and fifth-place Triple Crown seasons of 1942 and 1947, he finished second in '42 to Joe Gordon (270 points, 12 first-place votes to 249 and 9) and was nosed out in '48 by Joe Dimaggio (202-8 to 201-3). In 1948, Williams never a favorite of the writers who vote for the awards, was left off one ballot entirely.

  Stan Musial, who lost one full season to military duty, tied Williams with four top 10 seasons and was the only player to break through Williams' grip on the top six, placing second and third in 1948 and 1949. His 45 points in 1948 was the runner-up total. He fell one homer short of a Triple Crown in 1948. Of his top 10 seasons, Musial won MVP awards in '43, '46 and '48. He finished second in '49 to Jackie Robinson (264 points and 12 first-place votes to 226 and 5).

  Tommy Holmes, seventh with 39 2/3 in 1945, and Snuffy Stirnweiss, ninth with 38 also in 1945, were the only non-Williamses or Musials to crack the top 10.

  League-wise, Williams had six top-10 AL seasons, including five of the top six. Musial had five in the top 10 NL, including four of the top five. Williams, obviously, had the most league-leading AL seasons while Musial topped the NL with four league-leading campaigns. The reason he didn't have five was because Bill "Swish" Nicholson topped him 32-31 in 1944.

  Sources: Listings for the top five each year came from  "The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Official Record of Major League Baseball, Macmillan. Information on wartime baseballs came from  https://www.history.com/news/the-rubbery-history-of-the-baseball.