The Team
Centerfielder Earle Combs. Shortstop, Mark Koenig. Right field, Babe Ruth. First base, Lou Gehrig. Left Field, Bob Meusel. Second base, Tony Lazzeri. Third base, Joe Dugan. Catcher, Pat Collins.
That was the lineup of the 1927 Yankees in their most common batting order. These were the men that made up the now infamous “Murderers’ Row.”
The pitching staff wasn’t too shabby either, with stars like Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock leading the way. These two aces were supported by the talented Urban Shocker (who pitched the entire season with a heart valve disease he kept secret from the public) and long since forgotten but reliable names such as Dutch Ruether, George Pipgras, and standout rookie Wilcy Moore. They were managed by future hall of famer, the “Mighty Mite”, Miller Huggins. In total, the actual Yankee roster had 6 more future hall of famers: Ruth, Gehrig, Combs, Lazzeri, Hoyt, and Pennock.
Murderers’ Row
The name Murderers’ Row came from the name of a section of Tomb’s prison in Manhattan. It was the cell block where only the most dangerous and volatile criminals were housed. Interestingly enough, the term “Murderers’ Row” was not an overly uncommon nickname for a powerful baseball lineup in the early part of the 20th century. The name had been used to represent various teams since 1905, when it was first used to describe the Yale University baseball team . Heck, the 1927 outfit wasn’t even the first Yankees team to be slapped with that nickname. Yes, that’s right, the original “Murderers’ Row” Yankee team, was the 1918 Yankees, who, admittedly, did boast a great deal of power with first baseman Wally Pipp and shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh. However, there’s a reason why, after 1927, no other team in baseball history was widely known under this moniker again.
Records
Let’s first look at this legendary Yankees team with respect to their records. Some of which have since been broken, some of which are still standing. At the time they held the American League record for most wins with 110 and winning percentage at .714. Perhaps this team’s most famous record belonged to its most famous man. Babe Ruth who hit 60 HRs, a record for all of baseball that stood for another 34 years. A couple of Ruth’s lesser known records for that season were his .489 slugging percentage and his 17 home runs in the month of September, which were the most for any baseball player in a calendar month. Not to be outdone by Ruth, Lou Gehrig’s 175 runs battled in (RBIs) were also a record. Together, Ruth and Gehrig had the most extra base hits (XBHs) in a season by any two teammates in American League history with 214.
The ‘27 Yanks capped off their incredible season by becoming the first American League team to sweep a National League (Pittsburgh Pirates) team in the 24-year history of the World Series. If you count the sweep of the Pirates in the World Series, their .721 overall winning percentage is still the highest of any team in baseball history. We also can’t forget that their 110 wins came in a 154-game season. The 114 wins of the 1998 Yankees as well as the 116 wins of the 2001 Seattle Mariners came during the modern 162-game schedule. Based upon their .714 winning percentage, if the 1927 Yankees had played 8 more regular season games, they would have finished with at least 115 wins, better than their ‘98 team and one behind the 2001 Mariners who, by the way, didn’t end up making the World Series. However, these records don’t tell the full story. Let’s discuss the ‘27 Yankees by some additional numbers.
Other Important Numbers
The ‘27 Yanks had four separate players who registered 100 RBIs that season: Ruth, Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and Bob Meusel. Leadoff hitter Earle Combs batted .356 and, with Meusel, Ruth, and Gehrig hitting behind him, scored 137 runs. In addition to Combs, Meusel, Ruth, Gehrig and Lazzeri also batted over .300. Gehrig set a franchise record with 52 doubles and Combs secured an all-time Yankee best 23 triples. Amazingly, despite Babe Ruth’s record 60 HRs, it was Gehrig’s RBIs that impressed writers the most, and he was given the most valuable player award. On the pitching side, it may come as a surprise (especially in those days), that Waite Hoyt was their lone twenty game winner. However, three other pitchers (Pennock, Shocker, and Moore) all won at least 18 games each. Wilcy Moore, the 30-year old rookie (yes, you read that correctly), started 12 games, notched 13 saves, and ended up leading the American League with a 2.28 ERA in 213 total innings. Since come from behind wins weren’t tallied up in those days, we have no official statistics of how many of those this world class team had. However, their propensity for scoring late in games was legendary. Speaking of that….
Five O’Clock Lightning
As has been stated, the nickname Murderers’ Row is the main moniker used for the 1927 Yankees. However, they had another long-forgotten label: Five O’Clock Lightning. This epithet served as the title of a 2007 book about the team by the author Harvey Frommer. They were known as this because of the frequency in which they scored and rallied light in games. During that era, the first pitch of games at Yankee Stadium began around 3:30pm. With 1920s baseball contests rarely exceeding the 2 ½ hour mark, that made 5:00pm just about the time the latter half of the game started, and the time that, according to legend, the Yankees turned on their barrage of power to put any opponent they faced to rest. Let’s talk about some of their opponents, as well as some of their crosstown rivals.
How Other Notable Teams Compared
Modern readers might find it surprising to know that this incredible Yankee team wasn’t even the “experts’” favorite to win the American League pennant during Spring Training. Despite being the defending AL pennant winners, many baseball writers favored Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s to represent the junior circuit in the World Series instead. However, this was for good reason, the 1927 A’s had seven future Hall of Famers in their lineup, one more than the Yankees had, and they had continuously improved in the past several seasons. However, the Yankees quickly put this theory to bed. They opened the season with four games against the A’s at Yankee Stadium. The bombers proceeded to win three of these games, and the fourth was a tie that was scratched from the official record and later replayed. Inspired by this opening series domination, the Yankees ended up finishing a whopping 19 games ahead of the A’s (who finished in second by the way) and led the AL standings from that first day of the season all the way to the last.
What about the Giants, who played just a few miles away from the Yankees in upper Manhattan? John McGraw’s 1927 team also boasted seven future hall of famers. The Giants did win 92 games and really give the Pirates a push in the pennant race, but ended up falling just short. Across the East River, the Brooklyn Robins (as they were called at the time) had a dismissal season, finishing 65-88. But, perhaps no team had a greater failure of a season than the team that had ceded to the Yankees several of their star players, the Yankees hated rival, the Red Sox. The team that had famously sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, and traded Hoyt and Pennock to the team a couple years later, finished last in the AL with 103 losses. Simply put, there was no team in 1927 that could even be considered in the same stratosphere as the Yankees, no matter how many stars or future hall of famers they had. If anyone thought the NL champion Pirates had a shot at stopping the Yankee juggernaut, they couldn’t have been more wrong.
1927 World Series
The Yankees entered the 1927 edition of the World Series as a franchise who couldn’t really boast a resume of glorious success in the competition. They had gone 1-3 against the National League champions with losses to the Giants in 1921 and 1922 (before beating them in 1923) and a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals the previous year in a heart-breaking, seven game series, that ended with Babe Ruth being thrown out trying to steal second base. In other words, despite the fact they had dominated teams in the American League all season, at least on paper, a victory against the National League champions was far from a guarantee. However, instead of the Yankees being overmatched, it was the 94-60 Pittsburgh Pirates who soon realized they were the ones who were in far over their heads. According to a longstanding legend, as members of the Pirates were watching the Yankees take batting practice before Game 1, they were stunned to see how far Ruth, Gehrig and crew could hit the ball in Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Apparently that was the beginning of the end as the Yankees went on to sweep the series winning 4 games in 4 days. In all four games combined, they trailed the Pirates for a grand total of 2 innings, outscoring them 23-10.
Conclusion
As we get farther and farther removed from historical events or time periods, we tend to lose connection with them. We approach the past with modern biases and contemporary favoritism. In truth, no one alive today would have actually experienced the 1927 Yankees for themselves. It’s understandable to think that other, more current teams were better than the ‘27 Yankees, and I’m sure if you took the players on that team and forced them to adapt to a modern day playing style, they may lose 110 or more games. However, if we look at “Murderer’s Row” through the lens of their own time period and method of play, there is almost no club that can compare to their dominance. In my opinion, the stat that truly stands the test of time is the .721 total winning percentage through the World Series. Again, still the best of any team if the postseason is counted. Also, the consistency of going all the way and leading the American League from Opening Day through the final day clearly demonstrates the supremacy they had over all other teams. Throughout the season, the most games the Yankees ever lost in a row was four, which only happened once. Then, there’s the completeness of the team, from their star studded lineup who could hit for power, average, and score runs, to their pitching staff with a combined 3.20 (league leading), even to Wilcy Moore in their bullpen. The fact that they finished 19 games ahead of a team with more future hall of famers than them is also very impressive. I could go on and on but, instead, I’ll just leave you with this. Even though we are 99 years removed from the 1927 MLB season and that anyone who physically watched or followed them has now died, there’s a reason why the 1927 Yankee team is still the most synonymous with baseball success and superiority.
Yankee In Exile 