[Homer_J_Simpson]

Here is the weekly update on the pennant race. Cleveland and the New York Baseball Giants are still hot, but the Yankees and Cubbies are close behind. Could this be the year of the Cubs? How did the league manage to complete a whole season without any air travel? Get a map of the eastern U.S. and draw a line through the following cities. Boston-Detroit-Chicago-St. Louis-Washington-Boston again. Besides going through a majority of the Major League cities, the circle encloses all the rest. It looks to me like the longest train trip would be Boston-St. Louis. Not bad if the trip includes two or three other stands along the way. Major League Baseball

American League

……………………..Won…Lost…Percentage………Games Behind
Cleve………………...29……15…….659………………….-
N. Y. ………………..24……19…….558………………….4 1/2
Boston……………….24……19........558………………….4 1/2
Wash………………...26……22…….542………………….5
Detroit ………………22……23…….489………………….7 1/2
Chic………………….16……23….....410…………………10 1/2
Phila………………….17……25…….405…………………11
St. L………………….14……26…….350………………...13

National League

……………………..Won…Lost…Percentage………Games Behind
N. Y…………………28……16…….636……………………-
Chic………………….29……18…….617……………………1/2
Boston ………………21……18…….538………………… 4 1/2
Cincin……………….23…….20….....535………………….4 1/2
Pitts………………….21…….20……512………………….5 1/2
St. L…………………18…….24…….429………………….9
Bklyn………………..20…….27…….426………………….9 1/2
Phila…………………11…….28…….282…………………14 1/2

[henkster]

This is a great post; it points out how America WAS different back in the late 1930’s, as evidenced by Major League Baseball. All Major League clubs traveled by train, and even though the use of sleeper cars enabled a team to travel overnight to make it from city to city, you could only get so far in a day by train. Therefore, there were no teams west of St. Louis. There were also no teams in the south. Of course, at that time the bulk of the American population was along the northern half of the east coast and in the midwest. In the south, while there were major cities, heat and disease were still factors, and the widespread use of air conditioning was still a generation away.

To accommodate the “long” trips from Boston to St. Louis, it was attempted to put in stops along the way, such as Cleveland (AL) or Pittsburgh (NL). However, back then, they “only” played 156 games instead of 162, which allowed for more travel days. In addition, the doubleheader was still in common use. So, if the Cards finished up a series with the Cubs in Sportsman’s Park, and then had a game in Philly or Boston, the league could schedule an extra travel day, and then play a doubleheader on Saturday or Sunday.

At this time the PCL (Pacific Coast League) was a semi-independent league on the west coast; I don’t think the teams had a formal affiliation with any major league clubs as a farm system. While some west coast fans considered the PCL a 3rd major league, it was the source of some fine AL and NL players. Joe DiMaggio comes to mind.