1948 New York Yankees season explained

New York Yankees
Season:	1948
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Yankee Stadium
City:	New York City
Owners:	Dan Topping and Del Webb
General Managers:	George Weiss
Managers:	Bucky Harris
Television:	WABD (Mel Allen, Russ Hodges, Bill Slater)
Radio:	WINS (AM) (Mel Allen, Russ Hodges)

The 1948 New York Yankees season was the team's 46th season. The team finished with a record of 94–60, finishing 2.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians and 1.5 games behind the second-place Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Bucky Harris. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee Stadium.

The fractional games-behind came about due to the frenzied pennant race, which saw the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians all battling it out to the end. The Yankees fell just a little short, and the Red Sox and Indians finished in a tie for first at 96–58. They held a one-game playoff, which counted as part of the regular season, so the Indians' victory raised their record to 97–58, and dropped the Red Sox to 96–59.

The Yankees did not renew Bucky Harris' contract after the season, opting instead to hire Casey Stengel starting in 1949. This move raised some eyebrows, but Stengel had just led the Oakland Oaks to the Pacific Coast League pennant in 1948, demonstrating that with good talent, he had a good chance to succeed. The Yankees were about to begin the most dominating stretch of their long dynasty.

Babe Ruth's death

On July 26, 1948, Babe Ruth attended the premiere of the film The Babe Ruth Story, a biopic about his life. William Bendix portrayed Ruth. Shortly thereafter, Ruth returned to the hospital for the final time. He was barely able to speak. Ruth's condition gradually became worse, and in his last days, scores of reporters and photographers hovered around the hospital. Only a few visitors were allowed to see him, one of whom was National League president and future Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick. "Ruth was so thin it was unbelievable. He had been such a big man and his arms were just skinny little bones, and his face was so haggard," Frick said years later.

On August 16, the day after Frick's visit, Babe Ruth died at age 53. His body lay in repose in Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth's funeral was two days later at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Ruth was then buried in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.^[1] The procession ended at Gate of Heaven Cemetery where 6,000 people came witness Ruth's gravesite. His casket was covered with a blanket of roses and orchids.^[2]

At his death, the New York Times called Babe Ruth, "a figure unprecedented in American life. A born showman off the field and a marvelous performer on it, he had an amazing flair for doing the spectacular at the most dramatic moment."^[3]

Offseason

February 24, 1948: Bill Wight, Fred Bradley, and Aaron Robinson were traded by the Yankees to the Chicago White Sox for Eddie Lopat.^[4]
Prior to 1948 season: Al Cicotte and Gus Triandos were signed as an amateur free agents by the Yankees.^[5] ^[6]

Regular season

Roster

1948 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

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	82	228	61	.268	0	19
1B	94	302	75	.248	11	41
2B	141	515	130	.252	3	32
3B	127	446	131	.294	12	64
SS	128	464	117	.252	6	50
OF	153	594	190	.320	39	155
OF	88	309	138	.317	13	55
OF	146	598	181	.308	25	100

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
125	469	143	.305	14	98
113	363	109	.300	3	48
83	247	66	.267	6	44
44	118	24	.203	3	11
53	88	22	.250	1	12
19	50	9	.180	1	9
22	38	8	.211	0	4
14	29	8	.276	0	3
4	14	8	.571	0	1
17	14	4	.286	0	0
5	5	1	.200	0	2
6	5	1	.200	0	0
1	2	0	.000	0	0
1	0	0	----	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
39	236.1	16	7	3.77	101
33	226.2	17	11	3.65	83
36	222.2	19	8	3.84	124
28	155.2	9	10	3.41	71
16	78.0	5	3	4.50	30

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
31	133.2	8	5	3.30	101
20	76.2	5	3	3.76	25
22	62.1	5	2	4.04	25

Relief pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
55	107.2	7	8	16	4.26	77
19	38	2	3	1	3.79	11
15	25	1	0	0	2.88	12
1	2	0	0	0	4.50	2
1	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Farm system

References

Notes and References

News: Kelly . Jim . 6,000 Jam Into Cathedral For Babe Ruth funeral . 8 February 2024 . The Catholic Advance . 27 August 1948 . 8.
News: 75,000 Stand in the Rain at Draft:Babe Ruth funeral . 8 February 2024 . St. Louis Globe-Democrat . Associated Press . 20 August 1948 . 1.
News: Babe Ruth, Baseball's Great Star and Idol of Children, Had a Career Both Dramatic and Bizarre . Probably nowhere in all the imaginative field of fiction could one find a career more dramatic and bizarre than that portrayed in real life by George Herman Ruth. Known the world over, even in foreign lands where baseball is never played, as the Babe, he was the boy who rose from the obscurity of a charitable institution in Baltimore to a position as the leading figure in professional baseball. He was also its greatest drawing-card, its highest salaried performer—at least of his day—and the idol of millions of youngsters throughout the land. . New York Times . August 17, 1948 . July 21, 2007 .
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lopated01.shtml Eddie Lopat page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cicotal01.shtml Al Cicotte page at Baseball Reference
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/trades.php?p=triangu01 Gus Triandos Trades and Transactions at Baseball Almanac
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007