The hurricane of 1938 took a path that is not unusual for a late season hurricane. The Gulf Stream moves a massive amount of water, and late in the summer/early fall the water that warmed up in June/July near the equator reaches New York/New England. As a result, in September and even into October, hurricanes can follow that warm water highway up the east coast, and maintain their strength as they make landfall in the north east. The Gulf Stream is not warm enough that far north in June or July, so you don’t get hurricanes going north and maintaining their strength early in the season. Then, most hurricanes are originating in the Gulf of Mexico where the water warms earlier in the season.
Doesn’t happen every year, but if you look at charts of late season hurricanes, you’ll see that the east coast phenomenon is actually fairly frequent.
I was just about to address your point yesterday about the diffenent number of games played by the teams when the big crash occurred. I think it probably had to do with getting venues to play the games. The games were played in baseball stadiums and there was a hot pennant race going on, at least in Pittsburgh. The football Pirates played their opener on a Friday in Detroit and their home opener in Forbes Field the following Sunday. I'll bet they wouldn't try to make a Bill Parcells team do that.