The votes are in, and the winners have been determined for all the top award winning players and managers from the 1940 season. Here is the low down: American League Award Winners: Slugging LF Hank Greenberg or the Rockford Forest Cites won the A.L. MVP award in a fairly close race. Oddly enough, fellow Rockford slugger, firstsacker Jimmie Foxx finished 2nd to Greenberg. Greenberg garnered 81 points and Foxx mustered up 63. Meanwhile, Kansas City shortstop Cecil Travis finished in 3rd place with 55 points. Oddly enough, the ever popular Greenberg was recently traded by Rockford, after a long salary hassle with G.M. and field leader Terry Baxter. Wabash River ace Bob Feller easily won the Cy Young Award with his flame throwing act outdistancing teammate and fellow ace Thornton Lee. Feller captured 131 points, nearly unamous, to Lee's 53. Finishing 3rd in the Cy (A.L.) vote was Rockford's ace Claude Passeau with 26 points. In a very close race for Fireman of the year the Rivers Clint Brown, veteran reliever, beat out Kansas City Blues surprise of the year Roxie Lawson by a mere 99 to 89 vote. Lawson recently retired going out easily with the best season of his SPB career. The top rookies in the A.L. were determined to be River City Rugrats CF Walt Judnich who captured the hitters side, with young LH Ken Raffensberger of the Blues taking the pitching yearling award. Finishing second to each of these players were LF Mike McCormick of the Blues, and right hander Sid Hudson, yet another Kansas City Blue. Looks like the Blues have garnered some young talent for the future market. The top manager in the Junior Circuit was Kansas City Blue's leader, Rich Applegate. This heavy hitting old vet showed the younger managers that he can still get up on the pedestal and preach. River City Rugrats leader, the quiet determined Jerry Cada finished 2nd, and the Rockford Forest City manager, the man of few words Terry Baxter was 3rd in the A.L. voting. --------------------------------------- 1940 National League Awards: Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, the Brooklyn Royal Giants sterling centerfielder, captured the N.L.'s MVP Award with a truly banner season, to take the top prize while garnering 87 points. Hustling Enos Slaughter, the Hoosier Thunderbolts amazing RF took 2nd place with 59 points. The T'Bolts heavy hitting 3B took 3rd place by taking home 43 points. Winning the N.L. Cy Young, the Western Panthers surprising righty Johnny Rigney, won a very close race over the Lafayette Slims hardthrowing Lon Warneke by a 115 to 97 margin. Finishing a distant 3rd was youngster, Gene "Junior" Thompson of the Worcester Grays with a mere 18 points. The N.L.'s top reliever was another surprise as Worcesters Vito Tamulis won a fairly close battle over the Panthers Joe Begg by a 93-77 vote. The top N.L. rookie performers of the 1940 season were captured by RF Dom DiMaggio, Joe's baby brother, as he performed solid work for the Royal Giants, to get the nod in yet another close race over Slims youngster Marty Marion, a slick fielding tall and rangy shortstop by a vote of 93 to 81. On the pitching ledger, youngster Ernie "Tiny' Bonham of the Otsego Lake Monster won an even closer battle, as he edged out the Hoosier T'Bolt Johnny Gorsica by a 101 - 91 vote. Dominant Hugh McElaney, the industrious leader of the hard charging Worcester Grays had the only sweep of 1st place votes in ALL of the Awards voting while capturing 135 points. The Grays are our SPB version of the Yankees, no doubts about that. Finishing 2nd place was the Hoosier Thunderbolts crusty leader, Gary Plunkitt who had 77 points. And Western Panther manager, Rick Ryan took 3rd place with 29 voting points. However, Ryan saved face by becoming the top trader (in terms of players moved) in SPB III. ------------------------------------------- American League All Star Team Results: Catcher - BABE PHELPS, Baltimore Natti Bohs (111) easily took the prize over Rockfords Spud Davis (59), and River City's youngster Mike Tresh (45). Firstbase - JIMMIE FOXX, Rockford Forest Citys (119) got the nod over Johnny Mize (97) of the New Paris Mules. Kansas City's Frank McCormick was 3rd (27). Oddly enough, these were the only A.L. firstsackers to garner votes. Secondbase - JOE GORDON, Kansas City Blues (101) took the prize over the surprising Benny McCoy (75), hustling younster from the Maumee River Carp. Veteran Billy Herman (41) of the Forest Citys was 3rd. Thirdbase - STAN HACK, Rockford Forest Citys (135- U) easily outdistanced Maumees Harlond Clift (65) and the K.C. Blues Billy Werber (41). Shortstop - CECIL TRAVIS, Kansas City Blues (135- U) also led the pack easily, with Wabash's Luke Appling (57) edging out Arky Vaughan (49) of the South River Muck Dogs for 2nd place. Leftfield - HANK GREENBERG, Rockford Forest Citys (127) league MVP took the spot from young sensation Ted "The Kid" Williams (73) of the Rugrats. Finishing 3rd was Wally Moses (43) of the Blues. Centerfield - CHARLIE KELLER, Rockford Forest Citys (75) in a very close 3 way race. George Case (63) of the Mules, and Baltimore's Dixie Walker (57) made this an interesting battle. Rightfield - GEORGE SELKIRK, Rockford Forest Citys (99) made this an OF sweep of the positions by the Forest Citys! Baltimore's Mel Ott (97) made this the closest race for a first slot in the A.L. And yet another Rockford player Moose Solters (41) took third place. Solters also won the A.L. version of the comback of the year. Starting Pitcher - BOB FELLER, River City Rugrats (129) over fellow Rivers ace Thornton Lee (55) and Rockfords Claude Passeau (30). Just about the same vote totals as in the Cy Young race for these 3 dominant starters. Relief Pitchers - CLINT BROWN, River City Rugrats (103), beat out another veteran tosser Roxie Lawson (81) of the Blues. Lawson's young teammate Ken Raffensberger (22) took 3rd place. ---------------------------------------------- This is the 4th and final, but far from the least, installment of our series on the Award Winners and All Star teams from the 1940 season. Enjoy! Catcher - ERNIE LOMBARDI, Hoosier Thunderbolts (119) won with some effort over Frankie Hayes (93) of the Worcester Grays. Finishing in 3rd place was Lafayette's Harry Danning with a distant total of 25. Firstbase - HAL TROSKY, Worcester Grays (111) winning handily over Dolph Camilli (73) of the Western Panthers. 3rd place went to Rudy York (43) of the Otsego Lake Monsters. Secondbase - CHARLIE GEHRINGER, Worcester Grays (127) won this one, with Otego Lake's hustling youngster Frankie Gustine (57). Gustine won a fairly close race for 2nd over the T'Bolts Lonnie Frey (47). Thirdbase - BUDDY LEWIS, Hoosier Thunderbolts (135- U) more than doubled the points of 2nd place finisher, Ken Keltner (61) of the Schaumburg Hawks. the Monsters Burgess Whitehead (35) finished up in 3rd place. Shortstop - EDDIE MILLER, Worcester Grays (101) scored an easy prize while outdistancing 2nd place finisher, Marty Marion (52) of the Lafayette Slims. Finishing in the 3rd spot was Western Panther Lou Boudreau. These 3 players are all just getting their careers established as up and coming players at their positions. Leftfield - HANK LEIBER, Hoosier Thunderbolts (135- U) in a very easy contest, won over 2nd place finisher, Bill Nicholson (31) of Lafayette , who barely edged in over 3rd place winner Gee Walker (30) of the Hawks. Word has it that Leiber has suffered an off season injury which may slow him down in the coming years. Centerfield - JOE DIMAGGIO, Brooklyn Royal Giants (135- U) again there was no race as Joe blew away the field, and won MVP as well. 2nd place went to the Gray's Bob Johnson (38), with Lake Otsegos Vince DiMaggio finishing in the money, but far behind younger brother Joe. So all 3 DiMaggio brothers place in the running during the 1940 season. Rightfield - ENOS SLAUGHTER, Hoosier Thunderbolts (135- U) make the N.L. OF unanamous all the way. Finishing in 2nd place was the Monsters near Rookie Chet Ross (45), and in 3rd was Worcester's surprising Jimmie Gleeson (33). Starting Pitcher - JOHNNY RIGNEY, Western Panthers (101) Cy winner had a tougher time beating out the Slims Lon Warneke (97) for this spot. And finishing 3rd, a distance off, was the Grays Junior Thompson. This was ALMOST the most hotly contested N.L. win. Relief Pitcher - VITO TAMULIS, Worcester Grays (97) took one of the closest races ever in SPB, over the Western Panther top man, Joe Beggs (95). This race hardly left any breathing room, but Tamulis edged out Beggs by the slightest of margins. Finishing 3rd was Johnny "Grandma" Murphy (45) of the Royal Giants. Another bit of info, it has been reported that Tamulis has injured his arm while pitching winter ball in Puerto Rico, and his future is up in the air. Congratulations to all winners!. In order to see the total voting, with results of every vote recorded be sure to check out the Voting Booth results off the main SPB webpage. Thanks to every manager for voting in this election. Next Up: N.L. Award winners report. Best, Gary