Just How Good Were the 1927 Yankees?

I wanted to try to get one more post in before I head to California for a couple of weeks. Some old photos on X got me thinking about that 27 Yankee squad.

The 27 Yankees won 110 games, lost 44 and had one tie. Don’t ask me how in a 154 game season they played 155 games. I will look at the total schedule and results and maybe find an answer.

They batted .307 as a team. Even at that, it was not the highest team average ever recorded to that point. The 1921 Tigers hit .316 as a team. But it was the highest BA by a pennant winner and still is. A couple of pre-1900’s teams had very high averages, the 1894 Phillies hit .349, and the 1894 Orioles, who were pennant winners, hit .326. Boston in the AL has led the league in batting 23 times, as have the Cardinals in the NL. Colorado has the longest streak of leading the league, 8 years, 1995-2002.

Back to the 27 Yankees. The Yanks hit 158 homers. Not a large number by today’s standards. Two players accounted for 107 of those homers, Ruth (60) and Gehrig (47).  The only other player in double figures was 2B, Tony Lazzeri, (18). Joe Dugan, the third baseman, had the lowest average of the regulars at .269. Gehrig, .373. Ruth, .356, Combs, ,356, Muesel, .337 and Lazzeri, .307, were the meat of the lineup. Gehrig, Ruth, Lazzeri and Muesel all drove in over 100 runs.

As a team they scored 976 runs. Their pitchers as a unit hit .215, and had 3 homers. Hoyt won 22, Pennock, 19, Shocker, 18, Ruether, 13 and George Pipgras 10. Wilcy Moore, a part time starter and what passed for a closer in those days was 19-7 with 13 saves, a 2.28 ERA in 215 innings.

They were not a big strikeout staff totaling only 431. Hoyt led the team with 85 K’s. But they walked only 409 batters. They made 196 errors as a team, and had only 123 double plays. But they outscored the opposition 976-605.

The pitching staff allowed only 42 homers. They quite literally bludgeoned the opposition to death.  They won the pennant by 19 games over the Philadelphia Athletics. They won 57 at home and 53 on the road.

The tie came in the third game of the season against the A’s in New York, and was replayed on the 27th of September in New York, the Yankees winning. They dominated the Browns, 21-1, and barely bested the Indians, 12-10. Their longest losing streak was four games in August, 3 against the Indians and a loss to the White Sox.

Their opponents in the World Series, Pittsburgh, barely beat out the Cardinals in the NL winning by 1.5 games with a 94-60 record. Pittsburgh was no slouch with the bat, hitting .305 as a team. They scored 817 runs. But they hit only 52 homers as a team. Ruth bested that all by himself.

No Pirate hit more than 9 homers, but Traynor, the Waner brothers and Joe Harris, George Grantham, Clyde Barnhardt, and Kiki Cuyler, all hit over .300. The Pirates had a 22 game winner of their own in Carmen Hill, two 19 game winners, Lee Meadows and Ray Kremer. Vic Aldridge won 15.

Despite the obvious difference in power numbers, the Pirates kept the scores close in two of the four games. They lost game one in Pittsburgh, 5-4.  They actually outhit New York 9-6. But they made 2 errors accounting for an unearned run that would be the difference.

Game two was a 6-2 Yankee win. The Pirates scored first in the bottom of the first when Barnhardt drove in Waner. The Yankees scored 3 in the top of the third. They scored 3 more in the top of the 8th and the Pirates scored 1 in the bottom of the 8th for the 6-2 final. Pipgras beat Aldridge. The Yankees had one extra base hit, a double by Gehrig.

There wasn’t much drama in game 3 as the Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. It stayed that way until the bottom of the 7th when the Bombers scored 6 runs. 3 on the first homer of the series by either team, a mammoth shot to right by Ruth. Pennock cruised to the win over Meadows.

Game four in Yankee Stadium was a 1-1 tie until the 5th, when the Yankees scored 2 on a 2-run shot by Ruth. The Pirates tied the game in the top of the seventh on a couple of errors, a sacrifice, a single and another sacrifice.

The game stayed tied until the bottom of the 9th. Johnny Miljus then walked Combs, Koenig got a bunt single, and up came Ruth. Miljus uncorked a wild pitch sending the runners to second and third. The manager ordered him to walk Ruth.

Miljus struck out Gehrig swinging, and got Muesel looking. Lazzeri came up and hit the first pitch foul for strike one. On the next pitch, Miljus uncorked another wild pitch and Combs came home with the winning run. To date, it is the only World Series to end with the runner scoring on a wild pitch.

So, just how good was this Yankees team? They could hit, that was for sure. Very rare for a team today to put up a .300 plus BA over a full season. But even with all that power, they did not strike out as much as hitters today. 610 total and 642 walks.

But they also did not face the kind of specialists teams have today. Most of their at bats came against the same pitcher the entire game. And when a pitcher came in from the bullpen, he usually was a veteran trying to hang on for one more year, or a kid just getting his feet wet.

Today’s teams have to face a gauntlet just to get to the Series. Against today’s pitching staffs, they would be facing flame throwing arms as starters and as relievers.

Of course comparing eras is mainly just guess work. No one knows how guys like Ruth, Gehrig, Combs or Muesel would perform against today’s pitchers.  Some sites still consider the 27 team as the best ever.

But the 1939 Yankee team, with no Ruth or Gehrig, had a run differential 40 runs higher, 411, than the 27 teams 371. To put that in perspective, only the 2022 Dodgers, 334 and the 2001 Mariners have recorded differentials of 300 or more since the 98 Yankees had a 309.

Because of the somewhat mythical status of Ruth, and the fact that he formed with Gehrig, the most feared 3-4 combo in baseball history. Babe hit 368 homers in their seasons as teammates and Gehrig, 266. 634 total. By comparison, Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron hit 863 homers as teammates and still are the # 1 combo of all time.

MiLB RECAP – By Jeff Dominique

Oklahoma City Baseball Club 9 – Tacoma Rainiers (Seattle) 7

The OKC Baseball Club brought their bats to Saturday’s game, and enough late inning pitching to win their first game of the season.

OKC jumped out to 4-0 and 8-2 leads, and held on after giving up 5 in the 5^th.  Eduardo Salazar started for OKC and went 4.0 innings.  He surrendered 2 runs on 5 hits, including a pair of doubles. Eduardo struck out 4 but did not allow a walk.

After retiring the side in the 5^th with 2 Ks, LHRP Alec Gamboa went back out in the 6^th and walked the first batter.  Jesse Hahn replaced Gamboa, but was clearly not the answer.  With 1/3 of an inning, Hahn gave up 2 hits, 2 BB, a HBP, and allowed the inherited runner to score, but also 2 more before being lifted for Stephen Gonsalves.  Gonsalves got a ground ball, but Andre Lipcius  threw the ball away and two runs scored, both charged to Hahn.  One was considered earned as the second would have scored on a Gonsalves WP.

Gonsalves came back out for the 7^th, and retired the side in order.  Michael Peterson came in the 8^th, got the first two outs, and then gave up a single and BB before getting the final out.

Tanner Dodson pitched the 9^th.  After getting two quick outs, he gave up a pair of singles and a BB before striking out Ryan Bliss to end the game and register his first save of the season.

OKC had 13 hits, 5 walks, and benefited from 3 Rainiers errors.  The hitting star for the night was Andre Lipcius who went 3-5 including 2 HRs and 5 RBIs.

Andre Lipcius hit a home run in his first at-bat in the #Dodgers organization

It’s the first run of the season for OKC pic.twitter.com/ZUbYCgTw9I

— Bruce Kuntz (@Bnicklaus7) March 31, 2024

HAVE A NIGHT, ANDRE LIPCIUS!

He just homered again and is now 3-3 with two homers and 5 RBI in his first game in the #Dodgers organization pic.twitter.com/Pwur7jP7T1

— Bruce Kuntz (@Bnicklaus7) March 31, 2024

Other Offensive Highlights:

• Drew Avans – 2-6
• Miguel Vargas (DH) – 2-4, HR (1), 2 RBI, 1 BB
• Kevin Padlo – 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB
• Chris Okey – 2-5
• Kody Hoese – 1-4, double

WP – Stephen Gonsalves –  1-0

LP – Levi Stoudt –  0-1

SV – Tanner Dodson (1)