1939 St. Louis Browns season explained

St. Louis Browns
Season:	1939
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Sportsman's Park
City:	St. Louis, Missouri
Record:	43–111 (.279)
League Place:	8th
Owners:	Donald Lee Barnes
General Managers:	Bill DeWitt
Managers:	Fred Haney
Radio:	KMOX (France Laux, Cy Casper) KWK (Johnny O'Hara, Jim Bottomley)

The 1939 St. Louis Browns season, team finished eighth in the American League with a record of 43 wins and 111 losses.

Regular season

The Browns lost a franchise record 111 games—not surpassed until the 2018 Baltimore Orioles^[1] (the team moved from St. Louis to Baltimore in)—and finished 64.5 games out of first place.^[2] The Browns played particularly poorly at home, posting an 18–59 record. The 59 home losses stood as the most in a modern-era major league season until it was matched by the 2019 Detroit Tigers, who went 22–59 at home. Because of the shorter season, the Browns home winning percentage in 1939 (.234) is still the worst in history.^[3]

Browns pitching struggled tremendously. The pitchers allowed 739 walks, which was over 100 walks more than the next worse team.^[2] The team had an earned run average of 6.01.^[2] The next time that a team would have an ERA over 6.00 was the 1996 Detroit Tigers, who had an ERA of 6.38.^[2]

Notable transactions

May 13, 1939: Red Kress, Beau Bell, Bobo Newsom, and Jim Walkup were traded by the St. Louis Browns to the Detroit Tigers for Vern Kennedy, Bob Harris, George Gill, Roxie Lawson, Chet Laabs, and Mark Christman.^[4]

Roster

1939 St. Louis Browns
Roster
Pitchers	CatchersInfielders	OutfieldersOther batters	ManagerCoaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	88	286	78	.273	4	29
1B	154	617	195	.316	20	94
2B	126	468	120	.256	5	58
SS	110	375	100	.267	1	35
3B	151	526	142	.270	15	84
OF	71	266	75	.282	9	40
OF	129	482	142	.295	10	75
OF	95	317	95	.300	10	62

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
118	332	96	.289	5	50
79	222	48	.216	0	20
74	207	63	.304	3	22
42	145	35	.241	0	15
42	134	32	.239	1	7
40	131	27	.206	0	14
48	119	32	.269	0	11
33	110	33	.300	3	22
30	86	26	.302	1	7
18	49	13	.265	0	8
13	43	12	.279	0	8
11	32	7	.219	1	5
9	30	7	.233	0	4
17	23	2	.087	0	1
7	11	2	.182	1	1
1	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
40	211.2	9	16	5.83	68
33	191.2	9	17	5.73	55
6	45.2	3	1	4.73	28
2	19.0	1	1	3.32	8

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
41	156.2	6	13	5.34	61
36	150.2	3	7	5.32	43
34	144.1	4	11	6.55	103
28	126.0	3	12	5.71	48
27	95.0	1	12	7.11	24
12	47.2	2	5	7.74	14
4	16.1	0	2	11.02	9
5	14.0	0	1	6.43	2
4	10.0	0	1	3.60	8
4	9.1	0	2	9.64	8
6	8.1	0	2	12.96	5
2	7.0	0	0	11.57	6

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
26	1	3	1	5.86	9
17	1	2	0	5.49	11
6	0	2	0	7.11	5
2	0	0	0	15.00	1
1	0	0	0	0.00	0
1	0	1	0	0.00	0

Farm system

External links

Notes and References

News: Red Sox send Orioles to record-112th loss, 19-3 . Jimmy . Golen . . . September 26, 2018 . September 26, 2018.
As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, David Alan Heller, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2003,
Web site: Tigers tie MLB record with 59th home loss . MLB.com . September 26, 2019 . September 27, 2019.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kressre01.shtml Red Kress page at Baseball Reference
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997