The 1939 St. Louis Browns season, team finished eighth in the American League with a record of 43 wins and 111 losses.

Regular season The Browns lost a franchise record 111 games—not surpassed until the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (the team moved from St. Louis to Baltimore in )—and finished 64.5 games out of first place.As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, David Alan Heller, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2003, The Browns played particularly poorly at home, posting an 18–59 record. The 59 home losses stood as the most in a modern-era major league season until it was matched by the 2019 Detroit Tigers, who went 22–59 at home. Because of the shorter season, the Browns home winning percentage in 1939 (.234) is still the worst in history.

Browns pitching struggled tremendously. The pitchers allowed 739 walks, which was over 100 walks more than the next worse team. The team had an earned run average of 6.01. The next time that a team would have an ERA over 6.00 was the 1996 Detroit Tigers, who had an ERA of 6.38.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions May 13, 1939: Red Kress, Beau Bell, Bobo Newsom, and Jim Walkup were traded by the St. Louis Browns to the Detroit Tigers for Vern Kennedy, Bob Harris, George Gill, Roxie Lawson, Chet Laabs, and Mark Christman.Red Kress page at Baseball Reference

Roster 1939 St. Louis Browns Roster Pitchers Catchers

Infielders Outfielders

Other batters Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C 88 286 78 .273 4 29 1B 154 617 195 .316 20 94 2B 126 468 120 .256 5 58 SS 110 375 100 .267 1 35 3B 151 526 142 .270 15 84 OF 71 266 75 .282 9 40 OF 129 482 142 .295 10 75 OF 95 317 95 .300 10 62

Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI 118 332 96 .289 5 50 79 222 48 .216 0 20 Joe Grace 74 207 63 .304 3 22 42 145 35 .241 0 15 Mel Almada 42 134 32 .239 1 7 Moose Solters 40 131 27 .206 0 14 Hal Spindel 48 119 32 .269 0 11 Mel Mazzera 33 110 33 .300 3 22 30 86 26 .302 1 7 Sig Gryska 18 49 13 .265 0 8 13 43 12 .279 0 8 11 32 7 .219 1 5 Johnny Lucadello 9 30 7 .233 0 4 Roy Hughes 17 23 2 .087 0 1 Bob Neighbors 7 11 2 .182 1 1 Eddie Silber 1 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 40 211.2 9 16 5.83 68 33 191.2 9 17 5.73 55 6 45.2 3 1 4.73 28 2 19.0 1 1 3.32 8

Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 41 156.2 6 13 5.34 61 36 150.2 3 7 5.32 43 34 144.1 4 11 6.55 103 28 126.0 3 12 5.71 48 27 95.0 1 12 7.11 24 12 47.2 2 5 7.74 14 Jake Wade 4 16.1 0 2 11.02 9 5 14.0 0 1 6.43 2 4 10.0 0 1 3.60 8 4 9.1 0 2 9.64 8 Ewald Pyle 6 8.1 0 2 12.96 5 Russ Van Atta 2 7.0 0 0 11.57 6

Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO 26 1 3 1 5.86 9 17 1 2 0 5.49 11 6 0 2 0 7.11 5 Bob Muncrief 2 0 0 0 15.00 1 Myril Hoag 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 1 0 1 0 0.00 0

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Springfield, LafayetteJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997

References

External links 1939 St. Louis Browns team page at Baseball Reference 1939 St. Louis Browns season at baseball-almanac.com