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New Release! 1941 Deluxe Past Season with Transactions and Lineups

1941: A Golden Summer in a Burning World

by Steve Ehresman

In 1941 America was enjoying one final summer of radio, movies, big bands, and baseball before being plunged into the deadliest war in history.

The Jack Benny Program, Fibber McGee and Molly, and The Shadow were staples of the radio airwaves, providing laughter and thrills to an audience seeking escapism in an increasingly dangerous world.

Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, How Green Was My Valley, and Sergeant York packed movie houses from coast to coast, and Walt Disney’s Dumbo, using his enormous ears to create aerodynamic lift, flew into animated history.

Bandleaders Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman kept couples in dance halls booging, cutting rugs, and jitterbugging well into the night. The most popular song in 1941 was “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Then there was America’s pastime: baseball. The baseball gods shed their grace on fans with a season of spectacular performances by young stars who would soon become household names. Nevertheless, these exceptional moments occurred amid the inexorable darkness of war.

Even as America boogied. laughed, and cheered, a sense of foreboding was overtaking the national consciousness. Divided between isolationists and interventionists, the American people dreaded the future, worrying that the country was not prepared for another war. In September 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, requiring all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for a peacetime draft. Detroit Tiger slugger Hank Greenberg, baseball’s reigning MVP, was the first star to enlist. He served 47 months in the China-Burma-India theater, scouting targets for B-29s, and was discharged in June 1945. Because of Greenberg’s service, experts estimate that he lost 150 home runs and 750 hits. After the War, Greenberg enjoyed a dominant 1946 season, and in 1947 as a Pittsburgh Pirate, he mentored a young slugger named Ralph Kiner.

Cecil Travis of the Washington Senators (.359 BA, a league-leading 218 hits, 39 2B, 19 3B, and 101 RBI) suffered frostbite during the Battle of the Bulge and never recovered his pre-war excellence. Buddy Lewis, also of the Washington Senators (.297 BA, 72 RBI), came home with a “full head of white hair” after flying over 350 missions in the China-Burma-India theater, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal, sacrificing his promising career for his country. According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, 416,800 armed service members died fighting the Axis Powers.

American poet John Greenleaf Whittier writes, “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.” Had fate not intervened, what amazing chapters in human history might have been written by the “Greatest Generation.” We will never know, but we will feel the loss forever.

Before America entered the War, Japan, in a state of “total war” with China, invaded Manchuria and French Indochina to seek resources for its war effort. At last, tensions between the United States and the Empire of Japan erupted into hostilities in the form of a military strike on the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Four United States battle ships were sunk; 180 aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed; and an additional 1,178 were wounded. President Roosevelt declared December 7, 1941 “a day that will live in infamy.”

In the European theater, having saved 338,226 Allied soldiers, thanks to the Miracle of Dunkirk (May 26-June 4, 1940), Great Britain stood alone against the Nazi war machine. Despite the odds, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, indomitable as an English bulldog, thundered, “We shall never surrender”.

Across the pond, President Roosevelt, in his 1941 State of the Union address, initiated the Lend-Lease program, providing military and economic aid to the Allied cause. To provide moral justification for this new program, President Roosevelt declared four inalienable human freedoms: 1) freedom of speech and expression, 2) freedom of worship, 3) freedom from want, and 4) freedom from fear. Warning that the United States could not survive as a “happy and fertile oasis of liberty” in a world of dictatorships, FDR was bold amid a crisis.

The British people endured eight months of terror (September 1940 to May 1941), as Hermann Goering’s Luftwaffe bombed the United Kingdom, killing 43,500 civilians, approximately 30.000 in London alone. During this ordeal, Prime Minister Churchill modeled what author Erik Larson calls “the art of being fearless.”

Against this backdrop of war, baseball in 1941 produced what many have called “the greatest baseball season ever.” Youngsters Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams began the season as good, but not iconic players. The Brooklyn Dodgers, aka the “Daffiness Boys,” had been creeping up on the National League since 1938, when hard-drinking red head Larry McPhail took the reins. By 1941, “them Bums” were locked in a knock-down, drag-out pennant race with the St. Louis Cardinals, capturing the hearts of baseball fans across the nation.

The New York Yankees. Nuff said. After stumbling in 1940, the Yanks regained their dominance, breezing past the Boston Red Sox to capture the American League pennant by 17 games. En route to a 101-53 record, the “Bronx Bombers” were led by wunderkind Joe DiMaggio, about whom Les Brown and his Orchestra (with vocals by Betty Bonney) performed a ballad that immortalized the 26-year-old slugger after his 56-game hitting streak had come to an end in Cleveland. “Joe, Joe DiMaggio, we want you on our side.”

When the 1941 season began, DiMaggio was not an All-American hero. His contract disputes with the New York Yankees’ front office during the Great Depression led to negative press and even some boos from fans; however, amazing statistics (357 BA, a league-leading 125 RBI, 30 HR, and .643 SLG) can go a long way toward turning jeers into cheers. Further, DiMaggio kept the entire nation captivated from May 15 to July 17, 1941. Baseball fans in every village, town, or city had only to ask, “Did he get a hit today?” Everyone knew whom they meant.

Baseball’s other supremely talented youngster, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, was a work in progress. Everyone recognized Williams’ hitting skill, but, as author Robert Creamer points out, the skinny phenom from San Diego was a “fresh kid,” who did “a lot of yakking.”

In 1941, Williams was on his way to becoming “the greatest hitter who ever lived” (.406 BA, a league-leading 37 HR, a league-leading 147 BB, a league-leading .735 SLG, and 120 RBI). How Williams finished the season with a .406 BA is the stuff of legend.

The Red Sox were playing the Philadelphia Athletics in a double-header on September 28, the final game of the regular season. Entering the day, Williams’ BA was .3995, which would have rounded up to .400. “The Kid” could have sat out both games of the twin bill, thus ensuring his place in history as the eighth player to hit .400 for a season. Having none of it, Williams played both games, going 4-5 in the first game and 2-3 in the second game to finish the season at .406, a mark that no one has reached since that day.

The Brooklyn Dodgers caught fire in 1941. With Leo “the Lip Durocher” at the helm, rather than crowd-pleasing first base coach Babe Ruth, the Dodgers won their first pennant in 21 years, finishing 100-54, 2 ½ games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals. On July 1, the Dodgers played the Phillies in Brooklyn. Nothing remarkable about that, except this was the first TV broadcast with a commercial (a 10-second spot for Bulova watches). Dodger announcer “Red” Barber adapted his charming Southern style to fit the new medium, often holding up products like Ivory Soap to the camera. Although the picture was grainy and hard to see, Larry McPhail championed televised baseball games as a means of making more money and expanding his team’s fan base. Other baseball owners remained skeptical, but McPhail proved to be a prophet of a new age. Thanks to Leland Stanford McPhail and Walter Lanier Barber, the Dodgers were “sittin’ in the catbird seat.”

The pennant race between Brooklyn and St. Louis was one for the ages. Led by National League MVP, Dolph Camilli (34 HR, 120 RBI) and fearless 22-year-old Pete Reiser (a league-leading 184 R, a league-leading .343 BA, 38 2B, 17 3B, and .558 SLG), the Dodgers captured their first pennant since the bygone 1920 season. On the mound, Brooklyn featured a couple of 20-game winners, Kirby Higbe (22-9. 3.78 ERA) and Whit Wyatt (22-10, 2.35 ERA). Further, their bullpen included the mercurial Hugh Casey (4-4, 2.91 ERA, 10 SV).

The St. Louis Cardinals stood toe-to-toe with Willard Muillin’s scrappy Bums all summer. The Red Birds were powered by Johnny Mize (.317 BA, 16 HR, 100 RBI) and hustling Enos “Country” Slaughter (.311 BA, 13 HR, 87 RBI). The Cardinals pitching corps put stalwarts like Ernie White (17-10, 2.40 ERA, and 27.2 consecutive scoreless innings), Lon Warneke (17-10, 3.15 ERA) and Mort Cooper (13-8, 3.91 ERA) on the hill. Further, on September 17, 1941, the Cardinals debuted a 20-year-old outfielder, who finished his 12-game major league stint with a .426 BA. His name was Stan Musial.

In the Junior Circuit, despite their epic seasons, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams shared the spotlight with several outstanding teammates. Charlie Keller (.298 BA, 33 HR, 122 RBI) and Tommy “Old Reliable Henrich (31 HR, 81 RBI) gave “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio plenty of offensive support, while 5-foot-6, 150 lb. rookie shortstop Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto batted .307. Teaming with Rizzuto, Joe “Flash” Gordon hit .276 with 24 homers and 87 RBI, while solidifying his reputation as a stellar second baseman. Meanwhile in Boston, Ted “The Splendid Splinter” Williams was teamed with Jimmie “The Beast” Foxx, who batted .300, clipped 19 home runs, and collected 105 RBI. Rock-solid second baseman Bobby Doerr chipped in with 16 homers and 93 RBI. As Doerr’s long-time Yankee opponent Tommie Henrich asserted, the man Ted Williams affectionately nicknamed “The Silent Captain” retired in 1951 with “no enemies.”

Beyond these legendary National and American League franchises, the 1941 season witnessed stellar performances that buttress the claim this final season of peace was the greatest of all time. Preeminent among these stars, Bob “Rapid Robert” Feller, Cleveland’s ace, started 40 games, posted a 25-13 record, hurled 343 innings, struck out 260 batters, and finished with a 3.15 ERA. As Feller lost over 3-and-a half prime seasons to the War effort, experts suggest that “Rapid Robert” lost 90+ wins, 900+ strikeouts, and 1.200 innings. Further, the 23-year-old Van Meter, Iowa native, who enlisted immediately after Pearl Harbor, likely would have won 300+ career games and inscribed his name in the record books alongside baseball’s all-time strikeout leaders. Other noteworthy 1941 hurlers were Thorton Lee (22-11, 2.37 ERA) of the White Sox, Johnny Vander Meer (202 K in 226.1 innings, 2.82 ERA) of the Cincinnati Reds, and Elmer Riddle (19-4, seven consecutive complete-game victories, a major league leading 2.24 ERA), Vander Meer’s teammate on the defending World Series champions.

In addition to impressive achievements on the mound, the 1941 season showcased star hitters who did not play for pennant contenders. Big Bopper Jeff Heath had a career season for Cleveland (199 H, 32 2B, 20 3B, 24 HR, 123 RBI, .340 BA). In limited play (220 AB), Pat Mullin, sophomore fly hawk for the Detroit Tigers, batted .345. Rudy York joined his Bengal teammate in the hit parade, hitting 27 home run and collecting 111 RBI. Veteran New York Giant Mel Ott cranked out 27 home runs and recorded 90 RBI. Bill Nicholson established himself as a presence in the Chicago Cubs line-up by lofting 26 HR and hammering 98 RBI. Ken Keltner, a 7-time All-Star third baseman for Cleveland, who made two spectacular plays on July 17, 1941 to stop DiMaggio’s hitting streak at 56, showed his chops at the plate by coming through with 31 2B, 13 3B, 23 HR, and 84 RBI. In total, MLB featured 16 total hitters who swatted 20 or more home runs in 1941.

The World Series between the upstart Brooklyn Dodgers and the back-on-track New York Yankees, the last to be played before the entry of the United States into World War II, was a “Subway Series” between Big Apple contestants. Heavy favorites, the Yankees had won 13 of their last 14 Series games and 28 of their last 31. To the surprise of few, the Yankees made good on their dynasty status, whipping “Dem Bums” 4 games to 1. This series is remembered for the infamous dropped third strike by Dodger catcher Mickey Owen in Game Four on October 5, 1941. With the Dodgers leading 4-3, thanks to a home run by Pete Reiser, the Yankees rallied to beat Hugh Casey. Although Tommy Henrich had struck out on a 3-2 pitch, Mickey Owen failed to catch the ball, and “Old Reliable” reached first base. DiMaggio followed with a single. Then, Charlie Keller doubled in both Henrich and DiMaggio, as the Yankees took the lead for good. Yankee catcher Bill Dickey walked, and Joe Gordon doubled in Keller and Dickey. Yankee “Fireman” Johnny Murphy pitched two shutout innings. Final score: Yankees 7, Dodgers 4. The next day, Monday, October 6, the Bronx Bombers closed out the Dodgers, breaking the heart of an entire borough.

When the final curtain fell on the 1941 season, war was imminent. A far greater legacy than baseball legends emerged, as American youths stepped forward to defend freedom. During the life or death struggle of World War II, Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra performed “When the Lights Go On Again,” sung by Vera Lynn. Poignant and hopeful, this anthem captured the heart of “The Greatest Generation.” From cities, towns, and farms, youngsters barely out of high school stood up to battle-hardened totalitarians. In “Voluntaries,” written in 1863 to honor Civil War soldiers, Ralph Waldo Emerson immortalizes this spirit:

When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.

Diamond Mind is proud to bring the 1941 season to life, with all its memorable moments. Nothing can reproduce the courage of those who came home from the War to build America. Diamond Mind can provide a moment in time, a brilliant summer of memories and legends, in its new, completely revised issue of the 1941 season. Order your copy and remember that difficult and triumphant era.

Presenting the 1941 Deluxe Past Season Database

This fully-featured database provides everything you need to recreate and manage games using teams and players from the 1941 season.

More than just an update to the original Classic Past Season database, this "deluxe" edition has been meticulously reconstructed from scratch as an entirely new database. Using advanced tools and incorporating the most recent statistical data gathered from the most up-to-date online sources.

Database contents:

basic player facts: names, batting and throwing hands, birthdates
official batting and pitching statistics, including left/right splits
fielding statistics by position
games started at each position against left- and right-handed pitchers
thousands of player ratings that you can see: injury, bunting, range, running, throwing, and so on
thousands more player ratings that you can't see: the event tables and pitch-by-pitch ratings that make the game produce accurate results
opening day rosters for every team, plus more than 800 real-life transactions
manager profiles for every team, including starting rotations, bullpen roles, saved lineups, depth charts, manager and player tendencies
ballpark data, including dimensions, park factors, and weather ratings
the original (as-scheduled) and as-played schedules for the season
real-life starting lineups for every game played this season

Compatibility and Pricing:

The 1941 Deluxe Past Season database is available exclusively in version 12 format, priced at $24.95. This means it can only be installed with Diamond Mind Baseball: Version 12 and is not compatible with earlier versions of the game.

Upgrade Discount for the Classic Past Season:

If you've previously purchased the 1941 Classic Past Season database from Diamond Mind, you may be eligible for an upgrade discount! To request your discount promotion code, send an email to dmb_info@imaginesports.com.