The St. Louis Cardinals won the pennant in an amazing race with the Brooklyn Dodgers; the Cardinals finished with 106 wins, the Dodgers with 104. The Cardinals then easily defeated the Yankees in the World Series, their first of three championships in the decade. The Cardinals were a complete team, sporting both the best hitters and pitchers in the league; the best pitcher of them all was a man named Mort Cooper, who had his first of three sensational seasons.

         Mort Cooper was 29 years old; he had been with the Cardinals since 1938, but had yet to accomplish very much. He was the older brother of Walker Cooper, who at this time was the Cardinals' regular catcher. The two brothers formed a formidable battery; Mort Cooper had a tremendous season, leading the NL in ERA by a comfortable margin, and throwing twice as many shutouts as any other pitcher. This was the first of three straight 20+ win seasons for Cooper; but as fast as he arrived, he was gone. In 1945, Cooper got off to a fast start, then hurt his arm, and was dealt in mid-season to the Braves. He pitched well for the Braves in 1946, but struggled after that, and his career ended with 128 career wins.
        The Cardinals also got an outstanding season from a young pitcher named Johnny Beazly. Beazly won 31 games in his career, 21 of them this year. He was only 24 this year; after the season he was drafted into the war, and didn't return until 1946. Beazly couldn't throw strikes when he returned, and he soon dropped out of the league, one of the many "what if?" stories created by the war.
        This was probably the best year in the career of Johnny Vander Meer. You may already know who he is; in 1938, Vander Meer threw back-to-back no-hitters, the only pitcher ever to perform that feat. The period since those no-hitters had been a struggle for Vander Meer, but this year he was starting to put things together. He had a career high in wins, and a career low in ERA. Apart from Bob Feller, he was the premier power pitcher in the game, and even his control was decent. Vander Meer had one more good season before he too went overseas; when he returned he was no longer a power pitcher, and lasted only a few difficult seasons.
        In the fourth spot I will take Claude Passeau, who had another fine year for the Cubs. Brooklyn pitchers Whit Wyatt and Larry French also had impressive seasons; French was 34 years old, and had almost 200 career wins under his belt. But he never pitched again; presumably he went to war, but couldn't resume his career when he got back.
     Ace Adams also had the best year of his career, the first of several good ones he had in the Giants' bullpen. Apparently, "Ace" was not a nickname; it was his real, legal name.