Author David Halberstam told the story of the top teams in Summer of ’49. Now Strat-O-Matic tells you the story its way, with all 16 teams. You’ll experience it with a pair of pennant races decided on the final day.

In the NL, the Dodgers and Cardinals were at it again, for the fourth straight year. In the end, Jackie Robinson’s finest season (.342-16-124 with Major League-leading 37 SB with 122 runs, 66 extra-base hits and .528 slugging) proved worthy of a pennant and MVP honors over Stan Musial (.338-36-123 with 128 runs, 90 extra-base hits and .624 slugging) and his Cardinals teammate Enos Slaughter (The Sporting News’ Player of the Year who hit .336-13-96 with 60 extra-base hits) … The Phillies, with youngsters Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis, Granny Hamner and Willie Jones, were an inspiring third. Warren Spahn, who led the league in wins (21), complete games (25) and strikeouts (161), highlighted the fourth-place Braves. The fifth-place Giants had Bobby Thomson (.309-27-109) and ERA leader Dave Koslo (2.50). On the sixth-place Pirates, Ralph Kiner bashed a career-best 54 home runs while winning his fourth (of seven) straight home run titles, while also hitting .310 and leading the NL with 127 RBIs and .658 slugging.

In the AL,       Casey Stengel’s first season as manager of the New York Yankees was the first of the Bronx Bomber’ record five straight World Series champions, but it took wins on the final two days against Boston in Yankee Stadium to overtake the Red Sox by a single game.

It wasn’t the only near miss for Boston. MVP Ted Williams (.343-43-159 with .650 slugging and 162 walks) missed a Triple Crown by losing the batting title by less than a single point to Detroit’s George Kell. The Red Sox also had the league’s top two winning pitchers, Mel Parnell (25, with the league-best 2.77 ERA) and Ellis Kinder (23) … With Bob Lemon’s 22 wins and Dale Mitchell’s 23 triples, third-place Cleveland finished only eight games behind New York. Fourth-place Detroit had Kell (.343) and four starting pitchers with at least 15 wins, led by AL strikeout leader Virgil Trucks (19-11, 2.81) and future Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser (18-11).

The ’49 season also made household names of many impressive youngsters: Robin Roberts (15 wins), Duke Snider (.292-23-92), Whitey Lockman (.301), Richie Ashburn (.284), catcher Del Crandall (.263 and great defense), AL Rookie of the Year Roy Sievers (.306-16-91), Nellie Fox (.255 with strong defense) and Eddie Yost (91 walks). Twenty-three-year-old NL Rookie of the Year Don Newcombe led the Dodgers with 17 wins and 24-year-old Yogi Berra hit .277-20-91 despite missing a month with injury.

432 total cards … Two-sided cards for basic, advanced and super-advanced play