February 16 – Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires after 40 years as a major league player and coach. He receives a pension from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he spent most of those years.
February 26 – Thomas Fine was three outs from consecutive no-hitters in the Caribbean Series, having allowed a single in the ninth inning to break it up, in an 11–3 Cuba's victory over Panama's Carta Vieja Yankees. His 17 consecutive hitless innings pitched record still as the longest in Series history.
Veteran Negro leagues catcher Quincy Trouppe makes his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians. At 39 years of age, he is one of the oldest rookies in major league history. Three days later, Trouppe is behind the plate when relief pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones enters the game, forming the first black battery in American League history.
Ted Williams hits a two-run home run to break a 3–3 tie on "Ted Williams Day" at Fenway Park. It was Williams' final game of the season before his departure for the Korean War to serve as a Marine fighter pilot.
May 21 – At Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers set a Major League record by scoring 15 runs in the first inning of a 19–1 pounding of the Cincinnati Reds. All nine Dodgers in the starting lineup both score a run and bat in a run in that first inning.
May 29 – Boston Red Sox pitcher Mickey McDermott faces 27 batters and fire a one-hitter to beat the Washington Senators, 1–0, at Fenway Park. Mel Hoderlein's fourth-inning single is the only Washington hit and he is thrown out while trying to stretch the hit into a double.
June 14 – The Milwaukee Braves purchase the contract of Hank Aaron from the Indianapolis Clowns and assign him to the Eau Claire Bears, who were the Braves class C farm team in the Northern League.
June 25 – Chicago White SoxshortstopChico Carrasquel fractures his little finger in a play‚ which drops Chicago four games out of first place. Carrasquel will reinjure it on July 9 and be out of the lineup until August 19. The injury to Carrasquel‚ the starting shortstop for the American League in the MLB All-Star Game, is a key damage component as the White Sox will finish in third place.
August 15 – Detroit Tigers pitcher Virgil Trucks hurled his second no-hitter of the season, a 1–0 shutout over the host New York Yankees. Previously, Trucks held the Washington Senators without a hit on May 15. Besides, Trucks is one of five pitchers to throw two no-hitters in a season, being the others Johnny Vander Meer (1938), Allie Reynolds (1951), Nolan Ryan (1973) and Roy Halladay (2010), as one of his no-hitters came in the postseason.[1]
September 13 – Buffalo Bisons outfielder Frank Carswell wins the International League batting title with a .344 average, leading also the league with 30 home runs while driving in 101 runs and slugging .587.[2]
October 7 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4–2, in the decisive Game 7 of the World Series to win their fourth straight World Championship title – tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 and fifteenth overall. Billy Martin saves the day by snaring a two-out, bases-loaded infield pop off the bat of Jackie Robinson. Gil Hodges goes hitless again and is 0-for-21 in the Series. This is the Yankees' third defeat of the Dodgers in six years.
November 22 – Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Harry Byrd, who won 15 games and posted and a 3.31 ERA, is selected American League Rookie of the Year. Byrd will be the last Athletics player to win the award until Jose Canseco in 1986.
November 28 – International League President Frank Shaughnessy reveals plans to form two new major leagues by merging the top teams in the American Association and the top teams from the IL. Shaughnessy thinks that in five to six years, Major League Baseball will elevate these two leagues, along with the Pacific Coast League, which nearly has MLB status now.
November 30 – On a local New York TV program, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers charges that the New York Yankees management is racist for its failure to bring up a black player. Yankees executive George Weiss denies the allegations.
The Pittsburgh Pirates draft relief pitcher Elroy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. During a 15-year career with the Pirates, Face will lead the National League in saves three times and will be a three-time All-Star, as well as his amazing 18 relief wins in 1959 remains a major league record.
Brooklyn Dodgers executive Buzzie Bavasi dismisses the New York Yankees reaction to the Jackie Robinson racism charges. Commissioner Ford Frick plans no action against Robinson. Two days earlier, Robinson had called the Yankees a racist organization for its failure to promote a black player to the parent club.
January 8 – Art Evans, 40, pitcher for the 1932 Chicago White Sox.
January 10 – Bones Ely, 88, one of the top defensive shortstops of his generation and also a versatile two-way player, whose 19-season professional career included stints with eight major league teams in three different leagues in a span of fourteen seasons between 1884 and 1902.[3]
January 17 – Walter O. Briggs Sr., 74, industrialist and co-owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1919 to 1935, and sole owner from 1935 until his death.
January 17 – Solly Salisbury, 75, pitcher who played in 1902 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
January 20 – Ollie Pickering, 81, outfielder for six major league clubs in three different leagues between 1896 and 1908, who entered the record books as the first ever batter in American League history, when he faced Chicago White Sox pitcher Roy Patterson as a member of the Cleveland Blues on April 24, 1901.[4][5]
January 24 – Ángel Aragón, 61, third baseman for the New York Yankees in three seasons from 1914 to 1917, who was also the first Cuban and Latin American player to wear a Yankees uniform.[6]
March 20 – Harry Bay, 74, outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Bronchos and Naps in a span of eight seasons from 1901 to 1908, who led the American League in stolen bases in 1903 and 1904.
March 30 – Deacon Phillippe, 79, pitcher who played for the Louisville Colonels in 1899 and for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1900 through 1911, whose 13-season career was highlighted by pitching a no-hitter in his seventh career game with the Colonels, winning four National League pennants and the 1909 World Series with the Pirates, while winning three games of the 1903 World Series against the eventual champions Boston Americans, and prevailing in a pitching duel with Cy Young in Game 1 of the best-of-nine series, as his five decisions in the World Series are still a record for a pitcher.[8]
May 1 – Ernie Johnson, 64, middle infielder and third baseman whose 10-year career included stints with four teams from 1912 to 1925, being also a contributor to the 1923 World Series Champion Yankees, slashing .297/.333/.385 for the club in the regular season, and scoring the series-deciding run as a pinch runner in Game 6 against the New York Giants.
May 14 – Red Dooin, 72, catcher (1902–1914) and player-manager (1910–1914) for the Philadelphia Phillies who caught 1,219 games for the team and posted a record of 392–370 (.514) as its skipper; also played for the Cincinnati Reds (1915) and New York Giants (1915–1916).
July 3 – Fred Tenney, 80, first baseman and manager whose career lasted 17 seasons from 1894 to 1911, who was ranked behind only Hal Chase among first basemen of the Deadball Era, being also considered the originator of the 3-6-3 double play, while leading the National League in putouts in 1905 and 1907–1908 as well as in assists each year from 1901 through 1907, setting a major-league record with 152 in 1905 that lasted until Mickey Vernon topped it in 1949, hitting over .300 seven times and retiring with a .294/.371/.358 slash line, including 2,231 hits, 1,134 runs scored and 688 runs batted in.[11]
July 11 – Dutch Leonard, 60, left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers over eleven seasons from 1913 to 1925, who earned two World Series rings with Boston in 1915 and 1916, while leading the major leagues with an earned run average of 0.96 in 1914, setting a modern-era season record that still stands.[12]
August 8 – Bob Neighbors, 34, shortstop for the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who later served as a pilot in the Korean War and was shot down, making him the most recent major leaguer to be killed in battle.[14]
August 30 – Arky Vaughan, 40, Hall of Fame and nine-time All-Star shortstop, who hit .300 or better in each of his first 10 major league seasons, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1932 to 1941, winning the National League batting crown with a .385 average in 1935, while leading the league in runs and triples three years apiece, as well as stolen bases once; died tragically when a sudden storm capsized his fishing boat on Lost Lake, near his Northern California home.[15]
September 8 – Ed Hearne, 64, shortstop who played briefly with the Boston Red Sox in 1910.
September 13 – Al Clauss, 61, pitcher for the 1913 Detroit Tigers.
September 16 – Earl Sheely, 59, first baseman who posted a .300 batting average with the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Braves in nine seasons between 1921 and 1931, serving later as a scout for the Boston Red Sox and general manager for the Triple-A Seattle Rainiers, earning a Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame induction for his contributions to the league over the years.[16]
October 8 – Joe Adams, 74, pitcher for the 1902 St. Louis Cardinals, who later became a successful manager in the minor leagues, being a mentor for future Hall of Famers Frank Chance and Ray Schalk, among others, while earning the nickname of Godfather of the Eastern Illinois League, according to the 1908 Spalding Guide.[17]
October 11 – Roy Beecher, 68, pitcher for the New York Giants from 1907 to 1908.
October 14 – Jim Banning, 87, 19th century catcher who played for the Washington Nationals of the National League in parts of two seasonsd from 1888 to 1889.
October 17 – Vince Shields, 51, Canadian pitcher for the 1924 St. Louis Cardinals.
October 22 – Howard McGraner, 63, pitcher who played with the Cincinnati Reds in 1912.
October 26 – Tom Angley, 48, backup catcher for the Chicago Cubs in its 1929 season.
October 26 – Mike Murphy, 64, catcher who played with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1912 and for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916.
December 6 – Don Hurst, 47, first baseman who played from 1928 through 1934 for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, leading the National League with 143 RBI in 1932.