The 1931 World Series featured the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals beat the Athletics in seven games, a rematch and reversal of fortunes of the previous World Series.

The same two teams faced off during the 1930 World Series and the Athletics were victorious. The only day-to-day player in the Cardinals' lineup who was different in 1931 was the "Wild Horse of the Osage", Pepper Martin—a 27-year-old rookie who had spent seven seasons in the minor leagues. He led his team for the Series in runs scored, hits, doubles, runs batted in and stolen bases, and also made a running catch to stifle a ninth-inning rally by the A's in the final game.

The spitball pitch had been banned by Major League Baseball in 1920, but those still using it at that time were "grandfathered", or permitted to keep throwing it for the balance of their big-league careers. One of those who "wet his pill" still active in 1931 was Burleigh Grimes, with two Series starts, two wins and seven innings of no-hit pitching in Game 3. "Wild" Bill Hallahan started and won the other two for the Cards, and saved Game 7.

The Athletics had captured their third straight American League pennant, winning 107 games (and 313 from 1929–31). But this would prove to be the final World Series for longtime A's manager Connie Mack. As he did after the Boston "Miracle Braves" swept his heavily favored A's in the 1914 Series, Mack would break up this great team by selling off his best players, this time out of perceived economic necessity rather than pique and competition from the short-lived Federal League. It would be the A's last World Series appearance in Philadelphia and it would be 41 years—and two cities—later before the A's would return to the Fall Classic, after their successive moves to Kansas City in 1955 and Oakland in 1968. This would also be the city of Philadelphia's last appearance in the Series until 1950, and as of 2022 the only Series involving a Philadelphia team to last seven games. It was also the last World Series until the 2017 edition in which both teams who had won at least 100 games in the regular season went the maximum seven games.

This was the first World Series to feature a team with numbers on the back of the uniform (Philadelphia).

Summary

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

Matchups

Composite line score

1931 World Series (4–3): St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.) over Philadelphia Athletics (A.L.)

Notes

References

• Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990). The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 137–141. ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
• Reichler, Joseph (1982). The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2139. ISBN 0-02-579010-2.

External links

• 1931 World Series at WorldSeries.com via MLB.com
• 1931 World Series at Baseball Almanac
• 1931 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com
• The 1931 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1931 at The Sporting News. Archived from the original in May 2006.
• Video of 1931 World Series