• Without their rock at 1B, Lou Gehrig, for the first full season since 1924, Joe McCarthy's club suffered another setback when Joe DiMaggio wrenched his knee in the last exhibition game.
• Shockingly, the Yanks lost eight in a row in early May to fall into last place with a record of 6-14.
• As May turned to June, the teams at the top of the standings were the surprising Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians, and the Detroit Tigers.

Although Cleveland was doing well, many players were dissatisfied with manager Ossie Vitt.

• In his autobiography, ace P Bob Feller summarized the team's attitude this way:
  Vitt made a habit of climbing all over his men when they made a mistake, of speaking with dripping sarcasm to the reporters about his players. When he was talking to our pitchers he said our hitters were killing us, and vice versa. He kept the team in turmoil, and his moves during games were something we disagreed with often and so did the writers. ... It didn't help that his wife advised him in his managerial decisions by consulting the stars for signs about who should pitch the next day.
• After holding a secret meeting, Feller and ten other players led by veteran P Mel Harder, met with owner Alva Bradley on June 14. Harder told Bradley, We think we have a good chance to win the pennant, but we'll never win it with Vitt as the manager. If we can get rid of him, we can win. The owner acknowledged the validity of the players' case without agreeing with every specific complaint but said he would not fire Vitt because mid-June was too early for such a drastic action.
• Unfortunately, someone - perhaps an aspirant for Vitt's job - leaked the story of the meeting to a reporter, and the wrath of the fans and ridicule of the baseball world descended on the Indians. They were dubbed "Vitt's Crybabies," the "Bawl Team," the "Boo Hoo Boys," and the "Half Vitts."
• The bad publicity forced the players to issue a public statement withdrawing all statements referring to the resignation of Oscar Vitt. We feel this action is for the betterment of the Cleveland Baseball Club.

But the whole affair energized the Indians.

• Feller: We decided to go around Vitt. We worked with his coaches ... We used our own set of signals, worked our own strategy during games and ignored the head man as much as we could.
• Cleveland won six of their next seven games to move into first place on June 20. They remained there through July 17 when Detroit, piloted by second-year manager Del Baker, overtook them.
• But the Indians regained the top spot August 11 and stayed in first place until a six-game losing streak at the beginning of September, including a three-game sweep by the Tigers, dropped them back to second.
• While all this was going on, the Yankees had overcome their sluggish start to rise to third place, staying close enough to keep the heat on Cleveland and Detroit.

Baker had rewarded owner Walter Briggs's faith in giving him another year after the Tigers finished fifth in 1939 by building his club into a strong contender for the '40 pennant.

• A major problem for Baker was that Rudy York, one of his best hitters, was a lousy C. York would fit much better at 1B.
• The only problem with that move was that the Tigers had the best 1B in the league in Hank Greenberg.
  As a coach for player-manager Mickey Cochrane, Baker had worked tirelessly with Greenberg on his fielding, particularly on pop flies. Known for his uncanny ability to read pitchers, Del also helped Hank with his hitting from the 3B coaching box against a hurler who tipped his deliveries. If Baker detected a fast ball coming, he would yell a phrase with the word "come" in it, such as "Come on, Hank, paste this one." If he detected a curve, Del would use the word "get. "All right, Hank, get on now!" The other AL clubs knew what was going on as did many reporters, who constantly referred to Greenberg as a "guess hitter." Finally, Hank had enough, and told New York writer Dan Daniel in a 1938 interview: Time and again you have written that I am strictly a guess hitter. Writers all over the circuit have spread a similar impression. And all of you have given to the fans the idea that I wait for Baker's dope on every pitch, and unless I get the right tip from Del I do not swing. ... Up to now I have been quite content to let folks think I was a sort of Charley McCarthy, with Baker pulling the strings. ... But the importance of such information as I have accepted has been exaggerated. ...
• Baker persuaded Greenberg to move to LF - in return for a healthy bonus - and shifted York to 1B.
• The switch worked. Greenberg was adequate in LF, and York played in every game and would drive in 134 runs, second on the club behind Hank's 150.

The Indians visited the Motor City on the second-to-last weekend of the season for a three-game series tied with the Tigers at 85-61.

• The Briggs Stadium crowd rode the visitors unmercifully, yelling "Crybabies!" at them, trying to stuff baby bottles into the players' pockets, and booing them throughout each game.
• The Indians held a 4-1 lead behind Harder in Game 1, which attracted 22,508 on a Friday afternoon. When Mel got into trouble in the 8th, Vitt brought in Feller, but Bob, showing signs of being worn down after leading the league in innings pitched for the third straight season, gave up three straight hits, and the Tigers won 6-5.
• The next afternoon, 42,320 saw Schoolboy Rowe shut out Cleveland 5-0 to run his record to 16-3 and push the Tigers to a two-game advantage.
• But the Indians, desperate to avoid a sweep, won the Sunday finale before 56,771. Feller gave up eight hits and walked five but won 10-5 as the Indians knocked Tommy Bridges out of the box in the second.

The Tigers gained the game back on the Indians during the next week when Cleveland split a pair with the Browns while Detroit took a doubleheader from the White Sox. Bobo Newsome won his 20th game with two innings of relief in the opener, then threw a complete game 3-2 victory in the nightcap.

So as the American League pennant race entered its final weekend, it was clear that the Yankees' four-year run of World Series appearances would end.

• The standings on the morning of Friday, September 27, looked like this.

  Team	W	L	W-L%	GB
  Detroit	89	62	.589	--
  Cleveland	87	64	.576	2.0
  New York	86	64	.573	2.5
  Chicago	80	71	.530	9.0
  Boston	77	72	.517	11.0
  St. Louis	66	85	.437	23.0
  Washington	63	87	.420	25.5
  Philadelphia	53	96	.356	35.0

• As luck would have it, the Tigers ended the season with a three-game series at Cleveland.
• The Indians' only hope lay in sweeping their visitors.

The press and fans expected Detroit manager Del Baker to counter Feller in the opener with either Rowe or Bridges since neither of them had pitched since the previous weekend. But the Detroit skipper had another idea.

• Del wondered, Since we need to win only one game to clinch the pennant, why start one of my best against Feller?
• So Baker convened a meeting the night before the game and invited all the non-pitchers.
• Some players favored one of the veterans while others preferred one of the second-line pitchers like 19-year-old Hal Newhouser or 20-year-old Fred Hutchinson.
• Still others suggested a 30-year-old rookie named Floyd Giebell, who had pitched just once since being called up earlier in September. He did well in that outing, beating the Athletics 13-2.
• Baker took all this in, then told Giebell to get ready to pitch the next day. Del told no one else - not his players and certainly not the press.
  Giebell lived in the off season on a farm in western PA. He had gotten a late start to his 1940 season because hemorrhaging after a tonsillectomy caused him to miss spring training. The 25-year-old compiled a 15-17 record at Buffalo in the AA International League with a 3.73 ERA.

As the crowd of 45,553, including approximately 20,000 female fans in the lower LF stands on Ladies' Day, arrived at their seats, they needed to consult a scorecard to determine the identity of the Tiger starter.

• Giebell recalled: When it was time for the pitchers to warm up - Feller and myself - they thought that maybe it was a farce or something, but it didn't turn out that way.
• Retaliating for the way their team had been treated in Detroit the previous weekend, Cleveland fans in the LF stands, most of them women, bombarded the Tigers as they took the field to warm up with tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, and lemons.
• Greenberg and some of his teammates tried to laugh it off, posing for pictures eating the fruit and occasionally throwing some back to the shouting lady admirers. Earl Averill and Barney McCosky shook hands with many of the ladies and autographed baseballs and programs.
  Just prior to the game, Baker received a copy of the New Testament from a Cleveland resident who was a Tiger fan. The man wrote in the accompanying letter that the owner carried it all during the World War and it brought him luck.