The Gashouse Gang was no more, but in 1941 the Cardinals were back atop the National League. It wasn't easy, though. St. Louis won an incredible 106 games, which was just enough to hold off the Brooklyn Dodgers, who won (a team-record) 104. The Yankees won 103 regular-season games themselves, cruising to a nine-game edge over the surprising Boston Red Sox.

The World Series opened in St. Louis, but it was the Cardinals who appeared jittery as the Yankees scored seven runs, four of them unearned. The Redbirds didn't score until the bottom of the ninth, when they tallied four to at least make the game interesting.

Catcher Walker Cooper gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run double in the first inning of Game 2, and St. Louis held on for a 4-3 victory to even the Series.

Game 3 in Yankee Stadium was the Ernie White Show, as the left-hander limited the Bombers to six hits and zero runs in nine innings. The Cards manufactured single runs in the second and ninth frames to account for all the scoring, St. Louis taking the 2-1 decision and a 2-1 lead in the Series.

Game 4 looked like another Cardinal victory early, as the Redbirds exploded for six runs in the fourth inning. But the Yanks struck back with five of their own in the sixth, highlighted by Charlie Keller's three-run blast into the right-field stands. That made the score 6-6, but St. Louis scored twice in the seventh and once more in the ninth on their way to a 9-6 decision.

Game 5 was deadlocked at two runs apiece after eight innings with starters Johnny Beazley (St. Louis) and Red Ruffing (New York) having gone all the way. In the top of the ninth, Walker Cooper led off with a single, and was sacrificed to second base by Johnny Hopp. Whitey Kurowski, hoping for a run-scoring single, instead homered just inside the left-field foul pole. That made it 4-2, and Beazley escaped a no-out, two-on jam in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the world championship for St. Louis. .

Managers: Billy Southworth, STL; Joe McCarthy, NYY