Champions Major League Baseball Negro League World Series: Cleveland Buckeyes over Homestead Grays (4–0) World Series: Detroit Tigers over Chicago Cubs (4–3) Negro League Baseball All-Star Game: West, 9–6 Major League Baseball All-Star Game cancelled due to travel restrictions. However, inter-league games were played during the All-Star break.
Other champions Amateur World Series: Venezuela All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Rockford Peaches
Awards and honors Baseball Hall of Fame Roger Bresnahan Dan Brouthers Fred Clarke Jimmy Collins Ed Delahanty Hugh Duffy Hughie Jennings King Kelly Jim O'Rourke Wilbert Robinson Most Valuable Player Hal Newhouser (AL) – P, Detroit Tigers Phil Cavarretta (NL) – 1B, Chicago Cubs The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Hal Newhouser – P, Detroit Tigers The Sporting News Most Valuable Player Award Eddie Mayo (AL) – 2B, Detroit Tigers Tommy Holmes (NL) – OF, Boston Braves The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award Hal Newhouser (AL) – Detroit Tigers Hank Borowy (NL) – Chicago Cubs The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Ossie Bluege – Washington Senators
Statistical leaders Any team shown in indicates a previous team a player was on during the season. American LeagueNational LeagueNegro American LeagueNegro National League Stat Player Total Player Total Player Total Player Total AVG Snuffy Stirnweiss (NYY) .309 Phil Cavarretta (CHC) .355 Ed Steele (BBB) .394 Frankie Austin (PHS) .375 HR Vern Stephens (SLB) 24 Tommy Holmes (BSN) 28 Jackie Robinson (KCM)Neil Robinson (MEM) 4 Josh Gibson (HOM) 8 RBI Nick Etten (NYY) 111 Dixie Walker (BRO) 124 Herb Souell (KCM) 33 Roy Campanella (BEG) 47 W Hal Newhouser1 (DET) 25 Red Barrett (SLC/) 23 Booker McDaniel (KCM) 9 Bill Byrd (BEG)Roy Welmaker (HOM) 11 ERA Hal Newhouser1 (DET) 1.81 Ray Prim (CHC) 2.40 Roosevelt Davis (CIC/) 1.65 Garnett Blair (HOM) 0.96 K Hal Newhouser1 (DET) 212 Preacher Roe (PIT) 148 Booker McDaniel (KCM) 117 Bill Byrd (BEG) 91 1 American League Triple Crown pitching winner
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
Negro league baseball final standings All Negro leagues standings below are per MLB and Seamheads. Negro American League final standings
Negro National League final standings
Negro World Series 1945 Negro World Series: Cleveland Buckeyes over Homestead Grays 4–0.
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League final standings RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Rockford Peaches 67 43 .609 —2 Fort Wayne Daisies 62 47 .569 4½3 Grand Rapids Chicks 60 50 .545 74 Racine Belles 50 60 .455 175 South Bend Blue Sox 49 60 .450 17½6 Kenosha Comets 41 69 .372 26
Events January
January 5: As World War II continues to rage in both Europe and the Pacific, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and key advisor James F. Byrnes openly ponder the mass mobilization of over 4 million discharged and "4-F" men into active service or war-related employment. A so-called "work or fight" order is viewed as potentially shutting down professional baseball for the duration of the conflict. The accelerated mobilization of men into the military will make the shortage of playing talent even more acute in 1945. An estimated 5,000 professional baseball players are in the Allies' armed forces as 1945 begins; 44 will give their lives during the year. January 16 – U.S. President Roosevelt, who famously gave baseball a "green light" in January 1942 to continue during wartime, gives it a "yellow" signal at a news conference, saying the sport may operate in 1945 if it refrains from "hurting the employment of people in the war effort or the building of the Army and Navy." January 23 – Stan Musial enters the United States Navy. The St. Louis Cardinals' superstar, 24, will serve 15 months at installations in Maryland, Hawaii and Philadelphia before returning to baseball in . His absence will be felt by the 1945 Cardinals, who will miss what would have been their fourth straight National League pennant by only three games. January 25 – Former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and president of the Brooklyn Dodgers Larry MacPhail—currently a U.S. Army colonel working in the War Department in Washington, D.C.—heads a three-man group that buys 96.88 percent control of the New York Yankees from the estate of the late Col. Jacob Ruppert for $2.8 million. The innovative, dynamic MacPhail, 54, partners with New York businessman Dan Topping, 32, and Arizona-based construction magnate Del Webb, 45, in making the purchase. On February 10, after his discharge, MacPhail will take over from Ed Barrow, chief architect of the Yankee dynasty of –, as president/GM, and in three short years, he will bring modern amenities and promotions (a stadium club, night baseball, "old-timers games") to Yankee Stadium—before he abruptly sells his share in the team after it wins its 11th World Series championship in 1947.
February February 10 – Slugger Jimmie Foxx, a cornerstone of Connie Mack's final dynasty, the Philadelphia Athletics of –, returns to the city where he became a star, signing as a free agent with the Phillies of the National League. Foxx, 37, had spent as a player–coach with the Chicago Cubs, appearing in only 15 games. February 14 – On his 75th birthday, J. A. Robert Quinn, general manager of the Boston Braves since December 1935, turns over the job to his son, John, 36, the club's former treasurer and farm system director. The elder Quinn is also the former principal owner and president of the Braves, now operated by construction magnates Louis R. Perini, C. Joseph Maney and Guido Rugo — the "Three Little Steam Shovels." February 15 – United States Army Air Forces major and decorated bomber pilot Billy Southworth Jr., the son of the St. Louis Cardinals' manager and a former minor-league outfielder, dies at age 27 while leading flight training when his plane crashes into Flushing Bay in the Borough of Queens. February 21 – Wartime travel restrictions cancel the planned 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and threaten a 1945 World Series. MLB teams are ordered to cut their travel miles by at least 25% and adjust their regular-season schedules. The Office of Defense Transportation in Washington shuts down horse racing, but spares the baseball season so far. February 24 – The Boston Braves purchase the contract of outfielder Carden Gillenwater from the Brooklyn Dodgers.
March March 6 – Harry O'Neill, first lieutenant, United States Marine Corps, and a former catcher who appeared in one game for the Philadelphia Athletics in , is killed in the battle for Iwo Jima. He is 27. March 12 – Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York, signs the Ives–Quinn Act into law. Described as "the most comprehensive ban on racial and religious [employment] discrimination in the United States," it will provide a basis for Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to accelerate his secret plan to integrate the playing ranks of all-white "Organized Baseball". March 28 – The Dodgers sell the contract of former pitching staff ace Whit Wyatt to the Philadelphia Phillies. Right-hander Wyatt, 37, had his last outstanding season for the 1943 Dodgers. In , he won 22 games and led National League pitchers in bWAR (6.7)."Whit Wyatt" at Baseball Reference. March 31 – The Phillies acquire outfielder Vince DiMaggio from the Pittsburgh Pirates for southpaw hurler Al Gerheauser. Vince, 33, is the eldest of the three DiMaggio brothers.
April
April 6 – Two veterans of the Negro leagues, pitcher Terris McDuffie, 34, and first baseman Dave "Showboat" Thomas, 40, partake in a special tryout for the Brooklyn Dodgers at the team's Bear Mountain, New York, training camp. The audition is forced upon the Dodgers by radical Harlem journalist Joe W. Bostic, who is one of the leading members of the Black press challenging the baseball color line. Though angered by Bostic's "ambush", Brooklyn president/general manager Branch Rickey reluctantly agrees to the tryout. He will sign neither player, and tells Bostic: "I'm more for your cause than anybody else you know, but you are making a mistake using force." April 16 – Under political pressure exerted by city councilor Isadore Muchnick, the Boston Red Sox agree to audition three Black players—Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs, Sam Jethroe of the Cleveland Buckeyes, and Marvin Williams of the Philadelphia Stars—at Fenway Park. The arch-conservative Red Sox refuse to sign any of them. Reportedly, a Red Sox scout says of Robinson: "What a ballplayer! Too bad he's the wrong color." April 17 – Opening Day in Major League Baseball sees amputee Pete Gray make his debut with the defending American League champions, the St. Louis Browns. Gray, who lost his right arm to the elbow in a childhood accident, had hit a stellar .333 in the Class A1 Southern Association in 1944 while batting, catching and throwing only with his left arm and hand. He goes one-for-four, singling off Les Mueller, in a 7–1 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Sportsman's Park. He handles no chances in left field. April 19 – Two noteworthy injuries occur in today's 4–3 New York Yankees victory over the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx. In the third inning, New York left-fielder Hersh Martin is spiked in the nose by teammate Johnny Lindell when they collide trying to flag down a fly ball; Martin is hospitalized. Then, in the seventh, Joe Cronin, the Bosox' player–manager who's now his club's starting third baseman because of the wartime manpower shortage, breaks his leg while running the bases. The injury ends the future Hall of Famer's playing career at age 38 after 20 seasons."New York Yankees 4, Boston Red Sox 3". Retrosheet box score (April 19, 1945). April 24 – Kentucky Senator Albert B. "Happy" Chandler is unanimously elected the second Commissioner of Baseball by the 16 MLB owners. He succeeds the late Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who died at 78 on November 25, 1944. Because of the ongoing world war, Chandler, 46, insists on remaining a member of the U.S. Senate to vote on key legislation stemming from developments such as the Bretton Woods economic summit and the Charter of the United Nations, which will overlap his first six months in office. April 25 – An "Old-Timers' Committee" elects ten turn-of-the-century figures to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. (See Awards and Honors, above.) April 28 – Hank Wyse of the Chicago Cubs one-hits the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field. Bill Salkeld gets the lone Pirate safety. Wyse's 6–0 victory comes in the first of six National League one-hit complete games in 1945's regular season."Chicago Cubs 6, Pittsburgh Pirates 0." Retrosheet box score (April 28, 1945)."Top Individual Performances of 1945." Retosheet. April 29 – The Detroit Tigers reacquire outfielder Roy Cullenbine, obtaining him from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for infielders "Little Dutch" Meyer and Don Ross. Cullenbine, 31, broke into the majors with Detroit in 1938, and this season he'll help spark a Tiger pennant and World Series title as the club's everyday right-fielder.
May May 1 – Joe Haynes of the visiting Chicago White Sox one-hits the Detroit Tigers; the only safety and baserunner he allows is Skeeter Webb's third-inning single."Chicago White Sox 5, Detroit Tigers 0." Retrosheet box score (May 1, 1945). Haynes' effort is the first of six complete game one-hitters to be recorded in the American League in 1945. Their 6–2 win is the ChiSox' sixth in their first eight games of 1945. May 3 – The New York Yankees release outfielder Paul Waner after just one game. The future Hall of Famer had come out of retirement the previous season due to the shortage of players caused by World War II.