1937 Baseball Season Headlines

The 1937 baseball season would see another Subway Series go the way of the Yankees. Read about other headlines from the 1937 season below.

The Heart of New York

Joe McCarthy's 1937 team included his No. 1 star, Lou Gehrig, and the heir apparent, Joe DiMaggio. During McCarthy's regime, neither the Yankees dugout nor the clubhouse after the game was a place for frivolity. Baseball was strictly business to McCarthy, and the entire park was his office.

Bill Dickey
Catcher Bill Dickey hit
.313 and collected 202
home runs over his
17-year career.

Bill Dickey: .332 BA, 133 RBI

Over a 17-year career in which he played
no position other than catcher, Bill Dickey hit .313 and collected 202 home runs and 1,209 RBI. In 1937, he hit .332 with 29 home runs and 133 RBI. Although there were other receivers who had more flair, he had a quality that was the envy of all. As Charlie Gehringer put it, "Bill Dickey made catching look easy."

Charlie Gehringer Tops in BA

Charlie Gehringer became the oldest player in American League history to win a first batting title when he scored a .371 average in 1937 at the age of 34. A year earlier, he had rapped .354. Mickey Cochrane, Gehringer's manager, described him by saying, "He says hello on opening day and good-bye on closing day, and in between he hits .350."

Mickey Cochrane Beaned Down

Mickey Cochrane was taken away by an ambulance after being beaned by Bump Hadley on May 25, 1937. Cochrane, who was in and out of consciousness for ten days with a fractured skull, was the victim of a pitcher who had almost everything going for him except control. Hadley averaged nearly 100 walks a season during his career. Cochrane never played in the majors again.

Arky Vaughan Tops National League in Triples

Arky Vaughan never again approached his .385 average of 1935, though he did hit .318 over his career. In 1937, he hit .322 and led the National League with 17 triples. Arky, who was named after his home state of Arkansas, always had an outstanding walk-to-strikeout ratio. Over his career, he walked 937 times and fanned just 276 times. He fanned a mere 22 times in the 1937 season.

Johnny Allen Nearly 16-0

Although Johnny Allen was long on talent, he had a short fuse. Guarding a 15-0 record for Cleveland on the last day of the 1937 season, Allen lost a potential 16th straight win when Detroit beat him 1-0 on a hit he thought his third baseman, Bad News Hale, should have handled. Allen wanted to fight Hale after the game.

See the next section for more 1937 baseball season headlines.

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