The 1927 New York Yankees season was the 25th season of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

. The team finished with a record of 110–44–1, winning their fifth pennant and finishing 19 games ahead of the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

and were tied for first or better for the whole season. New York was managed by

Miller Huggins Miller James Huggins (March 27, 1878 – September 25, 1929) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds (1904–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910–1916). He managed the ...

. The Yankees played at

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

. In the

1927 World Series The 1927 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1927 season. The 24th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion New York Yankees against the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirat ...

, they won, sweeping the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. This Yankees team was known for its feared lineup, which was nicknamed "

Murderers' Row Murderers' Row were the baseball teams of the New York Yankees in the late 1920s, widely considered some of the best teams in history. The nickname is in particular describing the first six hitters in the 1927 team lineup: Earle Combs, Mark Ko ...

", and is widely considered to be the greatest baseball team in MLB history.

Regular season

The Yankees' 110 victories broke the previous

mark of 105 (set by the

1912 Boston Red Sox The 1912 Boston Red Sox season was the 12th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. This was the first year that the team played its home games at Fenway Park. The Red Sox finished first in the American League (AL) with a record o ...

) and would stand as the American League single-season record until it was broken by the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

in 1954. But counting their World Series sweep, the 1927 Yankees had a total record of 114–44 --- which is still the all-time highest single-season winning percentage (.721) in American League history. The 1998 Yankees, who also won their World Series in a sweep, are second with a full-season mark of 125-50 (.714). 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 nine future Hall of Famers: Pitchers

Herb Pennock Herbert Jefferis Pennock (February 10, 1894 – January 30, 1948) was an American professional baseball pitcher and front-office executive. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933, and is best known for his time spent with the ...

and

Waite Hoyt Waite Charles Hoyt (September 9, 1899 – August 25, 1984) was an American right-handed professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for seven different teams during 1918–1938. He was one of the dominant pitchers of the 19 ...

, Infielders

Lou Gehrig Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...

and

Tony Lazzeri Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

, outfielders

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and

Earle Combs Earle Bryan Combs (May 14, 1899 – July 21, 1976) was an American professional baseball player who played his entire career for the New York Yankees (1924–1935). Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (oft ...

, Manager

, Team President

Ed Barrow Edward Grant Barrow (May 10, 1868 – December 15, 1953) was an American manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. He served as the field manager of the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. He served as business manager (de facto ...

and Owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert.

Babe Ruth

With the race long since decided, the nation's attention turned to

'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

, who nudged ahead of Ruth's total in midseason, prompting the ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

'' 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 against the Washington Senators at

, where he hit a 2-run home run in the 8th inning off of

Tom Zachary Jonathan Thompson Walton Zachary (c. May 7, 1896 – January 24, 1969) was a professional baseball pitcher. Career Zachary had a 19-year career in Major League Baseball that lasted from 1918 to 1936. He played for the Philadelphia A's, Washi ...

, where they won the game 4-2. Ruth was exultant, shouting after the game, "Sixty, count 'em, sixty! Let's see some other son of a bitch 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

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster

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''

Other batters

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

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Other pitchers

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

Relief pitchers

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

1927 World Series

Awards and honors

AL MVP The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers' ...

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

'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, " e purpose, of course, is to pass the honor around, but the effect is to pass an empty honor around."

League leaders

, Major League Baseball home run champion (60) *

, American League leader, triples (23) *

, American League RBI champion (175)

Franchise records

, Yankees single season record, triples in a season (23)

In popular culture

In 2016,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

announced ''1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas'', part of 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.About the Diary of Myles Thomas
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Notes

References

1927 New York Yankees at Baseball Reference

1927 World Series

1927 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
{{Authority control New York Yankees seasons

1920s in the Bronx American League champion seasons World Series champion seasons Yankee Stadium (1923)