1940 Yankees

September 27, 1940. The Detroit Tigers clinched the American League pennant behind a rookie pitcher named Floyd Giebell, and the New York Yankees' bid for a fifth straight World Series title died two games short. Four consecutive championships -- , , , -- the longest run in baseball history, finished not with a dramatic October collapse but with a quiet September fade. Joe DiMaggio hit .352 and won his second straight batting title. It didn't matter. The pitching staff fell apart, and the greatest dynasty the sport had ever seen stumbled to an 88-66 finish and third place.

A Machine Missing a Gear

Joe McCarthy's roster looked nearly identical to the one that had swept Cincinnati in the 1939 World Series. DiMaggio was 25 and at the peak of his powers. Joe Gordon manned second base with 30 home runs and the kind of acrobatic defense that made scouts shake their heads. Charlie Keller, in his second full season, drew a league-leading 106 walks while clubbing 21 homers. Bill Dickey caught 106 games and still ran the pitching staff like a man who'd done it for a decade (because he had).

The problem wasn't the bats. The problem was the arm that had anchored half the rotation for the entire dynasty run.

The Gomez Problem

Lefty Gomez went 3-3 with a 6.59 ERA in just nine appearances. That line doesn't capture how devastating the loss was. Gomez and Red Ruffing had been the best one-two punch in the American League since the mid-1930s -- a duo that combined for 30-plus wins in championship season after championship season. Without Gomez, the rotation had Ruffing at the top and a collection of arms that ranged from promising to unreliable underneath him.

Ruffing did his part -- 15-12 with a 3.38 ERA across 226 innings, named to the All-Star team, the same workhorse he'd always been. Marius Russo emerged as a capable second starter (14-8, 3.28 ERA). Tiny Bonham was electric in limited action (9-3, 1.90 ERA in 12 starts). But Spud Chandler posted a 4.60 ERA, Marv Breuer a 4.55, and nobody could consistently fill the hole Gomez left.

(When Gomez came back healthy in and went 15-5, the Yankees immediately won the pennant by 17 games. Coincidence? Not a chance.)

DiMaggio's Lonely Masterpiece

was the individual story of the season -- .352 with 31 home runs and 133 RBI in 132 games. He led the team in all three categories by comfortable margins. Gordon hit 30 homers but batted .281. Keller's power was real but his average sat at .286. George Selkirk contributed 19 home runs in 118 games. The lineup scored runs. It just couldn't keep opponents from scoring more.

The disconnect between DiMaggio's season and the team's finish tells you everything about the limits of individual excellence. A franchise player can carry a lineup. He can't throw 200 innings.

Two Cycles and an Eight-Game Streak

The season had its bright spots, even if they couldn't save the pennant. On July 19, backup catcher against Cleveland in a 15-6 rout -- the only catcher in Yankees history to accomplish the feat. Less than two months later, Gordon hit for the cycle at Fenway Park on September 8, leading the club to a 9-4 win over the Red Sox.

But the damage had already been done. An eight-game losing streak in May put the Yankees in a hole, and a brutal 1-8-1 stretch in June buried them deeper. Championship teams don't survive that kind of early-season collapse in a tight pennant race, and this one didn't.

Going into September, the race was a three-team affair -- Detroit, Cleveland, and New York. The Indians held a four-game lead before the Tigers swept them in a three-game series at Briggs Stadium. Suddenly, it was anybody's pennant.

Then came September 12. Gordon fielded a grounder at second and fired a low throw past first baseman Babe Dahlgren, the ball sailing into the Yankees dugout. Detroit scored four runs in the inning and won the game. After that, the Browns beat the Yankees in a doubleheader and then drubbed them 16-4. One sportswriter wrote: "A once great ballclub came down with a terrific crash."

The Tigers clinched on September 27. Final standings: Detroit 90-64, Cleveland 89-65, New York 88-66. Two games. That's all that separated the dynasty from a fifth consecutive championship.

The Ghost at First Base

This was the first full season without Lou Gehrig. He'd played his last game on April 30, 1939, and the club had moved forward with Babe Dahlgren at first -- a capable defender who hit .264 with 12 home runs. Competent. Professional. Not Lou Gehrig. Nobody was going to be Lou Gehrig, and the emotional void he left in that clubhouse was something the box scores couldn't measure.

Gehrig was still alive in 1940, living in Riverdale, growing weaker by the month. He'd be gone by June of 1941. The team he'd helped build kept playing without him, and they were still very good. They just weren't quite good enough.

A once great ballclub came down with a terrific crash.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did the 1940 Yankees finish the season?

The 1940 Yankees went 88-66 and finished third in the American League, two games behind the pennant-winning Detroit Tigers (90-64) and one game behind the Cleveland Indians (89-65). It was their first season without a pennant since 1935, ending a streak of four consecutive World Series championships from 1936 through 1939.

Why didn't the 1940 Yankees win a fifth straight championship?

Pitching was the primary culprit. Lefty Gomez, one half of the Yankees' dominant pitching duo, went just 3-3 with a 6.59 ERA due to an arm injury. An eight-game losing streak in May and a disastrous 1-8-1 stretch in June created an early-season hole the team couldn't escape. Joe DiMaggio hit .352 with 31 home runs, but the offense couldn't compensate for the pitching staff's decline.

Who led the 1940 Yankees in hitting?

Joe DiMaggio led the team in batting average (.352), home runs (31), and RBI (133), winning his second consecutive American League batting title. Joe Gordon added 30 home runs and 103 RBI from second base. Charlie Keller hit 21 home runs while drawing a league-leading 106 walks.

Did any 1940 Yankees hit for the cycle?

Two of them did. Backup catcher Buddy Rosar hit for the cycle on July 19 against the Cleveland Indians in a 15-6 win -- making him the only catcher in Yankees history to accomplish the feat. Joe Gordon followed with his own cycle on September 8 at Fenway Park against the Red Sox.