Champions World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Philadelphia Athletics (4–3)
Awards and honors MLB Most Valuable Player Award Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics, P Frankie Frisch, St. Louis Cardinals, 2B Statistical leaders American League National League Negro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Al Simmons (PHA) .390 Chick Hafey (STL) .349 Turkey Stearnes (DTS) .411 HR Lou Gehrig (NYY)Babe Ruth (NYY) 46 Chuck Klein (PHI) 31 Turkey Stearnes (DTS) 8 RBI Lou Gehrig (NYY) 185 Chuck Klein (PHI) 121 Mule Suttles (SLS) 36 W Lefty Grove1 (PHA) 31 Jumbo Elliott (PHI)Bill Hallahan (STL)Heinie Meine (PIT) 19 Ray Brown (ABC)Nelson Dean (DTS)George Mitchell (ABC) 7 ERA Lefty Grove1 (PHA) 2.06 Bill Walker (NYG) 2.26 Logan Hensley (SLS) 1.63 K Lefty Grove1 (PHA) 175 Bill Hallahan (STL) 159 Ray Brown (ABC) 79 1 American League Triple Crown pitching winner
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
Negro leagues final standings All Negro leagues standings below are per MLB and Seamheads. Negro National League final standings This was the twelfth and final season of the original Negro National League. The season did not finish all games, which meant that while St. Louis was awarded the title, non-member Pittsburgh Crawford Giants disputed their status as champion.
East (independent teams) final standings A loose confederation of teams were gathered in the East to compete with the West, however East teams did not organize a formal league as the West did. vs. All Teams Independent Clubs W L T Pct. GB Hilldale Club 38 14 1 — Homestead Grays 34 21 1 5½ Pittsburgh Crawford Giants 8 6 0 11 Kansas City Monarchs 10 9 0 11½ Stars of Cuba 5 7 1 13 Baltimore Black Sox 22 38 1 20 Harlem Stars 6 12 0 15 Cuban House of David 5 14 0 16½ Brooklyn Royal Giants 0 2 0 13
Events January–April January 24 – Following his release from the Cleveland Indians four days earlier, Joe Sewell joins the New York Yankees. February 5 – Chicago Cubs outfielder Hack Wilson, who set National League marks for home runs (56) and runs batted in (191) the previous season, signs for $35,000. His RBI record is still standing today. February 21 – The Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play a ten inning exhibition game at Buffalo Stadium in Houston, Texas. It is the first major league night game. April 2 – Seventeen-year-old female Chattanooga Lookouts pitcher Jackie Mitchell takes the mound against the New York Yankees in a Spring training game. She strikes out the first two batters she faces: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. April 24: Rogers Hornsby has three home runs and eight runs batted in during the Cubs' 10–6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies play to a twelve inning 7–7 tie at the Polo Grounds. April 27 – Boston Braves centerfielder Wally Berger ties a modern record with four assists in a 2–0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. April 29 – Wes Ferrell pitches a no-hitter as the Cleveland Indians defeat the St. Louis Browns, 9–0.
May–August May 26 – The New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Athletics 6–2, snapping the A's seventeen-game winning streak. June 13 – Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Adam Comorosky makes an unassisted double play in a 6–4 loss to the New York Giants. It is his second unassisted double play of the season (May 31 against the Chicago Cubs). June 30 – The Philadelphia Athletics purchased Waite Hoyt from the Detroit Tigers. Despite a 3–8 record with Detroit, Hoyt wins his first four starts with the A's. July 1 – Chuck Klein hit for a cycle as he bats in 5 runs in the Phillies 11–6 victory over the Chicago Cubs. July 6 – The Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators play to a 0–0 eight inning tie. July 7 – The Chicago White Sox defeat the St. Louis Browns 10–8 in twelve innings. No one on either team strikes out all game. July 11 – The New York Giants gets 28 hits in a 23–8 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the doubleheader. July 12 – the Chicago Cubs–St. Louis doubleheader has 33 doubles. Due to the large crowd spilling onto the field, any ball hit into them is a ground-rule double. August 8 – Washington Senators pitcher Bobby Burke tosses a no-hitter in a 5–0 win over the Boston Red Sox. August 18 – Claude Passeau pitches a 7–0 3-hit victory over the Boston Braves to end the Phillies' 14-game losing streak, the second longest in team history. August 23 – Dick Coffman holds the Philadelphia Athletics to three hits on his way to a 1–0 victory, snapping Lefty Grove's sixteen-game winning streak. It is one of only two times the A's are shut out all season (the other being the 0–0 tie with the Senators on July 6). August 29 – Facing Cincinnati Reds pitcher Si Johnson in his second at bat in the major leagues, Chicago Cubs player Billy Herman hits Johnson's pitch, which ricochets off the bat and hits Herman in the head, knocking him out.
September September 1 – The New York Yankees sweep a doubleheader over the Boston Red Sox 11–3 and 5–1. But the big story was the home run race as Lou Gehrig hit 2 home runs to extended the American League lead in home runs to 2 over Babe Ruth who hit his 38th of the season. September 3 – In a key pennant race, the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs were in a pitchers' duel between Owen Carroll and Pat Malone with the former having a slight edge. With two out in the tenth Taylor Douthit singled, stole second and scored home on an Edd Roush single to give the Reds a 3–2 victory over the Cubs. September 6 – The New York Yankees scored 8 runs in the first inning en route to a 15–3 win over The Philadelphia Athletics. September 8 – Hack Wilson of the Chicago Cubs who one year ago set 191 runs batted in to set an MLB record, who failed miserably this year, is exiled from the club and has been ordered to remove his belongings from the clubhouse. September 16 – The Philadelphia A's defeat the Cleveland Indians 7–5 for their 100th victory of the season. September 18 – Lefty Grove wins his 30th game of the season, 3–1 over the Chicago White Sox. September 27: In a doubleheader on the last day of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals win their 100th & 101st game of the season. The Cardinals spent eight games out of first place all season, and were never more than 1.5 games back. Lou Gehrig drives in his 184th and 185th runs of the season in a 13–1 blowout victory over the American League champion Philadelphia A's. His 185 runs batted in during the season is still an American League record to this day.
October–December October 1 – The Reigning World Champion Philadelphia A's take game one of the World Series, 6–2 over the team they defeated in the 1930 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals. October 2 – George Earnshaw grounds into a double play and strikes out to end two potential rallies for the Athletics. The Cards take game two of the Series, 2–0, behind Bill Hallahan's three hit performance. October 5 – Burleigh Grimes gives up just two hits, including a two-run home run by Al Simmons in the ninth, to lead the Cardinals to a 5–2 victory in game three. October 6 – George Earnshaw two hits the Cards to even the series at two games apiece. October 7 – Bill Hallahan wins his second start of the series, 5–1. October 9 – Sloppy play in the fifth and seventh innings leads to five unearned runs as the A's cruise to an 8–1 victory behind Lefty Grove. October 10 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4–2, in Game seven of the 1931 World Series, earning their second World Championship title. Bill Hallahan pitches the final out for the Cards to end the series with a 0.49 ERA. October 31 – The St. Louis Cardinals release pitcher Burleigh Grimes. Though Grimes would continue his MLB career, Grimes was the last pitcher who was legally allowed to throw a spitball. November 30 – George Gibson comes out of retirement to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ten years earlier, Gibson had led the Pirates to three first-division finishes. December 4 – The Washington Senators trade Bump Hadley, Jackie Hayes and Sad Sam Jones to the Chicago White Sox for John Kerr and Carl Reynolds. December 9 – At the Winter meetings, owners, worried about the effect the Great Depression will have on baseball, vote to reduce rosters from 25 players, to 23. December 11 – The Chicago Cubs trade future Hall of Famer Hack Wilson and pitcher Bud Teachout to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for pitcher Burleigh Grimes. Wilson slumped to .261 with 13 home runs and 61 RBI, after he hit .356 with 56 HR and set a major league record with 191 RBI a year earlier.
Births January January 1 – Foster Castleman January 3 – Laurie Ann Lee January 6: Fern Battaglia Dick Tomanek January 7: Ray Semproch Bunky Stewart January 9 – Roy Dietzel January 17 – Don Zimmer January 18: Barbara Hoffman Laurin Pepper January 19 – Ed Sadowski January 29: Jim Baumer Hy Cohen January 30 – Charlie Neal January 31: Hank Aguirre Ernie Banks Ruth Matlack
February February 1 – Bob Smith February 2 – Ted Tappe February 3 – Glenn Cox February 14 – Joe Caffie February 16 – Maurice Fisher February 22 – Chet Nichols Jr. February 25 – Jim Dunn
March March 7 – Dick Rand March 12 – Chuck Oertel March 13: Don Bessent Carlos Pascual March 18 – Shirley Stovroff March 19: Al Salerno Paul Smith March 20 – Hank Izquierdo March 23 – Stan Pitula March 27 – Bobby Prescott March 31 – Gene Snyder
April April 1 – Betty Bays April 5 – Fred Besana April 6 – Sonny Senerchia April 14: Don Minnick Kal Segrist April 15 – Ed Bailey April 23 – Patricia Brown
May May 6 – Willie Mays May 10 – Bob Bowman May 13 – Jack Shepard May 14 – Terry Rukavina May 15 – Ben Johnson May 20 – Ken Boyer May 25 – Jim Marshall May 26 – Jim Frey May 29 – John Baumgartner May 31 – Betty McKenna
June June 1 – Hal Smith June 2: Marshall Bridges Larry Jackson June 6: Rudy Árias Carl Willey June 8 – Mary McCarty June 9 – Bill Virdon June 19 – Hank Mason June 22 – Faye Throneberry June 23: Doris Cook Ulysses Hollimon Karl Spooner June 27 – Chuck Coles June 30 – Don Gross
July July 3 – Ed Roebuck July 4 – Bobby Malkmus July 5 – Arnie Portocarrero July 7 – Betty Francis July 8: Zach Monroe Eddie Phillips July 9 – Gene Fodge July 11 – Dick Gray July 12 – Paul Penson July 15 – Bob Will July 16 – Norm Sherry July 23 – Joe Stanka July 24 – Marguerite Kerrigan July 28 – Gus Keriazakos July 31: Rip Coleman Joe Durham
August August 7: Ray Crone Motoshi Fujita August 9 – Chuck Essegian August 13 – William D. Mullins August 16 – Don Rudolph August 22 – Curt Barclay August 27 – Joe Cunningham
September September 3 – Tom Brewer September 6 – Stan Pawloski September 9: Earl Averill Jr. Pete Naton September 10 – Harry Anderson September 13 – George Susce September 14 – Don Williams September 16 – Jerry Schypinski September 19 – Ron Shoop September 22 – Ken Aspromonte September 24 – Mike Krsnich September 29 – Margaret Russo September 30 – Helen Ketola
October October 1 – Fred Kipp October 3 – Bob Skinner October 4 – Joe Kirrene October 8 – Patricia Courtney October 11 – Gary Blaylock October 13 – Eddie Mathews October 15 – Gail Harris October 16: Janet Rumsey Dave Sisler October 17 – Dan Porter October 18 – Andy Carey October 19 – Don Leppert October 20 – Mickey Mantle October 23 – Jim Bunning October 25 – Dick Murphy October 28 – Gair Allie
November November 1 – Russ Kemmerer November 4 – Marie Mansfield November 5 – Bill Guilfoile November 9 – Whitey Herzog November 11 – Dutch Dotterer November 16 – Frank Bolling November 22 – Neal Hertweck November 24 – Dick Phillips November 25 – John Pyecha November 29 – Paul Pettit November 30 – Ed Mayer
December December 3 – Bill Harris December 4 – Jean Buckley December 10 – Rudy Hernández December 10 – Bob Roselli December 13: Don Erickson Bubba Morton December 15 – Sammy Esposito December 16 – Neil Chrisley December 20 – Julio Bécquer December 24 – Evelio Hernández