1940 American League

The 1940 season of the American League was the fortieth season of the league.

Season summary[edit]

Bold indicates league champion, Italics indicates World Series champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
1	Detroit Tigers	155	90	64	1	.581	-.-	888 (5.73)	717 (4.63)	0.286	0.364	0.442	4.01	0.968
2	Cleveland Indians	155	89	65	1	.574	1.0	710 (4.58)	637 (4.11)	0.265	0.330	0.398	3.63	0.975
3	New York Yankees	155	88	66	1	.568	2.0	817 (5.27)	671 (4.33)	0.259	0.340	0.418	3.89	0.975
4	Chicago White Sox	155	82	72	1	.529	8.0	735 (4.74)	672 (4.34)	0.278	0.339	0.387	3.74	0.969
5	Boston Red Sox	154	82	72	0	.532	8.0	872 (5.66)	825 (5.36)	0.286	0.355	0.449	4.89	0.972
6	St. Louis Browns	156	67	87	2	.429	23.0	757 (4.85)	882 (5.65)	0.263	0.331	0.401	5.12	0.974
7	Washington Senators	154	64	90	0	.416	26.0	665 (4.32)	811 (5.27)	0.271	0.329	0.374	4.59	0.968
8	Philadelphia Athletics	154	54	100	0	.351	36.0	703 (4.56)	932 (6.05)	0.262	0.332	0.387	5.22	0.960

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	Lou Boudreau Babe Dahlgren Joe Gordon Joe Kuhel Rudy York	Cleveland Indians New York Yankees New York Yankees Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers	155
At Bats	Doc Cramer	Boston Red Sox	661
Runs Scored	Ted Williams	Boston Red Sox	134
Hits	Doc Cramer Barney McCosky Rip Radcliff	Boston Red Sox Detroit Tigers St. Louis Browns	200
Doubles	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	50
Triples	Barney McCosky	Detroit Tigers	19
Home Runs	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	41
Total Bases	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	384
Runs Batted In	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	150
Stolen Bases	George Case	Washington Senators	35
Caught Stealing	George Case Buddy Lewis Jim Tabor Mike Tresh	Washington Senators Washington Senators Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox	10
Walks	Charlie Keller	New York Yankees	106
Hit by Pitch	Frankie Crosetti	New York Yankees	10
Strikeouts	Sam Chapman	Philadelphia Athletics	96
Sacrifice Hits	Mike Kreevich	Chicago White Sox	21
Grounded into Double Plays	Lou Boudreau	Cleveland Indians	23
Batting Average	Joe DiMaggio	New York Yankees	0.352
On-Base Percentage	Ted Williams	Boston Red Sox	0.442
Slugging Percentage	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	0.670
On-Base plus Slugging	Hank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	1.103
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Joe DiMaggio	New York Yankees	173

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	27
Losses	George Caster Dutch Leonard	Philadelphia Athletics Washington Senators	19
Win-Loss Percentage	Schoolboy Rowe	Detroit Tigers	0.842
Appearances	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	43
Games Started	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	37
Complete Games	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	31
Shutouts	Bob Feller Ted Lyons Al Milnar	Cleveland Indians Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians	4
Games Finished	Clint Brown	Chicago White Sox	36
Saves	Al Benton	Detroit Tigers	17
Innings Pitched	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	320.1
Batters Faced	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	1304
Hits Allowed	Dutch Leonard	Washington Senators	328
Home Runs Allowed	Bob Harris Red Ruffing	St. Louis Browns New York Yankees	24
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Ken Chase	Washington Senators	143
Hit Batsmen	Spud Chandler Al Smith	New York Yankees Cleveland Indians	6
Strikeouts	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	261
Wild Pitches	Ken Chase Porter Vaughan	Washington Senators Philadelphia Athletics	12
Balks	Atley Donald Bobo Newsom Nels Potter Porter Vaughan	New York Yankees Detroit Tigers Philadelphia Athletics Philadelphia Athletics	2
Runs Allowed	George Caster	Philadelphia Athletics	160
Earned Runs Allowed	Vern Kennedy	St. Louis Browns	138
Earned Run Average	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	2.61
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Bob Feller	Cleveland Indians	1.133

The American League lost the eighth midsummer classic at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday, July 9, 1940 by a score of 4 to 0. The league's manager was Joe Cronin.

In the World Series, the American League champion Detroit Tigers were defeated by the National League's Cincinnati Reds, 4 games to 3.

The winner of the league's Most Valuable Player Award, given its Most Valuable Player, was Hank Greenberg, an outfielder with the Detroit Tigers. In the award's voting, he had 292 out of a possible 336 points and 16 first place votes.

The first annual Hall of Fame Game was played on June 13 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY near the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In the game, the American League's Boston Red Sox lost to the Chicago Cubs of the National League by a score of 10 to 9.

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