Strikeouts : 1939 American League Top 25

Finding the American or National League leader in virtually every hitting & pitching statistic is easy-to-do. Finding the top 25 players during any given season is far more challenging. Baseball Almanac has taken away that difficult problem and is pleased to present the data you requested:

"Although baseball decided to extend the regular season deeper into October to play 162 games (after the 09-11 disaster), why not just play 154? Baseball has dealt with shortened seasons before. (Bud) Selig spoke about the sanctity of playing 162 games, but baseball played 154 games until 1961. Baseball should have just let the games go and continued with the current schedule." - Joe Morgan on ESPN (September 19, 2001)
 

1939 Strikeouts Leaders

Top 25 in the American League

Bob Feller 246 Cleveland Indians 1
Bobo Newsom 192 St. Louis Browns 2
Detroit Tigers  
Tommy Bridges 129 Detroit Tigers 3
Johnny Rigney 119 Chicago White Sox 4
Ken Chase 118 Washington Senators 5
Joe Krakauskas 110 Washington Senators 6
Lefty Mills 103 St. Louis Browns 7
Lefty Gomez 102 New York Yankees 8
Red Ruffing 95 New York Yankees 9
Dutch Leonard 88 Washington Senators 10
Lefty Grove 81 Boston Red Sox 11
Thornton Lee 81 Chicago White Sox  
Jack Wilson 80 Boston Red Sox 13
Johnny Allen 79 Cleveland Indians 14
Al Milnar 76 Cleveland Indians 15
Monte Pearson 76 New York Yankees  
Lynn Nelson 75 Philadelphia Athletics 17
Dizzy Trout 72 Detroit Tigers 18
Eddie Smith 70 Philadelphia Athletics 19
Chicago White Sox  
Denny Galehouse 68 Boston Red Sox 20
Jack Kramer 68 St. Louis Browns  
Al Benton 67 Detroit Tigers 22
Mel Harder 67 Cleveland Indians  
Bump Hadley 65 New York Yankees 24
Ted Lyons 65 Chicago White Sox  



The first player from the Angels franchise (they were the California Angels at the time) to wear the number twenty-five was Bob Perry.

Jose Cruz of the Houston Astros had his number twenty-five retired on October 3, 1992, and became the first Major League player with that particular retired number.

Did you know that more than forty players have worn the number twenty-five for the Boston Red Sox — including Jack Clark, Denny Galehouse, Dizzy Trout and Tony Conigliaro.