Lou Gehrig, who played in his last major league game on June 30 this season, is elected to the Hall of Fame. Due to the Yankees first baseman’s diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the five-year waiting rule is waived.
The Bees are busy clearing their pitching staff. Jim Turner goes to the Reds for 1B Les Scarsella and cash‚ while Johnny Lanning is sent to Pittsburgh for P Jim Tobin and cash.
In a trade of veteran shortstops – or “worn-out shortstops‚” as one newspaper describes it – the Cubs acquire Billy Rogell from the Detroit Tigers for Dick Bartell. Rogell‚ who injured his arm playing handball the previous year‚ will hit just .136 before hanging up his spikes. The Tigers will release “Rowdy Richard” 5 games into the 1941 season‚ but he will stick with the Giants until 1946.
1939 – Judge Landis fines Brooklyn, Detroit, and the St. Louis farm club, Columbus Red Birds|Columbus, for manipulating player contracts. He frees seven farmhands.
1939 – Ken Keltner is turned down in Cleveland in his attempt to collect off-season unemployment benefits.
With 20,000 well-wishers jamming the streets in the City by the Bay, Joe DiMaggio marries actress Dorothy Arnold at St. Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco. The Yankees outfielder met his future bride on the set of ‘Manhattan Merry-Go-Round’, a movie in which he had a minor role.
1939 – The National Professional Indoor Baseball League, headed by league president Tris Speaker, begins play. The league has 10 clubs, one in each then major-league city except Washington. Alas, it disappears within a month.
The youngest of the three DiMaggio brothers, Dom DiMaggio, is bought for $40,000 by the Boston Red Sox from the San Francisco team (Pacific Coast League).
In the Japanese Professional Baseball League, pitcher Victor Starffin wins his 42nd game in a 96-game season, leading the Yomiuri Giants to the pennant, and setting a post-1900 world record for season victories that will be equaled by Kazuhisa Inao in 1961 but never broken. Born in Russia, Starffin moved to Asahikawa, Hokkaido at a young age, and was picked as part of the national baseball team for an exhibition game against the United States in 1934. From 1936 through 1955 he will win 303 games, the first pitcher in Japanese baseball to top the 300 mark.
1939 – Joe DiMaggio is named American League MVP, with Jimmie Foxx the runner-up.
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