| 1940 MLB season | |
| League: | American League (AL) National League (NL) |
| Sport: | Baseball |
| Duration: | Regular season:World Series: |
| No Of Games: | 154 |
| No Of Teams: | 16 (8 per league) |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Mvp: | AL |
| Mvp Link: | Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award |
| Conf1: | AL |
| Conf1 Champ: | Detroit Tigers |
| Conf1 Runner-Up: | Cleveland Indians |
| Conf2: | NL |
| Conf2 Champ: | Cincinnati Reds |
| Conf2 Runner-Up: | Brooklyn Dodgers |
| Finals: | World Series |
| Finals Link: | 1940 World Series |
| Finals Champ: | Cincinnati Reds |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Detroit Tigers |
| Seasonslist: | List of MLB seasons |
| Seasonslistnames: | MLB |
| Prevseason Link: | 1939 Major League Baseball season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1939 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1941 Major League Baseball season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1941 |
The 1940 major league baseball season began on April 16, 1940. The regular season ended on September 29, with the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 37th World Series on October 2 and ended with Game 7 on October 8. The Reds defeated the Tigers, four games to three.
The eighth Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played on July 9, hosted by the St. Louis Browns and St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri, with the National League winning, 4–0.
See also: Major League Baseball schedule. The 1940 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the season (except for) and would be used until in the American League and in the National League.
Opening Day, April 16, featured all sixteen teams, the first since the season. The final day of the regular season was on September 29, which also saw all sixteen teams play, the first since the season. This was the first time since that all sixteen teams that all sixteen teams played their first and last games on the same days. The World Series took place between October 2 and October 8.
The 1940 season saw the following rule change:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
| Team | Former Manager | New Manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia Athletics | Earle Mack | Connie Mack | |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Pie Traynor | Frankie Frisch |
| Team | Former Manager | New Manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Cardinals | Ray Blades | Mike González | |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Mike González | Billy Southworth |
| Total | |||
| Joe DiMaggio (NYY) | .352 | ||
| Hank Greenberg (DET) | 41 | ||
| Hank Greenberg (DET) | 150 | ||
| Ted Williams (BRS) | 134 | ||
| Doc Cramer (BRS) Barney McCosky (DET) Rip Radcliff (SLB) | 200 | ||
| George Case (WSH) | 35 |
| Total | |||
| Bob Feller1 (CLE) | 27 | ||
| George Caster (PHA) Dutch Leonard (WSH) | 19 | ||
| Bob Feller1 (CLE) | 2.61 | ||
| Bob Feller1 (CLE) | 261 | ||
| Bob Feller (CLE) | 320.1 | ||
| Al Benton (DET) | 17 |
| Total | |||
| Debs Garms (PIT) | .355 | ||
| Johnny Mize (SLC) | 43 | ||
| Johnny Mize (SLC) | 137 | ||
| Arky Vaughan (PIT) | 113 | ||
| Stan Hack (CHC) Frank McCormick (CIN) | 191 | ||
| Lonny Frey (CIN) | 22 |
| Total | |||
| Bucky Walters (CIN) | 22 | ||
| Hugh Mulcahy (PHP) | 22 | ||
| Bucky Walters (CIN) | 2.48 | ||
| Kirby Higbe (PHP) | 137 | ||
| Bucky Walters (CIN) | 305.0 | ||
| Joe Beggs (CIN) Jumbo Brown (NYG) Mace Brown (PIT) | 7 |
| Team name | Wins | Home attendance | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Tigers[2] | 90 | 11.1% | 1,112,693 | 33.1% | 14,085 | |
| New York Yankees[3] | 88 | −17.0% | 988,975 | 15.0% | 13,013 | |
| Brooklyn Dodgers[4] | 88 | 4.8% | 975,978 | 2.1% | 12,049 | |
| Cleveland Indians[5] | 89 | 2.3% | 902,576 | 60.1% | 11,007 | |
| Cincinnati Reds[6] | 100 | 3.1% | 850,180 | −13.4% | 11,041 | |
| New York Giants[7] | 72 | −6.5% | 747,852 | 6.5% | 9,840 | |
| Boston Red Sox[8] | 82 | −7.9% | 716,234 | 25.0% | 9,066 | |
| Chicago White Sox[9] | 82 | −3.5% | 660,336 | 11.1% | 8,466 | |
| Chicago Cubs[10] | 75 | −10.7% | 534,878 | −26.4% | 6,946 | |
| Pittsburgh Pirates[11] | 78 | 14.7% | 507,934 | 34.8% | 6,772 | |
| Philadelphia Athletics[12] | 54 | −1.8% | 432,145 | 9.4% | 6,087 | |
| Washington Senators[13] | 64 | −1.5% | 381,241 | 12.4% | 4,951 | |
| St. Louis Cardinals[14] | 84 | −8.7% | 324,078 | −19.0% | 4,209 | |
| Boston Bees[15] | 65 | 3.2% | 241,616 | −15.5% | 3,222 | |
| St. Louis Browns[16] | 67 | 55.8% | 239,591 | 119.5% | 3,112 | |
| Philadelphia Phillies[17] | 50 | 11.1% | 207,177 | −25.5% | 2,622 |