The 1931 Major League Baseball season began on April 14, 1931. The regular season ended on September 27, with the
St. Louis Cardinals and
Philadelphia Athletics as the regular season champions of the
National League and
American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 28th
World Series on October 1 and ended with Game 7 on October 10. In a rematch of the prior year's postseason, the Cardinals defeated the Athletics, four games to three.
The 1931 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place since the
1904 season (except for
1919) and would be used until
1961 in the American League and
1962 in the National League.
Opening Day, April 14, featured all sixteen teams, the first time since the
1926 season. The final day of the regular season was on September 27, which also saw all sixteen teams play on the final day continuing the trend which began the
previous season. This was the first time that both Opening Day and the final day of the season saw all sixteen teams play. The
World Series took place between October 1 and October 10.
Rule changes
The 1931 season saw the following rule changes:[1]
The
American League adopted the early-
1920 rule that when calling
home runs, balls are to be called based on where the ball crosses the
outfield fence, no matter if the ball lands in the stands or leaves the ballpark. The
National League previously implemented this rule in
1929.[4]
Regulations referring to a batter contacting his own ball were clarified as was the area of bases awarded a batter when a defensive player threw his glove at a batted or thrown ball or in the case of spectator interference.
July 12 – the
Chicago Cubs—
St. Louis doubleheader has 33 doubles. Due to the large crowd spilling onto the field, any ball hit into them is a ground-rule double.[22]