1944 World Series
The 1944 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1944 [Major League Baseball season|1944 season]. The 41st edition of the World Series, it was an all-St. Louis affair matching the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park. It marked the third time in World Series history in which both teams had the same home field. It would be 76 years before another World Series had all of its games played in a single ballpark: the Series used Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas as a neutral site due to health concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
1944 saw perhaps the nadir of 20th-century baseball, as the long-moribund St. Louis Browns won their only American League pennant. Some of the players were 4-Fs, rejected by the military for physical defects or limitations that precluded duty. Others divided their time between factory work in defense industries and baseball, some being able to play ball only on weekends. Some players avoided the draft by chance, despite being physically able to serve. Stan Musial of the Cardinals was one. Musial, enlisting in early 1945, missed one season. He rejoined the Cardinals in 1946.
As both teams called Sportsman's Park home, the traditional 2–3–2 home field assignment was used. The Junior World Series of that same year, partly hosted in Baltimore's converted football stadium, easily outdrew the "real" Series and attracted attention to Baltimore as a potential major league city. Ten years later, the Browns relocated there and became the Orioles. The Orioles would go on to win the 1966 World Series, becoming the last of the AL's eight charter franchises to do so. Another all-Missouri World Series was played 41 years later, with the Kansas City Royals defeating the Cardinals in seven games.
The Series was also known as the "Trolley Series," "Streetcar Series," or the "St. Louis Showdown." Coincidentally, this World Series was played the same year Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the musical film Meet Me in St. Louis. It remains one of two World Series played that featured two teams from the same city other than New York; the other was the 1906 World Series between the two Chicago teams. The 1989 World Series featured two teams from the San Francisco metropolitan area, but not the same city. It was also the first World Series in which both teams played west of the Mississippi River.
This is currently the earliest World Series in which one of the teams, has had no personnel eventually elected to the Hall of Fame.
This is the only World Series to date in which neither team was credited with a stolen base.
This would also be the final World Series where Kenesaw Mountain Landis was the commissioner of baseball. Landis died six weeks later on November 25.
Background
Many of the game's best players were called away for World War II, and the result was a seriously depleted pool of talent.The top team in the American League was the perennial-doormat Browns, who collectively hit.252 en route to their only pennant in 52 seasons in St. Louis. They only had one.300 hitter in outfielder Mike Kreevich, one man — shortstop Vern Stephens — who hit 20 home runs and drove in more than 85 runs.
On the mound, the Browns boasted Nels Potter and Jack Kramer, who combined for 36 victories. The team squeaked into first place by winning 11 out of their final 12 games, including the last 4 in a row over the defending champion New York Yankees. The last victory, combined with Detroit's loss to Washington, enabled St. Louis to finish one game ahead of the Tigers season|Tigers] in the American League.
Their 89–65 record would be the worst for an AL champion until the Minnesota Twins 1987 [American League Championship Series|won the pennant in 1987] with a record of 85–77.
On the other side of Sportsman's Park, it was business as usual for the Cardinals.
The team won 105 games en route to their third-straight National League pennant, finishing games in front of the Pittsburgh Pirates season|Pittsburgh Pirates]. Manager Billy Southworth's Cardinals ran their three-year victory total to 316.
The Cardinals were the first National League franchise with three consecutive 100-win seasons. The 1944 team featured league MVP Marty Marion and future Hall of Famer Stan Musial.