1931 Philadelphia Athletics
American League Champions
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkShibe Park
CityPhiladelphia
OwnersConnie Mack, Tom Shibe and John Shibe
ManagersConnie Mack
← 1930
1932 →

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

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

American League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Philadelphia Athletics 107 45 0.704 — 60–15 47–30
New York Yankees 94 59 0.614 13½ 51–25 43–34
Washington Senators 92 62 0.597 16 55–22 37–40
Cleveland Indians 78 76 0.506 30 45–31 33–45
St. Louis Browns 63 91 0.409 45 39–38 24–53
Boston Red Sox 62 90 0.408 45 39–40 23–50
Detroit Tigers 61 93 0.396 47 36–41 25–52
Chicago White Sox 56 97 0.366 51½ 31–45 25–52

Record vs. opponents

1931 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston — 12–10–1 13–9 12–10 6–16 4–16 8–14 7–15
Chicago 10–12–1 — 7–15–1 11–11 6–15 3–19 12–10 7–15
Cleveland 9–13 15–7–1 — 13–9 13–9 4–18 16–6 8–14
Detroit 10–12 11–11 9–13 — 8–14 4–18 11–11 8–14
New York 16–6 15–6 9–13 14–8 — 11–11 16–6 13–9–1
Philadelphia 16–4 19–3 18–4 18–4 11–11 — 14–8 11–11–1
St. Louis 14–8 10–12 6–16 11–11 6–16 8–14 — 8–14
Washington 15–7 15–7 14–8 14–8 9–13–1 11–11–1 14–8 —


Roster

1931 Philadelphia Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders 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 Mickey Cochrane 122 459 160 .349 17 89
1B Jimmie Foxx 139 515 150 .291 30 120
2B Max Bishop 130 497 146 .294 5 37
3B Jimmy Dykes 101 355 97 .273 3 46
SS Dib Williams 86 294 79 .269 6 40
LF Al Simmons 128 513 200 .390 22 128
CF Mule Haas 102 440 142 .323 8 56
RF Bing Miller 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
Eric McNair 79 280 76 .271 5 33
Joe Boley 67 224 51 .228 0 20
Doc Cramer 65 223 58 .260 2 20
Phil Todt 62 197 48 .244 5 44
Jimmy Moore 49 143 32 .224 2 21
Johnnie Heving 42 113 27 .239 1 12
Joe Palmisano 19 44 10 .227 0 4
Lou Finney 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
Rube Walberg 44 291.0 20 12 3.74 106
Lefty Grove 41 288.2 31 4 2.06 175
George Earnshaw 43 281.2 21 7 3.67 152
Roy Mahaffey 30 162.1 15 4 4.21 59
Waite Hoyt 16 111.0 10 5 4.22 30

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
Eddie Rommel 25 118.0 7 5 2.97 18
Hank McDonald 19 70.1 2 4 3.71 23
Bill Shores 6 16.0 0 3 5.06 2
Jim Peterson 6 13.0 0 1 6.23 7
Lew Krausse 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
Sol Carter 2 0 0 0 19.29 1

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Mickey Cochrane

George Earnshaw

Jimmie Foxx

Lefty Grove

Al Simmons

1931 World Series

Main article: 1931 World Series

NL St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. AL Philadelphia Athletics (3)

Game Score Date Location Attendance
1 Athletics – 6, Cardinals – 2 October 1 Sportsman's Park 38,529
2 Athletics – 0, Cardinals – 2 October 2 Sportsman's Park 35,947
3 Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 2 October 5 Shibe Park 32,295
4 Cardinals – 0, Athletics – 3 October 6 Shibe Park 32,295
5 Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 1 October 7 Shibe Park 32,295
6 Athletics – 8, Cardinals – 1 October 9 Sportsman's Park 39,401
7 Athletics – 2, Cardinals – 4 October 10 Sportsman's Park 20,805

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AA Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League Spencer Abbott
B Harrisburg Senators New York–Pennsylvania League Joe Cobb and Eddie Onslow

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Harrisburg[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Homer Summa page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Cy Perkins page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records, p.51, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC, ISBN 978-1-55365-507-7
  4. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

References

Categories