PTWSW #24: The 1927 New York Yankees

Manager: Miller Huggins
Record: 110-44
Ballpark: Yankee Stadium
Owner: Col. Jacob Ruppert
GM: Ed Barrow
Coaches: Art Fletcher, Charley O'Leary

Future Hall of Famers: Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Waite Hoyt, Tony Lazzeri, Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth

Team Leaders, Batting

BA: Lou Gehrig, .373
OBP: Babe Ruth, .486 (AL leader)
SLG: Babe Ruth, .772 (AL leader)
OPS: Babe Ruth, 1.258 (AL leader)
2B: Lou Gehrig, 52 (AL leader)
3B: Earle Combs, 23 (AL leader)
HR: Babe Ruth, 60 (AL leader)
RBI: Lou Gehrig, 175 (AL leader)
BB: Babe Ruth, 137 (AL leader)
SB: Bob Meusel, 24

Team Leaders, Pitching

W: Waite Hoyt, 22 (AL leader)
SO: Waite Hoyt, 86
ERA: Wilcy Moore, 2.28 (AL leader)
IP: Waite Hoyt, 256.1
CG: Waite Hoyt, 23
SHO: Waite Hoyt, Dutch Ruether, 3
K/BB: Waite Hoyt, 1.59
SV: Wilcy Moore, 13 (AL leader)

Tidbits

Oldest Player: Urban Shocker (b. August 22, 1890)

Youngest Player: Mark Koenig (b. July 19, 1904)

First to Leave Us: Urban Shocker (d. September 9, 1928)

Last Survivor: Mark Koenig (d. April 22, 1993). Huh. The oldest player was the first to die and the youngest was the last. That works out nicely.

First in Majors: Herb Pennock (debut May 14, 1912)

Last in Majors: Tony Lazzeri (final game June 7, 1939)

First to Play For the Franchise: Bob Shawkey (July 1915)

Last to Play For the Franchise: Lou Gehrig (April 30, 1939)

Pre-union Team: The 1920-21 Red Sox (Waite Hoyt, Ben Paschal (1920), Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth (1919)) and 1922-23 Browns (Pat Collins, Cedric Durst, Urban Shocker) each had three.

Reunion Team: The 1931 Tigers had four: Joe Dugan, Johnny Grabowski, Waite Hoyt and Mark Koenig.

Accomplishments

Babe Ruth, 60 home runs, new Major League record
Lou Gehrig, 175 RBI, new Major League record
Babe Ruth, 400 career home runs
Lou Gehrig, AL MVP
110 wins, new AL record
158 home runs, new Major League record
976 runs, new AL record

Season Summary

What can be said about this team that hasn't been said before? They set an AL record with 110 victories and led wire-to-wire. The pennant race wasn't even close after mid-June, and the Yanks ended up winning it by 18 and a half games. Babe Ruth set a single-season record that stood for 34 years with 60 home runs. The only reason Lou Gehrig won the MVP instead of The Babe was because the rules at the time prevented Ruth, who'd won the award in 1923, from winning twice. It was hardly a travesty of justice, as Gehrig's OPS+ was 221 to Ruth's 226.

Their lineup was nicknamed "Murderer's Row" because it contained so many dangerous hitters. Their team OPS+ was an unheard-of 128. The next-best mark in the AL was 99. They were no one-dimensional all-offense club either. Their team ERA+ was 120, league tops by far, and their strikeout-to-walk ratio was second only to the Athletics. Their DER made up the difference on batted balls, as it was the Junior Circuit's best ratio.

After demoralizing their opponents all season long the World Series was pretty much a foregone conclusion. The Yankees swept the Pirates while outscoring them 23-10 for the Series.

Acknowledgements:

Baseball Reference
Baseball Almanac
Google News Archives