1938 Baseball Season Headlines
The 1938 baseball season marked the career endings of some legendary players, including Dizzy Dean and Kiki Cuyler. Read about some of the other headlines from the 1938 baseball season below.
 Bill McKechnie won flags with a record three different National League teams. |
Bill McKechnie Boosts Reds
In last place in 1937, manager Bill McKechnie
pushed the Reds to fourth in 1938, their first season under his
command. McKechnie won flags with a record three different National
League teams, and some analysts credit him with an American League
pennant, too.
Dizzy Dean Done In
Dizzy Dean's spectacular career took a nose dive in the summer of 1937, when an Earl Averill
line drive broke his toe. Dizzy, pitching with the injured foot,
altered his motion and hurt his arm; he pitched a 13-10 record that
year. He was never the same again. He would win only nine more games in
his career.
Stan Hack Posts 320 BA
The
Cubs' Stan Hack was unique in that he was a third baseman who could run
but had little power. In recent years, several authorities on the game
have mounted a case that he belongs in the Hall of Fame, but testament
is against him. Fellow players do not remember Hack as having been
anything exceptional, and the record books support them. In 1938, Hack
hit .320 with 67 RBI. For his career, he hit .301 with no power. He
averaged ten steals a year.
Al Simmons Has Final Hurrah
After knocking in 100 or more runs in his first 11 seasons, Al Simmons
began to fade. However, he enjoyed one last big year with Washington in
1938, when he hit .302 with 21 homers and 95 RBI. In his later years,
Simmons drove to reach 3,000 hits, and he bounced from team to team
trying to reach his goal. He fell 73 short. Simmons was a hard hitter
on the field and off. He loved to party and often hit the booze the
night before a game. If he lived a cleaner life, he may have reached
his 3,000th hit.
Jimmie Foxx Nails 50 Dingers
Jimmie
Foxx holds the season franchise home run record for both the Athletics
and the Red Sox. Like Pinky Higgins, though, he had better slugging
marks in Shibe Park than in Fenway. In 1938, Foxx blasted 50 homers and
drove in 175 runs, however -- numbers Higgins never approached.
Kiki Cuyler Retires
Kiki Cuyler finally hung up his spikes in 1938. He hit .273 his last season with 23
RBI. Over his career, he hit .321 and led the league in steals four
times. Kiki has one of the most mispronounced names in baseball. His
nickname was once "Cuy," which then became "Cuy-Cuy." Though his name
is pronounced "Ky-ky," it is often said as "Kee-kee."
See the next section for more headlines from the 1938 baseball season.
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