The following are the baseball events of the year 1946 throughout the world.

Champions

Major League Baseball

Other champions

Winter Leagues

Awards and honors

MLB statistical leaders

Hank Greenberg, Hall of Famer and 2-time MVP
 American LeagueNational League
TypeNameStatNameStat
AVGMickey Vernon WSH.353Stan Musial SLC.365
HRHank Greenberg DET44Ralph Kiner PIT23
RBIHank Greenberg DET127Enos Slaughter SLC130
WinsBob Feller CLE &
Hal Newhouser DET		26Howie Pollet SLC21
ERAHal Newhouser DET1.94Howie Pollet SLC2.10
KsBob Feller CLE348Johnny Schmitz CHC135

Major league baseball final standings

American League final standings

American League
RankClubWinsLossesWin %  GB
1stBoston Red Sox104  50.675   –
2ndDetroit Tigers92  62.597  12.0
3rdNew York Yankees87  67.565  17.0
4thWashington Senators76  78.484  28.0
5thChicago White Sox74  80.481  30.0
6thCleveland Indians68  86.442  36.0
7thSt. Louis Browns66  88.429  38.0
8thPhiladelphia Athletics49105.318  55

National League final standings

National League
RankClubWinsLossesWin %  GB
1stSt. Louis Cardinals98  58.628   –
2ndBrooklyn Dodgers96  60.615  2
3rdChicago Cubs82  71.536  14.5
4thBoston Braves81  72.529  15.5
5thPhiladelphia Phillies69  85.448  28.0
6thCincinnati Reds67  87.435  30.0
7thPittsburgh Pirates63  91.409  34.0
8thNew York Giants61  93.396  36.0

Negro league baseball final standings

Negro American League final standings

Negro American League
ClubWinsLossesWin %  GB
Kansas City Monarchs 43 14 .755 --
Birmingham Black Barons 35 25 .583 9.5
Cleveland Buckeyes 26 27 .491 15
Indianapolis Clowns 27 35 .435 18.5
Memphis Red Sox 24 36 .400 20.5
Chicago American Giants 27 45 .375 23.5

Negro National League final standings

Negro National League
ClubWinsLossesWin %  GB
Newark Eagles 47 16 .746
New York Cubans 28 23 .549
Washington Homestead Grays 27 28 .491
Philadelphia Stars 27 29 .482
Baltimore Elite Giants 28 31 .475
New York Black Yankees 8 40 .200

Japanese Baseball League final standings

Japanese Baseball League
ClubWinsLossesTieWin %  GB
Great Ring 65 38 2 .631 --
Tokyo Kyojin 64 39 2 .621 1
Osaka Tigers 59 46 0 .562 7
Hankyu 51 52 2 .495 14
Senators 47 58 0 .448 19
Gold Star 27 45 2 .375 22
Chubu Nippon 42 60 3 .412 22.5
Pacific 42 60 3 .412 22.5

Events

January

  • January 3 – The Boston Red Sox get slugger Rudy York from Detroit for shortstop Eddie Lake.
  • January 12 – Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams receives his discharge from the U.S. Marine Air Corps after a three-year stint serving in World War II. In spite of the long absence from competitive baseball, Williams will return to the major leagues by hitting .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBI in 1946.
  • January 12 – The first official professional game is played in Venezuela, launching the newly constituted four-team Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Venezuela. The league is composed of four teams: Caracas BBC, Magallanes BBC, Vargas BBC and Venezuela BBC. The inaugural game is won by Magallanes over Venezuela, 5–2, behind strong pitching from Alex Carrasquel, who gives up 11 hits in a complete game effort.
  • January 20 – In a classic pitching matchup played in Caracas, Venezuela, Alex Carrasquel of Magallanes beat Roy Welmaker and Vargas club, 3–2, in 17 innings. In the six-and-a-half-hour marathon, Carrasquel is good enough to silence the bats of Roy Campanella and Sam Jethroe. Both pitchers go the distance in one of the greatest matchups ever.

February

  • February 19 – New York Giants OF Danny Gardella becomes the first major leaguer to announce he is jumping to the "outlaw" Mexican League, the first shot in the series of events that will dominate baseball even more than the return of all the war veterans. His attempt to return to Major League Baseball a few years later will initiate a major court battle.

March

April

May

June

  • June 7 — The Pittsburgh Pirates' 36 active players vote 20–16 to authorize a strike rather than take the field against the New York Giants after club president William Benswanger refuses to negotiate with the American Baseball Guild, a nascent trade union. With player rosters expanded to 36 men (through June 15) because of the return of World War II veterans to their former teams, the union required a two-thirds vote (24 players) to legally authorize a job action. Thus the strike vote lost, dealing a lethal blow to the Guild. Later in 1946, owners offered minor concessions to players and effectively staved off the creation of a union until 1966.[1]
  • June 24 – A bus carrying the Spokane Indians Minor League Baseball team crashed on Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State in the worst accident in the history of all of U.S. professional sports, as of October 2007. Nine members of the 16-member team were killed and six were injured. Eight of those who died served in World War II.[2]

July

August

September

October

November

December

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January

  • January 13 – Kid Speer, 59, Canadian pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers during the 1909 season.
  • January 18 – Dave Wright, 70, pitcher who played with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1895 and the Chicago Colts in 1897.
  • January 13 – Reeve McKay, 64, pitcher who played briefly for the 1915 St. Louis Browns of the American League.
  • January 23 – William Matthews, 68, pitcher for the 1909 Boston Red Sox.
  • January 28 – Pat Flaherty, 79, third baseman who played for the 1894 Louisville Colonels of the National League.
  • January 29 – Ed Merrill, 85, second baseman for the Louisville Eclipse, Worcester Ruby Legs and Indianapolis Hoosiers in span of two seasons from 1882 to 1884.

February

  • February 1 – Dad Hale, 65, pitched 11 games for the Boston Beaneaters and Baltimore Orioles in 1902.
  • February 6 – Charlie Knepper, 74, pitcher for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League.
  • February 13 – Marc Campbell, 61, shortstop in two games for the 1907 Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • February 14 – Woody Wagenhorst, 82, third baseman in two games for the 1888 Philadelphia Quakers of the National League who later became head coach of the University of Pennsylvania football team from 1888 to 1891.
  • February 15 – George Starnagle, 72, played one game at catcher for the Cleveland Bronchos in the 1902 season.
  • February 21 – Bill Cunningham, 59, second baseman for the Washington Senators from 1910-12.

March

  • March 3 – Hick Cady, 60, backup catcher for the Boston Red Sox from 1912 to 1917 and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1919.
  • March 6 – Claude Thomas, 55, pitched briefly for the Washington Senators in the 1916 season.
  • March 9 – Tom Nagle, 80, catcher for the Chicago Colts of the National League for parts of two seasons from 1890 to 1891.
  • March 11 – Ed McDonald, 59, third baseman for parts of three seasons with the Boston Rustlers/Braves and Chicago Cubs from 1911 to 1913.
  • March 16 – John Kerin, 71, American League umpire who officiated from 1908 to 1910.
  • March 21 – George Wheeler, 76, switch pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1896-99.
  • March 25 – Hack Schumann, 61, pitched briefly for the 1906 Philadelphia Athletics.
  • March 28 – Chick Fullis, 42, center fielder who played from 1928 to 1936 for the New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, and a member of the 1934 World Champions Cardinals.
  • March 28 – Cumberland Posey, 55, Hall of Fame outfielder, manager, executive, and the principal owner of the Homestead Grays, who built a strong barnstorming circuit that made the Grays a perennially powerful and profitable team, one of the best in Negro leagues history.

April

  • April 1 – George Strief, 89, utility man who played all infield and outfield positions for several clubs between 1879 and 1885.
  • April 4 – Harry Cross, 64, one of the most accomplished sports journalists in New York City for more than three decades.
  • April 5 – Wally Rehg, 57, right fielder for the Boston Red Sox, Boston Braves and Cincinnati Reds between 1912 and 1919, later a minor league player and manager from 1910 to 1930
  • April 13 – Billy Gumbert, 80, pitcher who played for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys/Pirates and Louisville Colonels in part of three seasons spanning 1890–1893.
  • April 15 – Pete Allen, 77, backup catcher for the Cleveland Spiders in the 1893 season.
  • April 17 – John Picus "Jack" Quinn, 62, Slovakia-born pitcher who won 247 games with eight different teams from 1909 to 1933, winning his last game when he was 50 years old; setting a record as the oldest Major League pitcher to win a game until Jamie Moyer broke it on April 17, 2012.
  • April 24 – Joe Birmingham, 61, center fielder and manager for the Cleveland Naps in the early 1900s.

May

  • May 6 – Bill Deitrick, 44, outfielder and shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1927 and 1928.
  • May 7 – Bill Fincher, 51, pitcher for the 1916 St. Louis Browns of the American League.
  • May 7 – Bill Fox, 74, second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1897 and the Cincinnati Reds in 1901, who also spent 13 seasons in the Minor Leagues as a player/manager between 1894 and 1915.
  • May 10 – Harry Swan, 58, who made one pitching appearance for the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League in 1914.
  • May 15 – Ed Mayer, 80, third baseman in 188 games for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1890 to 1891.
  • May 17 – Billy Stage, 77, National League umpire in 1894–1895 who later became an attorney and politician in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • May 19 – Jack Stafford, 66 or 67, Canadian umpire who worked one game in the National League (1906) and 131 contests in American League (1907).
  • May 19 – John K. Tener, 82, Ireland-born pitcher and outfielder who played from 1888 through 1890 for the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Stockings and Pittsburgh Burghers before becoming president of the National League from 1913 to 1918.
  • May 22 – Harry Betts, 64, who pitched one game in 1903 with the St. Louis Cardinals, and then came back to the majors ten years later in 1913 to pitch one more game for the Cincinnati Reds in 1913.
  • May 23 – Johnny Grabowski, 46, catcher who played for three teams in a span of seven seasons from 1924 to 1931, and a member of the Murderers' Row New York Yankees clubs that clinched the World Series in 1927 and 1928.
  • May 30 – Billy Earle, 78, catcher for five major league teams in five seasons from 1889 to 1894, who continued playing and managing in the minors until 1906, and also managed the Almendares BBC in 1901 to become the first American manager in Cuban Winter League history.

June

  • June 2 – Malcolm MacDonald, 74, outfielder for the New York Giants in 1902.
  • June 4 – Tom Barry, 67, pitcher for the 1904 Philadelphia Phillies.
  • June 17 – James Isaminger, 65, sportswriter for Philadelphia newspapers from 1905 to 1940, who played a major role in breaking the story of the Black Sox Scandal.
  • June 26 – Chris Hartje, 31, catcher who played with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1939 season; Hartje was one of nine members of the Spokane Indians of the Class B Western International League who died as the result of a June 24, 1946, bus crash on the Snoqualmie Pass Highway in the Cascade Mountains, the worst transit accident in baseball history.
  • June 30 – Sam Hope, 67, pitcher for the 1907 Philadelphia Athletics.

July

  • July 1 – Hub Knolls, 62, pitched two games for the 1906 Brooklyn Superbas.
  • July 17 – John Fluhrer, 52, played briefly in left field for the Chicago Cubs during the 1915 season.
  • July 17 – Tom Forster, 87, second baseman for the 1882 Detroit Wolverines and from 1884-86 for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys and New York Metropolitans of the American Association.
  • July 18 – James Lehan, 90, played briefly in the outfield for the 1884 Washington Nationals of the Union Association.
  • July 22 – Elmer Foster, 84, outfielder for all or parts of five seasons for the New York Metropolitans of the American Association, and the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs of the National League between 1886 and 1891, including the 1888 Giants National League Championship team.

August

  • August 1 – Bert Sincock, 58, pitched one game for the 1908 Cincinnati Reds.
  • August 2 – Carl Lind, 42, second baseman from 1927 to 1930 for the Cleveland Indians who led the American League in at-bats in 1928 (659).
  • August 6 – Tony Lazzeri, 42, Hall of Fame and All-Star second baseman for the New York Yankees, who won six American League pennants from 1926 through 1937, while batting .300 five times and collecting seven 100-RBI seasons, including two grand slams and 11 RBI in a 1936 game, and a .400 average in the 1937 World Series.
  • August 7 – Tad Quinn, 64, played parts of two seasons on the mound for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1902 to 1903.
  • August 16 – Billy Rhiel, 46, infielder for the Brooklyn Robins, Boston Braves, and Detroit Tigers from 1929 to 1933.
  • August 19 – Bob McKinney, 70, played briefly in the infield for the 1901 Philadelphia Athletics.

September

  • September 11 – Cy Morgan, 50, pitcher for parts of two seasons for the Boston Braves in 1921-22.
  • September 13 – Ed Gagnier, 64, French shortstop who played in the Federal League for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops and Buffalo Blues from 1914 to 1915.
  • September 15 – Tex Wilson, 45, pitched two games for the 1924 Brooklyn Robins.
  • September 16 – Emil Bildilli, 34, southpaw pitcher for five seasons for the St. Louis Browns from 1937 to 1941.
  • September 17 – Frank Burke, 66, played parts of two seasons at outfielder for the 1906 New York Giants and the 1907 Boston Doves of the National League.
  • September 17 – Chief Chouneau, 57, Chippewa pitcher who played in one game for the Chicago White Sox in 1910.
  • September 20 – Wiley Piatt, 72, pitcher for six seasons from 1898 to 1903 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Beaneaters, who holds the dubious distinction of being the only pitcher in the 20th century to hurl two complete games in a single day and lose them both.
  • September 24 – Jeff Tesreau, 58, spitball ace for the New York Giants from 1912 to 1918 who won three pennants with them (1912, 1913, and 1917), and led the National League in ERA in 1912 and shutouts in 1914, ending his career with a 115-72 record, 2.43 ERA, and 880 strikeouts.
  • September 27 – Benjamin Minor, 81, co-owner or owner of the Washington Senators from 1904 to 1919.
  • September 27 – Eddie Tiemeyer, 61, infielder/pitcher during three seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Highlanders spanning 1906 to 1909.

October

  • October 4 – John Woods, 48, pitched one game for the 1924 Boston Red Sox.
  • October 10 – Walter Clarkson, 67, pitcher in five seasons with the New York Highlanders and Cleveland Naps from 1904 to 1908.
  • October 10 – Bill Jones, 59, outfielder who played two seasons with the Boston Rustlers/Braves in 1911-12.
  • October 18 – Jack McCallister, 67, minor league player who became a major league manager and coach; piloted 1927 Cleveland Indians to a 66–87 record, good for sixth in the American League.

November

  • November 3 – Ben Taylor, 57, pitcher for the 1912 Cincinnati Reds.
  • November 4 – John Barthold, 64, pitcher who played for the Philadelphia Athletics during the 1904 season.
  • November 5 – Alejandro Oms, 51, Cuban center fielder who played in the Negro leagues.
  • November 7 – Tom Daly, 54, Canadian catcher for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs during eight seasons spanning 1913–1921, who later managed the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League, and coached for the Boston Red Sox in 14 seasons (1933–1946), to set the longest consecutive-year coaching tenure in Bosox history.
  • November 11 – Art Reinhart, 47, pitcher who played for the St. Louis Cardinals in a span of five seasons from 1919 to 1928.
  • November 18 – Johnny Lush, 61, pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals from 1904 through 1910, who no-hit the Brooklyn Superbas in 1906, which was the last no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher in 57 years until Jim Bunning hurled a perfect game in 1964.
  • November 27 – Arlie Tarbert, 42, reserve outfielder for the 1927–1928 Boston Red Sox.
  • November 28 – Bill DeLancey, 35, catcher for the Gashouse Gang 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, whose promising career was cut short by tuberculosis.
  • November 30 – Pete McShannic, 82, third baseman for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the National League in the 1888 season.

December

  • December 10 – Walter Johnson, 59, Hall of Fame pitcher who played from 1907 through 1927 for the Washington Senators, whose 417 career victories ranks second to the 511 achieved by Cy Young, while setting an all-time record with 110 shutouts, and collecting 3,509 strikeouts, twelve 20-win seasons, including two 30-win seasons, as well as eleven seasons with an earned run average below 2.00, 5,914 innings pitched, and 531 complete games in 666 starts.[6]
  • December 10 – Walter Moser, 65, pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns in a span of three seasons from 1906 to 1911.
  • December 10 – Damon Runyon, 62, famed New York sportswriter and author.
  • December 14 – Tom Dowse, 80, Irish catcher/outfielder who played in the 1890s for the Cleveland Spiders/Solons, Louisville Colonels, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Senators.
  • December 21 – Bill Evans, 53, pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in three seasons from 1916 to 1919.
  • December 30 – Pat McGehee, 58, pitcher who played for the 1912 Detroit Tigers.

References

  1. ↑ Weintraub, Robert (12 December 1946). "Failed Baseball Union Help Pave Way for Success". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Colford, Ann B. (2006). Bus carrying Spokane Indians baseball team crashes on Snoqualmie Pass on June 24, 1946. HistoryLink.org.
  3. ↑ "Strange and Unusual Plays". www.retrosheet.org. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  4. ↑ Hilton, George W. (1982). "The Evangeline League Scandal of 1946". Baseball Research Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  5. ↑ Leslie, Paul J. (1994). "'Say It Ain't so:' The 1946 Houma Indians and the Baseball Scandals". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 35 (2): 163–181. JSTOR 4233096.
  6. ↑ SABR BioProject – Walter Johnson article by Charles Carey
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