The 1940s rank as one of the most spectacular decades in baseball history, despite the disruption of war. At the beginning of the 1940s, games were played in the daytime by white players and watched by fans who normally lived fairly close to the park. When the decade ended, night games were an accepted and crucial part of professional baseball; black players were not only participating, they were reshaping the game; and radio, television, and modern-style marketing promotions were captivating fans in every part of the county.

The Two-Team Monopoly.

During most of the decade the Saint Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers turned the National League into an exclusive, two-team monopoly. From 1941 through 1949, the Cardinals and Dodgers won seven pennants. Only the Chicago Cubs, in 1945, and Boston Red Sox, in 1948, disrupted the twoteam battle for supremacy. In 1941 and 1942 the Dodgers and Cardinals went to the...