Champions Major League Baseball Negro League World Series: Homestead Grays over Birmingham Black Barons (4–1) World Series: Cleveland Indians over Boston Braves (4–2) All-Star Game, July 13 at Sportsman's Park: American League, 5–2 Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: West, 3–0
Other champions All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Rockford Peaches College World Series: USC Little League World Series: Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Winter Leagues Cuban League: Leones del Habana Mexican Pacific League: Ostioneros de Guaymas Puerto Rican League: Leones de Ponce Venezuelan League: Cervecería Caracas
Club tournaments Interamerican Series: Buffalo All-Stars
Awards and honors Baseball Hall of Fame Herb Pennock Pie Traynor Most Valuable Player Lou Boudreau (AL) Stan Musial (NL) Rookie of the Year Alvin Dark The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Lou Boudreau, Cleveland Indians The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award Bob Lemon, Cleveland Indians Johnny Sain, Boston Braves The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Billy Meyer, Pittsburgh Pirates
Statistical leaders American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Ted Williams (BOS) .369 Stan Musial (STL) .376 Artie Wilson (BBB) .433 Lester Lockett (BEG) .362 HR Joe DiMaggio (NYY) 39 Ralph Kiner (PIT)Johnny Mize (NYG) 40 Willard Brown (KCM) 7 Luke Easter (HOM)Lester Lockett (BEG) 6 RBI Joe DiMaggio (NYY) 155 Stan Musial (STL) 131 Willard Brown (KCM) 54 Lester Lockett (BEG) 53 W Hal Newhouser (DET) 21 Johnny Sain (BSN) 24 Jim LaMarque (KCM) 9 Bill Byrd (BEG) 10 ERA Gene Bearden (CLE) 2.43 Harry Brecheen (STL) 2.24 Ford Smith (KCM) 2.43 Bill Ricks (PHS) 1.56 K Bob Feller (CLE) 164 Harry Brecheen (STL) 149 Jim LaMarque (KCM) 80 Joe Black (BEG) 85
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
Negro league baseball final standings All Negro leagues standings below are per MLB and Seamheads.
Negro American League final standings
Negro National League final standings This was the sixteenth and final season of the Negro National League. Homestead and Baltimore each won a half of the season. As such, they were matched against each other in the postseason. In the playoffs, Homestead won Games 1 and 2 before a curfew called Game 3 in the ninth inning. Game 4 went to Baltimore, but Homestead had protested that Game 3 should be played from where Game 3 had been stopped (8–4, bases loaded) rather than the start of the ninth inning (tied). The league agreed, but Baltimore refused to play and therefore forfeited.
Negro league postseason 1948 was the 23rd and final time that there was a "Playoff Series" held between black baseball teams. 1913 is retroactively the only one not in the major league era of Negro league baseball (1920–1948). 1948 is the only time that saw both the American and National League hold a postseason series to determine the pennant (Major League Baseball would not hold such a format for 21 years).
Negro American League Championship Series: Birmingham Black Barons over Kansas City Monarchs 4–3 (one tie). Negro National League Championship Series: Homestead Grays over Baltimore Elite Giants 2–1 (one forfeit). 1948 Negro World Series: Homestead Grays over Birmingham Black Barons 4–1.
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League final standings Eastern Division RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Grand Rapids Chicks 77 48 .616 — 2 Muskegon Lassies 67 58 .536 10 3 South Bend Blue Sox 57 69 .452 4 Fort Wayne Daisies 53 73 .421 5 Chicago Colleens 47 77 .379
Western Division RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Racine Belles 77 49 .616 —2 Rockford Peaches 75 50 .600 3 Peoria Redwings 71 55 .563 64 Kenosha Comets 62 64 .421 155 Springfield Sallies 41 84 .328
Events
January
January 27 – The Cleveland Indians obtain center fielder Thurman Tucker from the Chicago White Sox for catcher Ralph Weigel. Tucker will start 54 games in center for Cleveland in 1948, second only to future Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby. January 30 – Herb Pennock, general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies since November 1943, dies suddenly at age 53 from a cerebral hemorrhage after he collapses in a hotel lobby in New York City. Pennock is also a former star southpaw pitcher who won 241 games for three American League teams, most notably the New York Yankees, between 1912 and 1934. Club president R. R. M. Carpenter Jr. takes on the Phillies' GM portfolio.
February February 7 – The Philadelphia Phillies trade outfielder Johnny Wyrostek and cash to the Cincinnati Reds for 1947 National League All-Star shortstop Eddie Miller. February 12 – The Philadelphia Athletics sign veteran free-agent slugger Rudy York, released ten days earlier by the Chicago White Sox. February 24 – In George Weiss' first major trade since his appointment as general manager of the New York Yankees on October 7, 1947, he deals catcher Aaron Robinson and pitchers Bill Wight and Fred Bradley to the Chicago White Sox for left-handed starting pitcher Ed Lopat. The 29-year-old Lopat has posted a 50–49 won–lost record, with a 3.18 earned run average, in 113 games for Chicago since ; in 7½ seasons with the Yankees, he will go 113–59 (3.19) and win five World Series rings. February 27 – Pitcher Herb Pennock, who died January 30, and third baseman Pie Traynor are elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
March March 1 – The Chicago Cubs deal infielder Bobby Sturgeon to the Boston Braves for pitcher Walt Lanfranconi and infielder Dick Culler. March 6 – The Braves obtain starting second baseman Eddie Stanky from the Brooklyn Dodgers for infielder/outfielder Bama Rowell, first baseman Ray Sanders, and $40,000. When it's determined that Sanders was injured when the deal was made, he's returned to Boston on April 18, and the Braves compensate Brooklyn with $60,000 in additional cash. Until an ankle fracture sidelines him July 8, the combative Stanky will spark the 1948 Braves into contention for the National League pennant. March 17 – Bama Rowell's stay in Brooklyn lasts only 11 days when the Dodgers sell his contract to the Philadelphia Phillies. March 26 – After one season with the St. Louis Browns, catcher Jake Early returns to the Washington Senators via a cash transaction. The lefty-swinging receiver made the 1943 American League All-Star team as a Senator. March 27 – Recently retired slugger and future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg joins the Cleveland Indians as minority owner, vice president and farm system director. Greenberg, 37, spent 12 of his 13 major league seasons as a member of the Detroit Tigers, "tormenting" the Cleveland pitching staff. March 29 – The Philadelphia Phillies claim pitcher Ed Heusser, 38, off waivers from the Brooklyn Dodgers. Heusser went 19–3 (2.73) in for the Triple-A Montreal Royals. March 30 – The Pacific Coast League (PCL) integrates, as catcher/third baseman Johnny Ritchey of the San Diego Padres pinch hits against the Los Angeles Angels. Ritchey is a former member of the Chicago American Giants who had batted .324 in . He never plays in the American or National leagues, but spends seven years in the PCL. March 31 – The Brooklyn Dodgers come to "Dodgertown" to play an exhibition game at their brand-new spring training facility in Vero Beach, Florida, which opened to their 600 minor-league players earlier this year while the parent team worked out in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Today, both Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella appear in the Brooklyn lineup against the Triple-A Montreal Royals. The Dodgers had leased Vero Beach's former naval air station to enable all of its personnel—including black players restricted by Florida's Jim Crow laws—to live and train together in one place, taking advantage of barracks and dining facilities built during World War II. The Brooklyn club itself will begin training at Dodgertown in 1949, and it will open a new stadium there to host exhibition games in 1953.
April April 3 – The Cleveland Indians purchase the contract of right-handed relief pitcher Russ Christopher from the Philadelphia Athletics. Christopher, 30, will save 17 games for the pennant-bound Indians, most in the American League. A childhood victim of rheumatic fever that permanently weakened his heart, Christopher will retire from baseball after the 1948 World Series with a championship ring. April 7 – The Philadelphia Phillies acquire Dick Sisler from the St. Louis Cardinals for infielder Ralph LaPointe and $30,000. A part-time player in St. Louis, Sisler, 27, will win a regular job in Philadelphia as a left-fielder and first baseman, and his home run in extra-innings against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on October 1, 1950, will deliver only the second pennant in Phillies history. April 18: At Yankee Stadium, 62,369 fans—the largest ever for an exhibition game—watch the Brooklyn Dodgers edge the New York Yankees, 5–3. Before 26,663 fans at Fenway Park, the Boston Braves salvage a victory in the three-game exhibition series with the Boston Red Sox, winning 3–2 behind a solid pitching performance from Warren Spahn. The St. Louis Cardinals re-sign outfielder Joe Medwick. The future Hall of Famer, 37, had spent with the Redbirds, his second tour of duty with the club, batting .307 in 75 games as a backup outfielder and pinch-hitter, but was released October 14. Medwick will appear as a pinch hitter in 20 games this season for the Cardinals until July 25, when he opts to retire. April 19 – In a duel of Baseball Hall of Fame managers, Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics spoil Joe McCarthy's debut as pilot of the Boston Red Sox by sweeping an Opening Day doubleheader, 5–4 and 4–2, at Fenway Park. McCarthy is returning to baseball after retiring from the New York Yankees on May 23, 1946. April 20 – George Vico of the Detroit Tigers hits a home run off the very first pitch he sees in the majors. In doing so, he became the fifth player in major league history to accomplish the feat. April 21 – Leo Durocher of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who returned from his one-year suspension one day earlier, uses 24 players, a new MLB record, in a 9–5 loss to the New York Giants. April 25 – Ted Kluszewski of the Cincinnati Reds hits the first home run of his distinguished career, a three-run shot off the Pittsburgh Pirates' Hal Gregg. April 27 – At Ebbets Field, future Hall of Famer Roy Campanella takes the field as the Brooklyn Dodgers' starting catcher for the first time after two previous appearances as a late-inning substitute. He goes hitless with a base on balls in four plate appearances and handles pitchers Rex Barney and Erv Palica in a 3–2 loss to the Boston Braves. Campanella, 26, is the former standout catcher for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League. After today, he'll be sent to the Triple-A St. Paul Saints to break the color line in the American Association before he's recalled to Brooklyn for good in July. April 29 – Ted Wilks suffers his first loss in 77 consecutive appearances. Wilks, a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, hadn't lost a game since September 8, 1945. His record during that time was 12–0, with four of those wins coming as a spot starter.
May
May 3 – The Brooklyn Dodgers release third baseman Cookie Lavagetto, ending his MLB playing career. Lavagetto, 35, hasn't appeared in an official game for the 1948 Dodgers, but he leaves behind an indelible memory in his final MLB hit: his pinch double against Bill Bevens that spoiled Bevens' no-hitter and delivered a 3–2 Brooklyn victory in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 1947 World Series.