Champions
Major League Baseball Negro League World Series: Newark Eagles over Kansas City Monarchs (4–3) World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Boston Red Sox (4–3) All-Star Game, July 9 at Fenway Park: American League, 12–0 Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: East, 5–3 (first game, at Griffith Stadium); West, 4–1 (second game, at Comiskey Park)
Other champions Japanese Baseball League: Great Ring Mexican League: Alijadores de Tampico All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Racine Belles Winter Leagues Cuban League: Elefantes de Cienfuegos Mexican Pacific League: Venados de Mazatlán Puerto Rican League: Senadores de San Juan Venezuelan League: Sabios de Vargas Club tournaments Interamerican Series: Brooklyn Bushwicks
Awards and honors
Baseball Hall of Fame Jesse Burkett Frank Chance Jack Chesbro Johnny Evers Clark Griffith Tommy McCarthy Joe McGinnity Eddie Plank Joe Tinker Rube Waddell Ed Walsh Most Valuable Player Ted Williams (AL) – OF, Boston Red Sox Stan Musial (NL) – 1B, St. Louis Cardinals The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Stan Musial (NL) – 1B, St. Louis Cardinals The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Eddie Dyer (NL) – St. Louis Cardinals The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award Del Ennis (NL) – OF, Philadelphia Phillies
Statistical leaders American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Mickey Vernon (WSH) .353 Stan Musial (STL) .365 Ted Strong (KCM) .364 Monte Irvin (NE) .369 HR Hank Greenberg (DET) 44 Ralph Kiner (PIT) 23 Willard Brown (KCM)Ted Strong (KCM) 3 Josh Gibson (HOM) 13 RBI Hank Greenberg (DET) 127 Enos Slaughter (STL) 130 Willard Brown (KCM) 27 Lennie Pearson (NE) 61 W Bob Feller (CLE)Hal Newhouser (DET) 26 Howie Pollet (STL) 21 Connie Johnson (KCM)Steve Wylie (KCM) 5 Leon Day (NE) 13 ERA Hal Newhouser (DET) 1.94 Howie Pollet (STL) 2.10 Satchel Paige (KCM) 1.29 Rufus Lewis (NE) 1.97 K Bob Feller (CLE) 348 Johnny Schmitz (CHC) 135 Connie Johnson (KCM) 63 Leon Day (NE) 109
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
Negro World Series 1946 Negro World Series: Newark Eagles over Kansas City Monarchs 4–3.
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League final standings RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Racine Belles 74 38 .661 —2 Grand Rapids Chicks 71 41 .569 33 South Bend Blue Sox 70 42 .625 44 Rockford Peaches 60 52 .536 145 Fort Wayne Daisies 52 60 .464 226 Muskegon Lassies 46 66 .411 287 Kenosha Comets 42 70 .375 328 Peoria Redwings 33 79 .295 41
Japanese Baseball League final standings Japanese Baseball League W L T Pct. GB Kinki Great Ring 65 38 2 — Tokyo Kyojin 64 39 2 1 Osaka Tigers 59 46 0 7 Hankyu 51 52 2 14 Senators 47 58 0 19 Gold Star 27 45 2 22 Chubu Nippon 42 60 3 22.5 Pacific 42 60 3 22.5
Events
January January 1 After the end of hostilities in World War II's Pacific Theatre on August 15, 1945, the first full peacetime season since anticipates a flood of returning and new players into North America's "Organized" and independent baseball in the coming year. Over 500 major-league and 4,000 minor-league players from the prewar era had entered the military, most of them after the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941; three MLB players and "at least" 150 minor-leaguers lost their lives. American and National league rosters are expanded for 1946: the off-season roster grows from 40 to 48 players; early-season squads grow to 36 players, and the cutdown date is delayed to June 15; and the normal active roster swells from 25 to 30 players. The Negro American League and Negro National League will each field six teams and meet in the Negro World Series; a third black circuit, the startup, six-team West Coast Baseball Association, will disband before its first season is completed. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, established in 1943, will feature eight clubs playing a 112-game schedule. The Japanese Baseball League sets a 105-game schedule for 1946; an estimated 72 Japanese baseball players had died performing World War II service. January 2 The Pittsburgh Pirates name Ray Kennedy the first general manager in club history. A former infielder, Kennedy most recently was business manager of the Newark Bears, one of the top clubs in the New York Yankees' farm system. The Chicago Cubs unconditionally release veteran right-hander Paul Derringer, 39, who won 16 games for their 1945 pennant winners last season. Although Derringer will sign a minor-league pact with Indianapolis, the release effectively ends his MLB career after 223 wins and World Series rings in both and . January 3 – The Boston Red Sox acquire slugger/first baseman Rudy York from the reigning world champion Detroit Tigers for shortstop Eddie Lake. York, 32, will be selected to the American League's 1946 All-Star team for the sixth time in his ten-season career. January 5 The St. Louis Cardinals sell the contract of three-time National League All-Star catcher Walker Cooper to the New York Giants for $175,000—the highest price the Giants have ever paid for a player. Cooper, who will turn 31 on January 18, is still serving in the United States Navy, and has been battling Redbird owner Sam Breadon over his salary. He will be selected to his fourth All-Star team as a Giant this coming season. The Boston Braves acquire 22-year-old first-base prospect Earl Torgeson from the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League for two "players to be named later" (PTBNL): first baseman Tony York and outfielder Bill Ramsey. The Braves, who have signed a working agreement with Seattle, will keep Torgeson on the Rainiers' roster all season before calling him up to the National League in . January 12 Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams receives his discharge from the U.S. Marine Air Corps after a three-year stint serving in World War II. Despite his long absence from competitive baseball, Williams will return to the majors by hitting .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBI in 1946. The first official professional game is played in Venezuela, launching the newly constituted four-team . The league is composed of four teams: Caracas BBC, Magallanes BBC, Vargas BBC and Venezuela BBC. The inaugural game is won by Magallanes over Venezuela, 5–2, behind strong pitching from Alex Carrasquel, who gives up 11 hits in a complete game effort. January 20 Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler reveals that he, AL president Will Harridge and NL boss Ford Frick have conferred with leaders of the Negro American League and Negro National League regarding steps the Black leagues would require taking to have their circuits recognized as part of "Organized Baseball." Chandler notes that racial integration is not the goal of the talks, saying: "The Negro leagues favor keeping their own [players], and with their leagues on a sound basis, with a contract like the one we use, they expect these [players] to want to stay in their own class." In a classic pitching matchup played in Caracas, Venezuela, Alex Carrasquel of Magallanes beats Roy Welmaker and Vargas club, 3–2, in 17 innings. In the six-and-a-half-hour marathon, Carrasquel is good enough to silence the bats of Roy Campanella and Sam Jethroe. Both pitchers go the distance in one of the greatest matchups ever. January 22 – The Boston Red Sox sell the contract of their hard-hitting, hard-living third baseman, Jim "Rawhide" Tabor, to the Philadelphia Phillies. Tabor, 29, averaged 15 homers and 30 errors annually over six seasons between and . January 29 – The Brooklyn Dodgers announce the signing of right-hander Johnny Wright, 29, of the Homestead Grays, one of the top pitchers in the Negro National League. He becomes the second Black player to participate in Branch Rickey's plan to integrate all-white "Organized Baseball".
February
February 4–5 – Faced with the surge of World War II military veterans returning to baseball and a surplus of players, the St. Louis Cardinals sell the contracts of pitcher Al Jurisich and outfielder Johnny Wyrostek to the Philadelphia Phillies, and trade outfielder Johnny Hopp to the Boston Braves for shortstop Eddie Joost and $40,000. February 10 After three years of preparing for the coming seasons in cold-weather sites because of wartime travel restrictions, MLB teams resume spring training drills in warmer climes—setting up camps in Florida, California, Arizona and Panama. Jackie Robinson, signed to a Montreal Royals contract, marries the former Rachel Isum in Los Angeles. After their honeymoon in Northern California, they will embark on a cross-country journey to the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor-league camp in Daytona Beach, where Robinson will begin his struggle to break "Organized Baseball's" color barrier. February 19 – New York Giants outfielder Danny Gardella becomes the first United States-born major leaguer to "jump" his contract and its reserve clause and defect to the "outlaw" Mexican League, the first shot in the series of events that will dominate baseball headlines in 1946. The Mexican loop, operating outside the purview of Organized Baseball, also signs 1945 big-leaguers Nap Reyes and Adrián Zabala, both native Cubans, away from the Giants, and Luis Olmo, who hails from Puerto Rico, away from the Brooklyn Dodgers. February 26 – The war between the Mexican League and Organized Baseball intensifies when Gerardo Pasquel, brother of league president Jorge Pasquel, says his circuit has set aside USD $40 million to lure American players. "We have the money to pay them ... If American club owners think they have lost some players, they will be in for a big surprise in March."
March March 7 – Negro leaguer Marvin Williams, playing for the Sabios de Vargas against the Navegantes del Magallanes, sets a still-standing Venezuelan League mark by driving in eight runs on two home runs and two singles, while leading Vargas to a 16–9 victory. March 17 – Four thousand fans cram into City Island Park, Daytona Beach, to witness Jackie Robinson make baseball history by appearing in the lineup for his Montreal Royals against the parent Brooklyn Dodgers—the first time in the 20th century in which a black ballplayer will take the field with and against whites in an exhibition game for which admission is charged. He goes hitless but steals a base and scores a run. March 18 The Dodgers pare down their roster, releasing outfielder/third baseman Frenchy Bordagaray, 36, and selling the contract of shortstop Claude Corbitt, 30, to the Cincinnati Reds. The Negro National League votes to ban All-Star southpaw Tom Glover, formerly of the Baltimore Elite Giants, for five years for "jumping" his contract to sign with the Industriales de Monterrey of the "outlaw" Mexican League. The NNL's suspension foreshadows the punishments that will soon be levied by Commissioner Happy Chandler against major- and minor-leaguers who do the same. March 21 – Citing laws that mandate racial segregation at city facilities, officials in Jacksonville, Florida, notify the Brooklyn Dodgers that Jackie Robinson and Johnny Wright of the Dodgers' Montreal Royals farm club will not be permitted to play among whites in an upcoming spring training game. Jacksonville becomes the first city to enforce "Jim Crow laws." Rather than comply, Branch Rickey responds by cancelling the game; however more cities, including Savannah and Richmond, will issue similar bans—and game cancellations will follow—before the Royals start their season. March 29 A rejuvenated Minor League Baseball begins its first post-World War II season with 43 active leagues ranging from Class D to Triple-A, the most since 1940. By contrast, only 12 leagues had competed in , the last wartime season.