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1931 Philadelphia Athletics season

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 Philadelphia Athletics
American League champions
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkShibe Park
CityPhiladelphia
Record107–45 (.704)
League place1st
OwnersConnie Mack, Tom Shibe and John Shibe
ManagersConnie Mack
← 1930
1932 →

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

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Regular season

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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

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Philadelphia Athletics 10745 .704 — 60‍–‍15 47‍–‍30
New York Yankees 9459 .614 13½ 51‍–‍25 43‍–‍34
Washington Senators 9262 .597 16 55‍–‍22 37‍–‍40
Cleveland Indians 7876 .506 30 45‍–‍31 33‍–‍45
St. Louis Browns 6391 .409 45 39‍–‍38 24‍–‍53
Boston Red Sox 6290 .408 45 39‍–‍40 23‍–‍50
Detroit Tigers 6193 .396 47 36‍–‍41 25‍–‍52
Chicago White Sox 5697 .366 51½ 31‍–‍45 25‍–‍52

Record vs. opponents

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1931 American League record

Sources:
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston —12–10–113–912–106–164–168–147–15
Chicago 10–12–1—7–15–111–116–153–1912–107–15
Cleveland 9–1315–7–1—13–913–94–1816–68–14
Detroit 10–1211–119–13—8–144–1811–118–14
New York 16–615–69–1314–8—11–1116–613–9–1
Philadelphia 16–419–318–418–411–11—14–811–11–1
St. Louis 14–810–126–1611–116–168–14—8–14
Washington 15–715–714–814–89–13–111–11–114–8—

Roster

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Player stats

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= Indicates team leader

Batting

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Starters by position

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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
CMickey Cochrane122459160.3491789
1BJimmie Foxx139515150.29130120
2BMax Bishop130497146.294537
3BJimmy Dykes10135597.273346
SSDib Williams8629479.269640
LFAl Simmons128513200.39022128
CFMule Haas102440142.323856
RFBing Miller137534150.281877

Other batters

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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 McNair7928076.271533
Joe Boley6722451.228020
Doc Cramer6522358.260220
Phil Todt6219748.244544
Jimmy Moore4914332.224221
Johnnie Heving4211327.239112
Joe Palmisano194410.22704
Lou Finney9249.37503

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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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 Walberg44291.020123.74106
Lefty Grove41288.23142.06175
George Earnshaw43281.22173.67152
Roy Mahaffey30162.11544.2159
Waite Hoyt16111.01054.2230

Note: George Earnshaw was team leader in saves with 6.

Other pitchers

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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 Rommel25118.0752.9718
Hank McDonald1970.1243.7123
Bill Shores616.0035.062
Jim Peterson613.0016.237
Lew Krausse311.0104.091

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Sol Carter200019.291

Awards and honors

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League top five finishers

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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.[3])
  • 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

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

GameScoreDateLocationAttendance
1Athletics – 6, Cardinals – 2October 1Sportsman's Park38,529
2Athletics – 0, Cardinals – 2October 2Sportsman's Park35,947
3Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 2October 5Shibe Park32,295
4Cardinals – 0, Athletics – 3October 6Shibe Park32,295
5Cardinals – 5, Athletics – 1October 7Shibe Park32,295
6Athletics – 8, Cardinals – 1October 9Sportsman's Park39,401
7Athletics – 2, Cardinals – 4October 10Sportsman's Park20,805

Farm system

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Notes

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  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

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