1940 Pro Baseball Season

For tabletop sports enthusiasts with a fondness for baseball's legacy, the 1940 Pro Season for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Big League Baseball board game offers some irresistible story lines.

While the storm clouds of World War II continued to gather overseas, American baseball fans flocked to the ball parks in the spring and summer of 1940. The season began in historic fashion with the ONLY opening day no-hitter in big league history, twirled by Cleveland's Bob Feller against Chicago. It ended with a thrilling seven game championship series that featured the two best teams in baseball, Cincinnati and Detroit. As his father looked on, Detroit's ace pitcher Bobo Newsom pitched splendidly in winning game one. The next day, though, brought the devastating news that Newsom's father died in his Cincinnati hotel room. Bravely, Newsom pitched a game five shutout in his dad's honor, and with the series on the line was given the start for game seven on just one day of rest. He had another shut-out going through seven innings, Detroit hanging onto a 1-0 lead before Cincinnati scratched out a couple late runs to take the game and the series.

Cincinnati's championship season was bittersweet, touched by tragedy. The club's star catcher, Ernie Lombardi, was unable to play for large stretches of the season due to a series of injuries. During one of those stretches, Lombardi's replacement Willard Hershberger believed he'd committed a defensive gaffe that cost the club a loss to New York. Cincinnati had taken a 4-1 lead into the ninth, but New York came back to win 5-4. Hershberger called the pitch that New York's Harry Danning knocked out of the park to win the game. Two days later, he mishandled a bunt and went 0-for-6 in a double-header loss in Boston. Despondent, Hershberger took his own life the next day in the team hotel. The team dedicated the rest of its season to "Hershie," and after turning back Detroit for the world title, the players chipped in over $5000 from their championship earnings as a memorial gift to Hershberger's mother.

In between its historic start and poignant finish, the '40 season was packed with fabulous classic baseball moments...

• 1940 was the first year that all three DiMaggio brothers--Vince, Joe, and Dom--played together in the big leagues. As Bill Littlefield, host of "Only A Game" wrote, "That an immigrant fisherman and his wife should produce three Major League ballplayers is exceptionally unlikely, certainly, especially given that Giuseppe DiMaggio initially thought it folly for his young sons to be playing a game when they could be helping him catch fish." Dom took the field for Boston in '40, playing center field just like his brothers, and earned accolades for an outstanding rookie season in which he and his fellow Boston outfielders each batted .300 or better.

• Other notable players who made their first splash in the big leagues in '40 were hall-of-famers Pee Wee Reese and Hal Newhouser (Newhouser pitched in one game in '39, but was considered a "rookie" in '40).

• Hank Greenberg became the first big league player ever to be named MVP at two different positions--he'd been asked to move from 1B to the outfield to make room for newcomer Rudy York, who was big with his bat but not so much with his glove. Hank said he'd do it--IF he was given a bonus! He was, and responded with an incredible season of power production: 50 doubles, 41 home runs and 150 RBI, all league bests.

• On September 24th, Jimmy Foxx became the second player in big league history to reach the 500 career home run mark (after Babe Ruth). Just shy of 33 years old, he held the record for youngest to reach 500 until Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th career homer almost 70 years later.

So—are you ready to re-live this memorable year of baseball? With the 1940 Pro Season cards for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL, you get everything you need to bring this historic season back to life on your game table. All sixteen teams, both leagues—over 400 individual player cards in all. Plus you get cards for each of 1940's twenty-eight umpires, and sample batting orders for every club. All for just $29, and we pay the postage! Order YOUR copy today!

* for domestic delivery; international postage extra.