Champions Major League Baseball World Series: New York Yankees over St. Louis Cardinals (4–1) All-Star Game, July 13 at Shibe Park: American League, 5–3

Other champions Amateur World Series: Cuba Negro League World Series: Homestead Grays over Birmingham Black Barons (4–3) Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: West, 2–1 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Racine Belles over Kenosha Comets

Awards and honors Most Valuable Player Spud Chandler (AL) – P, New York Yankees Stan Musial (NL) – 1B, St. Louis Cardinals The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Spud Chandler – P, New York Yankees The Sporting News Most Valuable Player Award Spud Chandler (AL) – P, New York Yankees Stan Musial (NL) – 1B, St. Louis Cardinals The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Joe McCarthy (AL) – New York Yankees

Statistical leaders Any team shown in indicates a previous team a player was on during the season. American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Luke Appling (CWS) .328 Stan Musial (STL) .357 Alex Radcliff (CAG) .369 Tetelo Vargas1 (NYC) .471 HR Rudy York (DET) 34 Bill Nicholson (CHC) 29 Willard Brown (KCM) 7 Josh Gibson (HOM) 20 RBI Rudy York (DET) 118 Bill Nicholson (CHC) 128 Willard Brown (KCM) 31 Josh Gibson (HOM) 109 W Spud Chandler (NYY)Dizzy Trout (DET) 20 Mort Cooper (STL)Elmer Riddle (CIN)Rip Sewell (PIT) 21 Satchel Paige (KCM/) 10 Johnny Wright2 (HOM) 18 ERA Spud Chandler (NYY) 1.64 Max Lanier (STL) 1.90 Theolic Smith (CLB) 2.22 Johnny Wright2 (HOM) 2.54 K Allie Reynolds (CLE) 151 Johnny Vander Meer (CIN) 174 Satchel Paige (KCM/) 102 Bill Byrd (BEG/)Johnny Wright2 (HOM) 94 1 All-time single-season batting average record 2 Negro National League Triple Crown pitching winner

Major league baseball final standings American League final standings

National League final standings

Negro league baseball final standings All Negro leagues standings below are per MLB and Seamheads. Negro American League final standings This was the seventh season of the Negro American League. Birmingham and Chicago each won a half of the season, which therefore matched them up in a matchup to determine the champion for the NAL pennant to determine who would make the 1943 Negro World Series. Birmingham prevailed in five games to win their first ever pennant.

Negro National League postseason Birmingham Black Barons over Chicago American Giants (3–2).

Negro National League final standings This was the eleventh season of the second Negro National League. For the sixth time in seven seasons, the Homestead Grays won the pennant, this time under manager Candy Jim Taylor.

Negro World Series 1943 Negro World Series: Homestead Grays over Birmingham Black Barons 4–3 (one tie).

Independent teams final standings The Negro National League All Star team & Atlanta Black Crackers played against the two leagues. vs. All Teams Independent Clubs W L T Pct. GBAtlanta Black Crackers71915NNL All Stars130—

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League final standings First half RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Racine Belles 34 20 .630 —2 South Bend Blue Sox 28 26 .519 63 Kenosha Comets 23 31 .426 114 Rockford Peaches 23 31 .426 11

Second half RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Kenosha Comets 33 21 .611 —2 South Bend Blue Sox 30 24 .556 33 Racine Belles 29 25 .521 44 Rockford Peaches 20 34 .370 13

Composite records RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Racine Belles 59 49 .546 —2 South Bend Blue Sox 58 50 .537 13 Kenosha Comets 56 52 .518 34 Rockford Peaches 43 65 .398 16

Events January

January 5: As the United States enters its second full year as a combatant in World War II, Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the federal Office of Defense Transportation issue an edict that the 16 major-league clubs must restrict their spring training drills to sites east of the Mississippi and north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers. Clubs will work out on frozen outdoor fields or in indoor facilities; the training period will be significantly shortened; and "exhibition" games will be few. Landis also rejects cutting the regular-season schedule to 140 games; a full, 154-game season will be played, but the opening day (now April 21) and closing day (now October 3) will be delayed one week. January 19 – With over 200 MLB players now serving in the Allies' armed forces at the start of 1943, clubs react to the growing "manpower shortage" by signing or acquiring older athletes and minor leaguers. Today, the Cincinnati Reds sign outfielder Estel Crabtree, 39, as a free agent. Crabtree had spent part of with the St. Louis Cardinals and as a player–manager in the minor leagues, but appeared in only 17 total games."Estel Crabtree Minor League Statistics." Baseball Reference. January 21 – Just 48 hours after being released by the Boston Braves, Paul Waner is signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. The future Baseball Hall-of-Fame outfielder, now 39, had racked up his 3,000th hit as a member of the Braves on June 19, 1942, against his longtime team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. January 22 – The New York Yankees acquire hard-hitting outfielder Nick Etten from the financially struggling Philadelphia Phillies for pitcher Al Gettel, first baseman Ed Levy and $10,000. The deal will be reworked on March 26, when the Bombers take back Gettel and Levy, and send pitcher Al Gerheauser and catcher Tom Padden to Philadelphia. January 25 – The Braves purchase the contract of Lefty Gomez from the Yankees. During his 13 seasons in the Bronx, future Hall of Famer Gomez, 34, has won 189 games (and six World Series championships) and been selected to seven American League All-Star teams. January 27 – In another cash transaction, the Chicago Cubs purchase veteran right-hander Paul Derringer from the Cincinnati Reds. Derringer, 36, is a six-time National League All-Star who will win 16 games for the pennant-winning 1945 Cubs. January 29: The New York Yankees keep dealing, sending pitcher Milo Candini and second baseman Jerry Priddy to the Washington Senators for hurler Bill Zuber and cash. The U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue rules that, except for the highest-paid man on each team, professional baseball players may negotiate pay hikes from team owners without its review or approval. The bureau has jurisdiction over all raises that exceed $5,000 a year. At $43,000, the Yankees' Joe DiMaggio boasted 1942's highest annual salary. January 30: Cincinnati Reds coach Hank Gowdy, a former catcher who on June 1, 1917, became the first American big leaguer to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War I, rejoins the fighting ranks for the Second World War. Gowdy, 53, will serve "stateside" as a major, and not return to baseball until . Pee Wee Reese, standout young shortstop of the Brooklyn Dodgers, enlists in the United States Navy. Earlier this month, Brooklyn's star centerfielder, Pete Reiser, entered the U.S. Army. Even Reese's potential replacement, 37-year-old player-manager Leo Durocher, faces a possible call to arms from his local draft board.

February February 1 – The St. Louis Browns of the American League purchase the contract of right-hander Paul "Daffy" Dean, 30, from the Washington Senators. The Browns had tried to trade pitcher Elden Auker for Dean in January, but the deal was called off when Auker retired from baseball to work for a war-related manufacturing company in Detroit. The younger brother of Dizzy Dean is attempting a comeback in the majors after posting a 19–8 (2.05) record in the Class A1 Texas League in . February 3 – With Ted Williams serving in the United States Marines, the Boston Red Sox attempt to fill the void by signing venerable slugger Al Simmons, now 40, to a playing contract. A full-time coach with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1942, Simmons will start 31 games as the Bosox' left-fielder over the course of the 1943 season, but the future Hall of Famer hits only .203 with one home run. February 15 – The two men contemporaneously recognized as the greatest hitters of all time—Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby—issue separate calls for professional baseball to continue during the war emergency. Cobb appeals to the War Manpower Commission to spare baseball from closure as a "matter of morale". Hornsby, general manager of the minor-league Fort Worth Cats, assails fellow Texas League executives who favor a shutdown. "This is no time to be afraid, weak and unwilling to take a chance," he declares.

February 18: Debt-ridden owner Gerald Nugent turns over control of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise to the National League, which will act as temporary "caretaker" of 93.8 percent of the team's stock until it completes a pending sale to an undisclosed buyer—who proves to be William D. Cox, a 33-year-old New York lumber broker. Cox becomes the youngest owner in the major leagues. Today's transaction will gain notoriety when, in his autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck, entrepreneur/showman Bill Veeck alleges that the Senior Circuit and Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis engineer Nugent's surrender of the Phillies to the NL to thwart Veeck's plan to shatter the baseball color line by buying the franchise and filling its roster with star players signed from the Negro leagues. Veeck's story will come to be challenged by some baseball historians, but ongoing research will reveal that it contains elements of truth. Seven-time All-Star and 2x AL Most Valuable Player Joe DiMaggio, 28, enlists as a private in the U.S. Army and reports immediately to an induction center in Monterey, California. February 24: The eight-team Texas League votes 6–2 to suspend play for the duration of the war, with the league president claiming that continuing professional baseball may hinder the war effort. The circuit, founded in 1888, has operated continuously since 1902; at Class A1, the second-highest level of Minor League Baseball, it is the most prominent league to shut down during the conflict. Lifelong American Leaguer Bucky Harris is signed by new owner William D. Cox to replace Hans Lobert as manager of the NL's Philadelphia Phillies. Harris, now 46, is the one-time "Boy Manager" who has skippered AL teams—notably the Washington Senators—for the past 19 consecutive seasons.

March March 9 – The Philadelphia Phillies' new management team makes its first major trade, sending second baseman Al Glossop and outfielder Lloyd Waner to the Brooklyn Dodgers for first baseman Babe Dahlgren. The deal will reunite brothers and future Cooperstown inductees Paul ("Big Poison") and Lloyd Waner ("Little Poison"), who starred as teammates for over a decade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. March 13 – MLB owners and manufacturer A. G. Spalding Co. announce that, because of the severe global rubber shortage caused by World War II, the core of baseballs themselves will contain a substitute material, "Balatá". However, as the "balata ball" goes into circulation during the latter days of spring training, officials begin to notice a serious flaw: it barely bounces. March 21 – The Washington Senators acquire slugging veteran outfielder Bob Johnson from the Philadelphia Athletics for infielder Jimmy Pofahl, outfielder Roberto Estalella, and cash. Johnson, 37, hit 252 homers and made five American League All-Star teams during ten years as a member of the Athletics. March 24 – The Brooklyn Dodgers pick up shortstop/catcher Bobby Bragan from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for pitcher Jack Kraus and cash considerations. In a separate deal, Brooklyn sells the contract of pitcher Schoolboy Rowe to the Phils; Rowe, 33, will post a 14–8 (2.65) record in 27 games for the 1943 Phillies.

April