1930: The Story of a Baseball Season When Hitters Reigned Supreme

by Lew Freedman

Overview

The 1930 Major League baseball season was both marvelous and horrendous, great for hitters, embarrassing for pitchers. In totality it was just this side of insane as an outlier among all seasons.

Major League Baseball began with the founding of the National League in 1876. In the 145 seasons since then, one season stands out as unique for the astounding nature of hitting: 1930.

A flipside of 1968’s “Year of the Pitcher,” when the great St. Louis Cardinals Bob Gibson compiled a 1.12 earned run average and Detroit Tigers Denny McLain won 31 games, the 1930 season was when the batters reigned supreme. During this incredible season, more than one hundred players batted .300, the entire National League averaged .300, ten players hit 30 or more home runs, and some of the greatest individual performances established all-time records. From New York Giants Bill Terry’s .401 average—the last National Leaguer to hit over .400—to the NL-record 56 home runs and major league–record 192 runs batted in by Chicago Cubs Hack Wilson, the 1930 season is a wild, sometimes unbelievable, often wacky baseball story.

Breaking down the anomaly of the season and how each team fared, veteran journalist Lew Freeman tells the story of a one-off year unlike any other. While the greats stayed great, and though some pitchers did hold their own—with seven winning 20 or more games, including 28 by Philadelphia Athletics’ Lefty Grove and 25 by Cleveland Indians’ Wes Ferrell—Freedman shares anecdotes about those players that excelled in 1930, and only 1930. More than ninety years later, 1930 offers insight into a season that still stands the test of time for batting excellence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683584216
Publisher:	Sports Publishing LLC
Publication date:	08/31/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Lew Freedman is the author of more than one hundred books on sports, including Clouds over the Goalpost, The Original Six, and A Summer to Remember, and is the winner of more than 300 journalism awards. A veteran sportswriter, Freedman was formerly a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Tribune, as well as other papers across the country, and currently resides in Columbus, Indiana.
Lew Freedman is the author of nearly sixty books on sports, including Clouds over the Goalpost, The Original Six, and A Summer to Remember, and is the winner of more than 250 journalism awards. A veteran sportswriter, Freedman was formerly a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as other papers, and lives in Columbus, Indiana.

Table of Contents

Preface iv

Prelude viii

Chapter 1 The Great Depression 1

Chapter 2 Hack Wilson-Man of the Hour 5

Chapter 3 Bill Terry Outhitting Them All 12

Chapter 4 Babe Ruth Still in There Slugging 19

Chapter 5 The New York Yankees 27

Chapter 6 The Philadelphia Athletics 38

Chapter 7 The Washington Senators 50

Chapter 8 The Cleveland Indians 61

Chapter 9 The Detroit Tigers 74

Chapter 10 The St. Louis Browns 88

Chapter 11 The Chicago White Sox 103

Chapter 12 The Boston Red Sox 120

Chapter 13 Lefty Grove Untouchable 131

Chapter 14 Pennant Races 142

Chapter 15 The Philadelphia Phillies 149

Chapter 16 The Cincinnati Reds 166

Chapter 17 The Boston Braves 174

Chapter 18 The Pittsburgh Pirates 184

Chapter 19 The Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers 202

Chapter 20 The New York Giants 217

Chapter 21 The Chicago Cubs 233

Chapter 22 The St. Louis Cardinals 248

Chapter 23 Winners and Losers 266

Postscript 275

About the Author 281

Sources 282