1941 St. Louis Browns season

1941 St. Louis Browns
1941 St. Louis Browns
League	American League
Ballpark	Sportsman's Park
City	St. Louis, Missouri
Record	70–84 (.455)
League place	6th
Owners	Donald Lee Barnes
General managers	Bill DeWitt
Managers	Fred Haney, Luke Sewell
Radio	KWK; (Dizzy Dean); KXOK

The 1941 St. Louis Browns season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Browns finishing 6th in the American League with a record of 70 wins and 84 losses.

Offseason

November 16, 1940: George Caster was selected off waivers by the Browns from the Philadelphia Athletics.^[1]

Regular season

The 1941 season marked a change in management, as Luke Sewell was appointed the Browns new manager on June 5, 1941.^[2] While the St. Louis Cardinals drew over 600,000 fans, the Browns barely drew 175,000.^[3] The consensus was that St. Louis could not support two teams.

Potential move to Los Angeles

The Browns ownership had reached an agreement to move the franchise to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce had guaranteed attendance of 500,000, a figure that the Browns had not seen since their 1924 season.^[3] The Browns would play in the stadium that was used by the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels. As part of the agreement to move to Los Angeles, the Browns would buy the stadium.^[3] It was expected that all Major League Baseball owners would approve of the move at the upcoming Winter Meetings.^[3] Before the scheduled meetings, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and California would stay closed to Major League Baseball for another decade.

Season standings

v t e American League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	101	53	0.656	—	51–26	50–27
Boston Red Sox	84	70	0.545	17	47–30	37–40
Chicago White Sox	77	77	0.500	24	38–39	39–38
Cleveland Indians	75	79	0.487	26	42–35	33–44
Detroit Tigers	75	79	0.487	26	43–34	32–45
St. Louis Browns	70	84	0.455	31	40–37	30–47
Washington Senators	70	84	0.455	31	40–37	30–47
Philadelphia Athletics	64	90	0.416	37	36–41	28–49

Record vs. opponents

1941 American League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	16–6	9–13	11–11	9–13–1	16–6	9–13	14–8
Chicago	6–16	—	17–5	12–10–1	8–14	10–12	11–11–1	13–9
Cleveland	13–9	5–17	—	10–12	7–15	15–7	13–9–1	12–10
Detroit	11–11	10–12–1	12–10	—	11–11	13–9	11–11	7–15
New York	13–9–1	14–8	15–7	11–11	—	14–8	18–4	16–6–1
Philadelphia	6–16	12–10	7–15	9–13	8–14	—	11–11	11–11
St. Louis	13–9	11–11–1	9–13–1	11–11	4–18	11–11	—	11–11–1
Washington	8–14	9–13	10–12	15–7	6–16–1	11–11	11–11–1	—

Notable transactions

May 5, 1941: Rip Radcliff was purchased from the Browns by the Detroit Tigers for $25,000.^[4]

Roster

1941 St. Louis Browns

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

11 Myril Hoag

Manager

34 Fred Haney
32 Luke Sewell

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Rick Ferrell	100	321	81	.252	2	23
1B	George McQuinn	130	495	147	.297	18	80
2B	Don Heffner	110	399	93	.233	0	17
SS	Johnny Berardino	128	469	127	.271	5	89
3B	Harlond Clift	154	584	149	.255	17	84
OF	Wally Judnich	146	546	155	.284	14	83
OF	Chet Laabs	118	392	109	.278	15	59
OF	Roy Cullenbine	149	501	159	.317	9	98

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Joe Grace	115	362	112	.309	6	60
Johnny Lucadello	107	351	98	.279	2	31
Bob Swift	63	170	44	.259	0	21
Alan Strange	45	112	26	.232	0	11
Bobby Estalella	46	83	20	.241	0	14
Rip Radcliff	19	71	20	.282	2	14
Frank Grube	18	39	6	.154	0	1
George Archie	9	29	11	.379	0	5
Glenn McQuillen	7	21	7	.333	0	3
Chuck Stevens	4	13	2	.154	0	2
Vern Stephens	3	2	1	.500	0	0
Myril Hoag	1	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Elden Auker	34	216.0	14	15	5.50	60
Denny Galehouse	30	190.1	9	10	3.64	61
Bob Harris	34	186.2	12	14	5.21	57
Johnny Niggeling	24	168.1	7	9	3.80	68
Vern Kennedy	6	45.0	2	4	4.40	6

Other pitchers