[legendsport]

CLEVELAND AND CHICAGO TO SQUARE OFF IN WORLD SERIES

The Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs will meet for the World Championship after outlasting very tough competition to win their respective leagues' pennants. The Indians found themselves looking up at the St. Louis Browns most of the season, finally passing the Brownies in September and finishing 94-60, two games ahead of St. Louis. The Cubs were in a tooth-and-nail battle with the New York Giants all season long, but put together the best record in baseball with 98 wins against 56 losses, while New York came across the wire with a 94-60 record.

Cleveland featured the top two hitters in the league with Dave Orr (.365) winning another batting title and Joe DiMaggio (.350) finishing second. DiMaggio also led the league in doubles (46 - Orr was 2nd with 41), triples (13, Orr was tied for 3rd with 11) and RBI (108) and was second in homers with 9 to Boston's Fred Schulte, who had 13. The fearsome duo was ably supported by a corps of pitchers who featured three 20-game winners (Andujar, Aldridge and Hogan) and was third in BaTTY in ERA with a composite 3.03 ERA.

The Cubbies feature better pitching than Cleveland, while their offense - while very good - is slightly worse than the Indians'. Chicago's Warren Spahn had a season for the ages with a 31-7 mark and a 1.85 ERA, making him easily the class of the league. Juan Pizzaro was 25-12, 3.03 and George Uhle also won 20, so the starters are a talented bunch. On offense, the Cubs are balanced with Don Hurst (.292-4-94) and catcher Jack Clements (.308-3-63, 75 runs) leading the attack.

On the league leaderboards, the AL saw Boston's Fred Heimach notch 26 wins to top the loop, while Washington's George Van Haltren was the ERA champ with a mark of 1.74 for the Senators. Over in the NL, the batting champion was New York's Ross Barnes with a .328 mark (the lowest leading mark in BaTTY history). Chicago's Clements led the loop in doubles with 43 while Pittsburgh's star outfielder Sherry Magee led in triples (14) and was tied with Chicago's Ralph Kiner and New York's Woody Jensen for the home run lead with 7. Chicago's Hurst led the league in RBI with his total of 94. On the mound, Spahn was the leader in wins and ERA and was second to Pittsburgh great Jim Scott in strikeouts (378 to 369).

For his part, Scott was 23-12 with a 2.30 ERA and his career ledger is 102-42, 1.87 for his four-year career.