Champions

Major League Baseball

• World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
• All-Star Game, July 8 at Shibe Park: National League, 3-2 (5 innings)

Other champions

• Caribbean World Series: La Habana (Cuba)
• College World Series: Holy Cross
• Japan Series: Yomiuri Giants over Nankai Hawks (4-2)
• Little League World Series: Norwalk National, Norwalk, Connecticut
• All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: South Bend Blue Sox

Awards and honors

• MLB Most Valuable Player Award
• Bobby Shantz, Philadelphia Athletics, P
• Hank Sauer, Chicago Cubs, OF
• MLB Rookie of the Year Award
• Harry Byrd, Philadelphia Athletics, P
• Joe Black, Brooklyn Dodgers, P
• The Sporting News Player of the Year Award
• Robin Roberts, Philadelphia Phillies
• The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award
• Eddie Stanky, St. Louis Cardinals

MLB Statistical Leaders

Major League Baseball final standings

American League final standings

National League final standings

Events

January-March

• January 31 - Harry Heilmann with 203 votes, and Paul Waner with 195, become the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
• February 16 - Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires after 40 years as a major league player and coach. He receives a pension from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he spent most of those years.
• March 24 - St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Slaybaugh is hit in the left eye with a line drive, necessitating an operation to remove the eye. Slaybaugh will pitch briefly in the minors in 1953-54 and then retire.

April-June

• April 23 - Bob Cain of the St. Louis Browns defeats Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter.
• April 30 - Veteran Negro League catcher Quincy Trouppe makes his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians. At 39 years of age, he is one of the oldest rookies in major league history. Three days later, Trouppe is behind the plate when relief pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones enters the game, forming the first black battery in American League history.
• May 5 - Mickey Mantle's father dies of Hodgkin's Disease, and Mantle will miss six games while attending the funeral and seeing to family matters in Oklahoma.
• May 15 - After pitching four no-hitters in the minors, 33-year old Virgil Trucks of the Detroit Tigers pitches his first in the majors, a 1–0 blanking of the Washington Senators. Vic Wertz's dramatic two-out home run in the ninth inning off Bob Porterfield wins the game at Briggs Stadium.
• May 29 - Boston Red Sox pitcher Mickey McDermott faces 27 batters and fire a one-hitter to beat the Washington Senators, 1–0, at Fenway Park. Mel Hoderlein's fourth inning single is the only Washington's hit and he is thrown out while trying to strech the hit into a double.
• June 19 - Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine tosses a no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs in a 5-0 win.

July-September

• July 8 - In a rain-shortened affair at Shibe Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, the National League tops the American League, 3-2 (5 innings), in the All-Star Game. Jackie Robinson and Hank Sauer each homer for the NL.
• July 15 - Detroit Tigers first baseman Walt Dropo collects seven consecutive hits over the course of doubleheader against the Washington Senators. Combined with the five consecutive hits he recorded on July 14, Dropo establishes the American League and Major League record for consecutive hits in consecutive plate appearances with ten base hits.
• August 15 - Virgil Trucks wil turn the trick again this season when he no hit's the New York Yankees in a 1-0 win for the Detroit Tigers. It is the second no-hitter of Trucks' Major League career.

October-December

• October 1 - In Game 1 of the World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees, 4-2, at Ebbets Field behind relief ace Joe Black, who started only two games during the season.
• October 7 - The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2, in Game 7 of the World Series to win their fourth straight World Championship – tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 - and fifteenth overall, four games to three. Billy Martin saves the day by snaring a 2-out bases-loaded infield pop off the bat of Jackie Robinson. Gil Hodges goes hitless again and is 0-for-21 in the Series. This was the Yankees' third defeat of the Dodgers in six years.

Movies

• The Pride of St. Louis
• The Winning Team

Births

January-March

• January 7 - Doug Capilla
• January 14 - Terry Forster
• January 14 - Wayne Gross
• January 17 - Darrell Porter
• January 17 - Pete LaCock
• January 21 - Mike Krukow
• February 2 - Warren Brusstar
• February 3 - Fred Lynn
• February 14 - Will McEnaney
• February 16 - Barry Foote
• February 16 - Jerry Hairston
• March 5 - Mike Squires
• March 20 - Rick Langford
• March 21 - Fernando Arroyo
• March 22 - Eric Rasmussen

April-June

• April 24 - Pat Zachry
• April 29 - Bob McClure
• April 29 - Ron Washington
• May 15 - Rick Waits
• May 17 - Porfi Altamirano
• May 19 - Dan Ford
• May 23 - Butch Metzger
• June 13 - Ernie Whitt
• July 27 - Bump Wills
• June 28 - Joe Sambito

July-September

• July 27 - Rich Dauer
• July 30 - Mickey Mahler
• August 1 - Greg Gross
• August 6 - Mike Ivie
• August 16 - Al Holland
• August 19 - Tim Blackwell
• August 23 - Jerry White
• September 9 - Jerry Mumphrey
• September 18 - Sam Bowen
• September 23 - Dennis Lamp
• September 25 - Sal Butera

October-December

• October 18 - Allen Ripley
• October 18 - Jerry Royster
• October 20 - Dave Collins
• October 22 - Roy Smalley
• October 24 - Omar Moreno
• October 25 - Rowland Office
• October 27 - Bill Travers
• October 27 - Pete Vuckovich
• November 4 - Doug Corbett
• November 8 - John Denny
• November 8 - Jerry Remy
• November 17 - Dave Frost
• November 18 - Steve Henderson
• November 21 - Bill Almon
• November 16 - Glenn Burke
• December 1 - Dan Warthen
• December 21 - Joaquín Andújar
• December 27 - Craig Reynolds
• December 28 - Ray Knight
• December 29 - Dennis Werth

Deaths

• February 5 - Esty Chaney, 61, relief pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox (1913) and Brooklyn Tip-Tops (1914)
• March 30 - Deacon Phillippe, 79, 6-time winner of 20 games, primarily with Pittsburgh; earned all three Pirate victories in 1903 World Series
• April 3 - Phenomenal Smith, 87, pitcher for eight seasons, 1884-1891.
• May 7 - Red Bluhm, 57, played for the Boston Red Sox in 1918
• June 17 - Al Atkinson, 91, pitched three seasons in the Majors and threw two no-hitters.
• July 3 - Fred Tenney, 80, first baseman for 17 years, primarily with Boston; batted .300 six times
• August 30 - Arky Vaughan, 40, a drowning victim, 9-time All-Star shortstop who was named the NL's MVP in 1935 by The Sporting News; career .318 hitter led NL in runs, triples and walks three times each
• November 29 - Arlie Latham, 92, first player to play 1500 games at third base; among all-time top 10 in runs upon retirement