The 1931 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing first in the American League with a record of 107 wins and 45 losses. It was the team's third consecutive pennant-winning season and its third consecutive season with over 100 wins. However the A's lost the 1931 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The series loss prevented the Athletics from becoming the first major league baseball team to win three consecutive World Series; the New York Yankees would accomplish the feat seven years later. The Athletics, ironically, would go on to earn their own threepeat in 1974, some forty-three years after the failed 1931 attempt.

1931 was also the A's final World Series appearance in Philadelphia. Their next AL pennant would be in 1972, after they had moved to Oakland.

Offseason November 29, 1930: Homer Summa and Ossie Orwoll were traded by the Athletics to the Portland Beavers for Herb Lahti (minors).Homer Summa page at Baseball Reference December 10, 1930: Cy Perkins was purchased from the Athletics by the New York Yankees.Cy Perkins page at Baseball Reference

Regular season 1931 was the greatest season of Lefty Grove's career. He went 31–4, with a 2.06 ERA and 175 strikeouts, easily winning the pitching triple crown. He was voted league Most Valuable Player. Combined with the efforts of 21- and 20-game winners George Earnshaw and Rube Walberg, Philadelphia allowed the fewest runs of any AL team.

Slugger Al Simmons won the batting title with a .390 average and came in third in MVP voting.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster 1931 Philadelphia Athletics Roster Pitchers Catchers

Infielders Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats = Indicates team leader

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 122 459 160 .349 17 89 1B 139 515 150 .291 30 120 2B 130 497 146 .294 5 37 3B 101 355 97 .273 3 46 SS 86 294 79 .269 6 40 LF 128 513 200 .390 22 128 CF 102 440 142 .323 8 56 RF 137 534 150 .281 8 77

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 79 280 76 .271 5 33 67 224 51 .228 0 20 65 223 58 .260 2 20 62 197 48 .244 5 44 49 143 32 .224 2 21 42 113 27 .239 1 12 19 44 10 .227 0 4 9 24 9 .375 0 3

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 44 291.0 20 12 3.74 106 41 288.2 31 4 2.06 175 43 281.2 21 7 3.67 152 30 162.1 15 4 4.21 59 16 111.0 10 5 4.22 30 Note: George Earnshaw was team leader in saves with 6.

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 25 118.0 7 5 2.97 18 19 70.1 2 4 3.71 23 6 16.0 0 3 5.06 2 6 13.0 0 1 6.23 7 3 11.0 1 0 4.09 1

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 2 0 0 0 19.29 1

Awards and honors

League top five finishers Mickey Cochrane #4 in AL in batting average (.349)

George Earnshaw #2 in AL in strikeouts (152) #3 in AL in wins (21)

Jimmie Foxx #4 in AL in home runs (30)

Lefty Grove AL leader in wins (31) AL leader in ERA (2.06) (Grove's 2.06 ERA was 2.32 runs below the league average.Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records, p.51, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC, ) AL leader in strikeouts (175)

Al Simmons AL leader in batting average (.390) #3 in AL in slugging percentage (.641) #4 in AL in RBI (128) #4 in AL in on-base percentage (.444)

1931 World Series

NL St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. AL Philadelphia Athletics (3) GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1 Athletics – 6, Cardinals – 2 October 1Sportsman's Park 38,5292 Athletics – 0, Cardinals – 2 October 2Sportsman's Park 35,9473 Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 2 October 5Shibe Park 32,2954 Cardinals – 0, Athletics – 3 October 6Shibe Park 32,2955 Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 1 October 7Shibe Park 32,2956 Athletics – 8, Cardinals – 1 October 9Sportsman's Park 39,4017 Athletics – 2, Cardinals – 4 October 10Sportsman's Park 20,805

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: HarrisburgJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

Notes

References 1931 Philadelphia Athletics team page at Baseball Reference 1931 Philadelphia Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com