1927 New York Yankees season

1927 New York Yankees
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs American League Champions World Series Champions
File:NYYLogos PrintNY.PNG
Ballpark	Yankee Stadium
City	New York City, New York
Owners	Jacob Ruppert
Managers	Miller Huggins
Television	none
Radio	none
Seasons

The 1927 New York Yankees season was their 25th season. The team finished with a record of 110–44, winning their fifth pennant and finishing 19 games ahead of the Philadelphia Athletics and were tied for first or better for the whole season. New York was managed by Miller Huggins. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium. In the World Series, they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates. This Yankee team is known for their feared lineup, which was nicknamed "Murderers' Row". This team is widely considered to be the best baseball team in the history of MLB.

Regular season

Yankee Stadium in 1927.

The Yankees' 110 victories broke the previous American League mark of 105 (set by the 1912 Boston Red Sox) and would stand as the American League single-season record until it was broken by the Cleveland Indians in 1954.

This was the first year the Yankees acknowledged their team nickname on their uniforms, albeit their road uniforms. Their home uniforms remained free of any kind of logo except for the "NY" on their caps.

The roster included seven future Hall of Famers: Pitchers Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt, Infielders Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri, outfielders Babe Ruth and Earle Combs, and Manager Miller Huggins.

Babe Ruth

With the race long since decided, the nation's attention turned to Babe Ruth's pursuit of his own home run mark of 59, set in 1921. Early in the season, Ruth expressed doubts about his chances: "I don't suppose I'll ever break that 1921 record. To do that, you've got to start early, and the pitchers have got to pitch to you. I don't start early, and the pitchers haven't really pitched to me in four seasons. I get more bad balls to hit than any other five men...and fewer good ones." Ruth was also being challenged for his slugger's crown by teammate Lou Gehrig, who nudged ahead of Ruth's total in midseason, prompting the New York World-Telegram to anoint Gehrig the favorite. But Ruth caught Gehrig (who would finish with 47), and then had a remarkable last leg of the season, hitting 17 home runs in September. His 60th came on September 30, in the Yankees' next-to-last game. Ruth was exultant, shouting after the game, "Sixty, count 'em, sixty! Let's see some son-of-a-b**** match that!" In later years, he would give Gehrig some credit: "Pitchers began pitching to me because if they passed me they still had Lou to contend with." In addition to his career-high 60 home runs, Ruth batted .356, drove in 164 runs and slugged .772.

Babe Ruth's 60 home runs

HR	Date	Pitcher
1	April 15, 1927	Howard Ehmke
2	April 23, 1927	Rube Walberg
3	April 24, 1927	Sloppy Thurston
4	April 29, 1927	Slim Harriss
5	May 1, 1927	Jack Quinn
6	May 1, 1927	Rube Walberg
7	May 10, 1927	Milt Gaston
8	May 11, 1927	Ernie Nevers
9	May 17, 1927	Rip Collins
10	May 22, 1927	Benn Karr
11	May 23, 1927	Sloppy Thurston
12	May 28, 1927	Sloppy Thurston
13	May 29, 1927	Danny MacFayden
14	May 30, 1927	Rube Walberg
15	May 31, 1927	Jack Quinn
16	May 31, 1927	Howard Ehmke
17	June 5, 1927	Earl Whitehill
18	June 7, 1927	Tommy Thomas
19	June 11, 1927	Garland Buckeye
20	June 11, 1927	Garland Buckeye
21	June 12, 1927	George Uhle
22	June 16, 1927	Tom Zachary
23	June 22, 1927	Hal Wiltse
24	June 22, 1927	Hal Wiltse
25	June 30, 1927	Slim Harriss
26	July 3, 1927	Hod Lisenbee
27	July 8, 1927	Don Hankins
28	July 9, 1927	Ken Holloway
29	July 9, 1927	Ken Holloway
30	July 12, 1927	Joe Shaute
31	July 24, 1927	Tommy Thomas
32	July 26, 1927	Milt Gaston
33	July 27, 1927	Milt Gaston
34	July 28, 1927	Lefty Stewart
35	August 5, 1927	George Smith
36	August 10, 1927	Tom Zachary
37	August 16, 1927	Tommy Thomas
38	August 17, 1927	Sarge Connally
39	August 20, 1927	Jake Miller
40	August 22, 1927	Joe Shaute
41	August 27, 1927	Ernie Nevers
42	August 28, 1927	Ernie Wingard
43	August 31, 1927	Tony Welzer
44	September 2, 1927	Rube Walberg
45	September 6, 1927	Tony Welzer
46	September 6, 1927	Tony Welzer
47	September 6, 1927	Jack Russell
48	September 7, 1927	Danny MacFayden
49	September 7, 1927	Slim Harriss
50	September 11, 1927	Milt Gaston
51	September 13, 1927	Willis Hudlin
52	September 13, 1927	Joe Shaute
53	September 16, 1927	Ted Blankenship
54	September 18, 1927	Ted Lyons
55	September 21, 1927	Sam Gibson
56	September 22, 1927	Ken Holloway
57	September 27, 1927	Lefty Grove
58	September 29, 1927	Hod Lisenbee
59	September 29, 1927	Paul Hopkins
60	September 30, 1927	Tom Zachary

Season standings

American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	110	44	.714	—	57‍–‍19	53‍–‍25
Philadelphia Athletics	91	63	.591	19	50‍–‍27	41‍–‍36
Washington Senators	85	69	.552	25	51‍–‍28	34‍–‍41
Detroit Tigers	82	71	.536	27½	44‍–‍32	38‍–‍39
Chicago White Sox	70	83	.458	39½	38‍–‍37	32‍–‍46
Cleveland Indians	66	87	.431	43½	35‍–‍42	31‍–‍45
St. Louis Browns	59	94	.386	50½	38‍–‍38	21‍–‍56
Boston Red Sox	51	103	.331	59	29‍–‍49	22‍–‍54

Record vs. opponents

1927 American League record Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	11–11	15–7	5–17	4–18	6–16	6–16	4–18
Chicago	11–11	—	8–14	13–8	5–17	8–14	15–7	10–12
Cleveland	7–15	14–8	—	7–15	10–12	10–12	10–11	8–14
Detroit	17–5	8–13	15–7	—	8–14	9–13	14–8–1	11–11–2
New York	18–4	17–5	12–10	14–8	—	14–8–1	21–1	14–8
Philadelphia	16–6	14–8	12–10	13–9	8–14–1	—	16–6	12–10
St. Louis	16–6	7–15	11–10	8–14–1	1–21	6–16	—	10–12–1
Washington	18–4	12–10	14–8	11–11–2	8–14	10–12	12–10–1	—

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Pat Collins	92	251	69	.275	7	36
1B	Lou Gehrig	155	584	218	.373	47	175
2B	Tony Lazzeri	153	570	176	.309	18	102
3B	Joe Dugan	112	387	104	.269	2	43
SS	Mark Koenig	123	526	150	.285	3	62
OF	Earle Combs	152	648	231	.356	6	64
OF	Babe Ruth	151	540	192	.356	60	164
OF	Bob Meusel	135	516	174	.337	8	103

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Johnny Grabowski	70	195	54	.277	0	25
Ray Morehart	73	195	50	.256	1	20
Cedric Durst	65	129	32	.248	0	25
Mike Gazella	54	115	32	.278	0	9
Benny Bengough	31	85	21	.247	0	10
Ben Paschal	50	82	26	.317	2	16
Julie Wera	38	42	10	.238	1	8

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Waite Hoyt	36	256.3	22	7	2.63	86
Urban Shocker	31	200	18	6	2.84	35
Herb Pennock	34	209.7	19	8	3.00	51
Dutch Ruether	27	184	13	6	3.38	45
George Pipgras	29	166.3	10	3	4.11	81

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Wilcy Moore	50	213	19	7	2.28	75
Myles Thomas	21	88.7	7	4	4.87	25

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Bob Shawkey	19	2	3	4	2.89	23
Joe Giard	16	0	0	0	8.00	10
Walter Beall	1	0	0	0	9.00	0

1927 World Series

Main article: 1927 World Series

Game	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Score	Record (NYY-PIT)	Attendance
1	October 5	New York Yankees	5	Pittsburgh Pirates	4	1–0	41,467
2	October 6	New York Yankees	6	Pittsburgh Pirates	2	2–0	41,634
3	October 7	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	New York Yankees	8	3–0	60,695
4	October 8	Pittsburgh Pirates	3	New York Yankees	4	4–0	57,909
New York Yankees win 4–0

Awards and honors

• Lou Gehrig, AL MVP Award

Since a voter could select only one player per team, two good candidates from the same team could find their votes split and both of their chances of winning hurt. In addition, the clause prohibiting repeat winners led to unusual results like Babe Ruth's 1927 (one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time) not being eligible for the award. As The New York Times wrote in 1925, "[T]he purpose, of course, is to pass the honor around, but the effect is to pass an empty honor around."

League leaders

• Babe Ruth, Major League Baseball home run champion (60)
• Earle Combs, American League leader, triples (23)
• Lou Gehrig, American League RBI champion (175)

Franchise records

• Earle Combs, Yankees single season record, triples in a season (23)

In popular culture

In 2016, ESPN announced 1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas, part a new genre of storytelling known as "real-time historical fiction." The core of the project is a historical novel in the form of a diary of Myles Thomas, written by Douglas Alden, complemented by a wealth of fact-based content from the season, all published along the same timeline as the events unfolded almost 90 years ago. Through Myles Thomas’s diary entries, additional essays and real-time social-media components (including Twitter) “re-living” that famous Yankees season, the goal is to explore the rarefied nexus of baseball, jazz and Prohibition — defining elements of the remarkable world that existed in 1927. The diary runs the length of the full 1927 season, from April 13 through October 10, 1927.

References

• 1927 New York Yankees
• 1927 World Series
• 1927 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com