1930s Baseball: History, MVPs & MLB Champions

I won’t claim to be an expert historian on baseball, but this is my first post on RetroWaste about old time baseball and I couldn’t be more excited about the addition of this category.

I have been reading and collecting baseball since I was 5 years old. I pitched varsity baseball throughout high school and my son is pretty much the best pitcher in his 12 year old league right now.

I love baseball.

So, now that I’ve got that out of the way — baseball in the 1930s.

So much has been said, but bottom line, it was NOT the 20s and it wasn’t the 40s. The glamour teams and big name stars were gone and replaced with guys who were best known for being Jewish.

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig both fizzled out at the end of the decade and the Depression crushed attendance.

As a collector, the 1930s produced one of the best baseball card sets of all time: the 1933 Goudey baseball card set. I love the way those cards look and feel. They’re honestly as close to perfection as I could hope for in a baseball card.

Another huge thing happened in the 1930s: LIGHTS! LIGHTS! LIGHTS!

My beloved Cincinnati Reds put lights into their stadium and night time baseball caught on like wildfire.

The Yankees dominated the second half of the decade — winning four Championships in a row.

While the mid-30s were owned by guys like Ott, Foxx and Dean, the late 1930s introduced three guys who would shape the next decade: Williams, Feller and DiMaggio (of, course I’m talking about Dom, haha)

Another one of my favorite parts of baseball, the Hall of Fame, was built in 1939. The first inductees?

Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Not a bad group.

List of World Series winners in the 1930s

Year	Winning Team	Series	Losing Team
1930	Philadelphia Athletics (AL)	4–2	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)
1931	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)	4–3	Philadelphia Athletics (AL)
1932	New York Yankees (AL)	4–0	Chicago Cubs (NL)
1933	New York Giants (NL)	4–1	Washington Senators (AL)
1934	St. Louis Cardinals (NL)	4–3	Detroit Tigers (AL)
1935	Detroit Tigers (AL)	4–2	Chicago Cubs (NL)
1936	New York Yankees (AL)	4–2	New York Giants (NL)
1937	New York Yankees (AL)	4–1	New York Giants (NL)
1938	New York Yankees (AL)	4–0	Chicago Cubs (NL)
1939	New York Yankees (AL)	4–0	Cincinnati Reds (NL)

List of American League MVPs in the 1930s

1931	Lefty Grove	Philadelphia	P
1932	Jimmie Foxx	Philadelphia	1B
1933	Jimmie Foxx	Philadelphia	1B
1934	Mickey Cochrane	Detroit	C
1935	Hank Greenberg	Detroit	1B
1936	Lou Gehrig	New York	1B
1937	Charlie Gehringer	Detroit	2B
1938	Jimmie Foxx	Boston	1B
1939	Joe DiMaggio	New York	OF

List of National League MVPs in the 1930s

1931	Frankie Frisch	St. Louis	2B	B
1932	Chuck Klein	Philadelphia	OF	L
1933	Carl Hubbell	New York	P	R
1934	Dizzy Dean	St. Louis	P	R
1935	Gabby Hartnett	Chicago	C	R
1936	Carl Hubbell	New York	P	R
1937	Joe Medwick	St. Louis	OF	R
1938	Ernie Lombardi	Cincinnati	C	R
1939	Bucky Walters	Cincinnati	P	R

Browse 1930s Baseball by year below