This is kind of an “off” world series. What I mean is, where are the stars? I recognize DiMaggio for the Yankees, but I don’t see any other Hall of Fame names on either roster. And the Yankees won the AL going away. There were still plenty of other stars out there in the late 30’s, but maybe other than Williams and DiMaggio, a lot of them were past their prime.
Seems like a dry period before the war, and the new crop of great players won’t come around until the decade after the war; players like Robinson, Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Musial, Williams in his prime, etc...
The Yankees five future Hall of Famers on the roster, in addition to manager Joe McCarthy (would have been a half dozen if Gehrig hadn't been forced out by ALS):
DiMaggio
Lefty Gomez
Joe Gordon
Red Ruffing
For the Reds there was Ernie Lombardi, manager Bill McKechnie, and Al Simmons, who I am not familiar with and does not appear in the composite box score above.
Source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/hof.shtml