Cincinnati, of course, had a chance to win an unsoiled Series in 1939. Instead, the Reds hung out their own dirty linen as the powerful New York Yankees zapped them in four games. Plainly, this World Series evoked few pleasant memories for the Reds. Hopes that 1940 might be different rose when Bill McKechnie’s…
Luis Tiant Position: Pitcher Bats: Right • Throws: Right 6-0, 180lb (183cm, 81kg) Born: November 23, 1940 in Marianao, Cuba Debut: July 19, 1964 (9,873rd in MLB history) vs. NYY 9.0 IP, 4 H, 11 SO, 4 BB, 0 ER, W Last Game: September 4, 1982 vs. MIL 5.1 IP, 12 H, 4 SO, 1 BB, 7 ER, L Full Name: Luis Clemente Tiant Nicknames: El Tiante View Player Bio from…
1940 – Jimmie Wilson is named as the new Chicago Cubs manager. He gets his reward for managing the woeful Philadelphia Phillies in the 1930s and for his late-season role filling in at catcher with the Cincinnati Reds.
1940 – Unwilling to yield to the players’ demands during the season, Cleveland Indians owner Alva Bradley finally fires manager Oscar Vitt and replaces him with Roger Peckinpaugh. It is Peckinpaugh’s second time as Cleveland’s field boss.
1940 – Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail still needs a starting pitcher to make his team a threat to the Reds. He acquires pitcher Kirby Higbe from the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher Mickey Livingston, pitchers Bill Crouch and Vito Tamulis, and $100,000. Higbe, who won 14 games in 1940, will win 22 games next season to lead National League pitchers.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate who broke with tradition to run for an unprecedented third term, is re-elected, defeating Wendell Willkie by a comfortable margin. The unlikely dark horse Republican candidate had once served as the Dodgers’ lawyer, but the independent-minded barrister’s involvement in politics proved not to be beneficial for a team that was in constant chaos at the time.
On November 5, 1940, In his bid to represent Maryland’s sixth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, baseball legend Walter Johnson narrowly loses to William D. Byron, the Democrat incumbent, who will die in a plane crash in February. The Hall of Fame right-hander, elected as a Montgomery County Commissioner in 1938, receives…
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