1927 Yankees - Miscellaneous Anecdotes
Uniforms
In 1927, the Yankees wore a navy blue cap with a white interlocking "NY" in script on the front.
Uniforms were made of wool flannel. The shirts had a v neck with a brief tapered extension
around the neck and sleeves that extended over the elbows. Pants were "knickers", worn just below
the knees. Black belts and black cleats.
At home, they wore a white uniform with navy blue verticle pinstripes, and navy blue stirrups. On
the road, they wore a gray uniform with "YANKEES" in navy blue block letters across the chest,
and two colored stirrups, navy blue on top and rust on bottom. Reverting back to half a dozen years earlier, they wore two colored stirrups on the road.
Team
First ML team to lead wire to wire...110 wins set an AL record...19 games in front set an AL
record...57 wins at home tied an AL record...first AL team to sweep a World Series...4th team in
AL history to have highest batting average (.307) and lowest ERA (3.20) in the same season...22-
19 in one run games...42-7 in games decided by more than five runs...77-16 in games in which a
Yankee homered, 43-9 when Ruth hit HR, 33-7 when Gehrig hit HR, 68-14 when either Ruth or
Gehrig hit a HR...longest winning streak of season was nine games, from June 13 through July
23...longest home winning streak was 14 games; winning three over Philadelphia and four over
Boston June 26-July 2, three over Washington July 4 and 5, and four over St. Louis July
26-28...longest road winning streak was nine games; winning four in Philadelphia May 30-June 1 and five in Boston June 21-23...they lost four in a row only once (August 19-22) and three in a row once (June 25-26)...they played 18 double headers, 10 at Yankee Stadium
and eight on the road (four in Boston); winning eight, losing one (to Philadelphia 7-6 and 4-2 on
June 25), and splitting nine...played four double headers in five days from June 21-26...they
were 4-4 in extra inning games, all but one coming on the road...3-18-1 when having to bat in the
bottom of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium...1/3 of their games were played in two hours or less
with Pipgras pitching the quickest; a 2-1 win over Chicago on September 18...longest game of
season was a 4:20 18 inning loss at Boston, 12-11 on September 5h...they were 24-7 in July, their
best month of the season...they beat St. Louis 21 consecutive games before losing their final
meeting of the season, 6-2, a ML record vs. an opponent...12-3 record after clinching AL
pennant...
Offense
Their 975 runs set the ML record...158 HR set ML record...908 RBI set ML record....489
slugging percentage a ML record...only ML team in history to claim top three HR
leaders...together, Ruth and Gehrig set records for teammates in HR (107), RBI (339), RS (307),
TB (864), and SA (.769)...first pennant winner in ML history to have four regulars hit .333 or
higher ('03 Pirates had three, a few others had two)...first time in ML history to have two different
players hit three home runs in the same game, in the same season (Gehrig and Lazzeri)...first AL
team to have four players exceed 100 RBI in the same season, also setting ML record for RBI by
four teammates....hit five grand slams; Ruth (2), Gehrig (2) and Lazzeri (1)...Ruth and Gehrig hit
back-to-back HR five different times in 1927...team batting average of .307, on base percentage of
.383 also led AL...they averaged 6.3 runs per game, averaging 10.6 hits per game...average win
was 7.5-3 and their average loss was 3.25-5.8...scored ten or more runs in 26 games, posting a 25-
1 record in those games...batted in 1357 innings, scoring in 477 of them (35.2%)...scored in 44%
of innings against in Detroit (most at home)...scored in 38.6% of innings at Shibe Park in
Philadelphia (most on road)...scored 111 runs against Chicago (least), and 171 runs against Boston
(most)...the first inning was their most productive, scoring 131 runs; with the second inning their
least productive, scoring 85 runs...scored nine runs in an inning on two different occasions; the
sixth inning on July 4 in 21-1 win over Washington and the eighth inning in a 12-3 win over July
26 vs. St. Louis, both at Yankee Stadium...had 24 hits in an 18-5 win at Philadelphia on May
31...Yankees hit 26 HR against Philadelphia (most vs. opponent), and at least 19 against each
AL team...Yankees hit 83 HR at Yankee Stadium and 75 on the road, paced by 16 at Shibe Park in
Philadelphia (most), and the least being five in Cleveland's Dunn Field...Ruth (8) and Gehrig (6)
were the only Yankees to homer in Boston's Fenway Park...through the first 10 games of season,
Gehrig had 19 RBI, Meusel had 14 RBI, Lazzeri had 13 RBI, and Ruth had only one
RBI...Murderer's Row (Combs, Koenig, Ruth, Gehrig, Meusel, Lazzeri and Dugan) was only
together in starting line up 53 games during the season...Gehrig had an 18 game hitting streak from
June 26-July 12, longestof the season...six different times there were five game
multiple hit streaks; Gehrig (3), Combs, Koenig, and Lazzeri...on four different occasions a player
had five hits in one game; Combs (2), Koenig, and Ruth...on September 6, in a 14-2 win in
Boston, all the starters had at least two hits except Bengough, he had one...Gehrig, Lazzeri and
Meusel all had 21 sacrifices, leading the team...the outfield had a composite batting average of
.350, the starting eight had a composite batting average of .327...the catchers combined to hit .271
with 7 HR and 71 RBI...the pitchers combined to hit .215 with three HR, 46 RBI and 46 RS...the Yankees left 1137 runners on base, an average of 7.34 per game...as a
team they were mediocre at stealing bases; finishing tied for 5th in AL, with only a 58.4% success
rate...
Miscellaneous
First, and still only, ML team to have top four pitchers in winning percentage and top three in ERA
in the same season...shutout 11 opponents by the average of 5.5-0...Yankee pitchers had a 2.75
ERA at Yankee Stadium and a 3.64 ERA on the road...their pitchers had a 2.48 ERA in
September, their best month...the Yankees led the AL with 82 CG; of the remaining 73 games, they
only had to use one relief pitcher in 46 games...Yankee relief pitchers made 21 different hitless
appearances...the Yankees got six CG in a row (Moore, Shocker, Pennock, Pipgras, Hoyt and
Ruether) from September 16-21...Hoyt and Shocker were both 5-0 against
St. Louis, tying for the best record vs. an opponent on the staff...Pipgras was eased into the
starting rotation, replacing Ruether in mid season...the Yankees pitchers allowed 42 HR, 30 at
Yankee Stadium (th most being seven by the White Sox) and 12 on the road (none in 12 games
played at Boston's Fenway Park)...both Giard and Shawkey allowed only one HR in 1927,
coincidentally coming in the same 7-6 win over Washington on July 5 in relief of Hoyt...Yankee
pitchers went a whole month without allowing a HR, April 29-May 28 (25 consecutive
games)...Yankee pitchers pitched 25 1/3 scoreless innings in Chicago from May 7-9...Yankee
pitchers held opponents to five or fewer hits in 15 different games...Ruether was the only pitcher to
pinch hit...the Yankees stole three bases in a game twice...no pitchers attempted a stolen base...the
Yankees struck out at least once in 147 of 155 games...in 46 different games, Huggins made no
changes to his starting nine...Huggins inserted a pinch hitter on 89 occasions; 47 times for pitchers
and 42 times for position players (mostly catchers, 23 spread evenly with Grabowski, 7)...Huggins
inserted a pinch runner on 22 occasions; Wera for Ruether three times and 19 times for position
players (also mostly catchers)...if theYankees had to pinch hit, the opponent had a great chance to
win; for they were only 18-32-1 when inserting a pinch hitter into a game...they were 10-7-1 when
inserting a pinch runner into a game...no PH or PR in final 13 games of season...they played 47
different games without an error...they made six errors May 5 in a 6-1 loss at
Washington...Yankee pitchers had an identical eight wild pitches and one balk both at home and on
the road...Washington's Goose Goslin hit four HR off Yankee pitchers, most for an opponent...in a
7-4 loss at Washington on May 4, the Senators scored all of their runs in the first inning off
Ruether and Shawkey...22 different pitchers won games against the Yankees; Washington's Hod
Lisenbee beat them five times...the Yankees had seven new players for 1927 from the previous
season: Pipgras who had spent two years in the minors, Moore and Wera were rookies, and Durst,
Giard, Grabowski, and Morehart being acquired in the off season...set Yankee Stadium attendance
record of 1,164,015, averaging 15,117 per game (the Yankee record was 1,289,422 in 1922 at the
Polo Grounds), and topping 1,000,000 for the 7th time in 8 years; the only other ML team ever to
draw 1,000,000 was 1924 Detroit...Miller Huggins had a law degree from the University of
Cincinnati...Charley O'Leary coached first and Art Fletcher coached third...Eddie Bennett was the
bat boy...before games Ruth would only warm up with catchers, and in 1927 it was
Bengough...1927 was the final year in the majors for four players: Giard, Morehart, Ruether, and
Shawkey...
1927 Yankees Grand Slams
Player Date Opponent Inning Pitcher Result
Gehrig May 7 at Chicago 9th Ted Lyons W 8-0
Collins June 13 Cleveland 6th Emil Levsen W 14-6
Gehrig July 4 Washington (2nd)6th Bob Burke W 21-1
Lazzeri August 24 at Detroit 9th Ownie Carroll W 9-5
Ruth September 27 Philadelphia 6th Lefty Grove W 7-4
Ruth September 29 Washington 5th Paul Hopkins W 15-4
1927 Yankees Back to Back Home Runs
Players Date Opponent Inning Pitcher Result
Ruth/Gehrig April 23 at Philadelphia 1st Rube Walberg L 3-4
Ruth/Gehrig May 23 at Washington 1st Sloppy Thurston L 2-3
Ruth/Gehrig June 7 Chicago 4th Tommy Thomas W 4-1
Paschal/Lazzeri June 13 Cleveland 2nd Joe Shaute W 14-6
Ruth/Gehrig June 16 St. Louis 1st Tom Zachary W 8-1
Gehrig/Meusel July 17 at St. Louis 8th Milt Gaston W 5-4
Ruth/Gehrig September 2 at Philadelphia 1st Rube Walberg W 12-2
1927 Yankees Inside the Park Home Runs
Player Date Opponent Inning Pitcher Result
Lazzeri June 8 Chicago 8th Red Faber W 12-11
Morehart June 9 Chicago 8th Bert Cole W 8-3
Lazzeri June 11 Cleveland W 6-4
Combs July 1 Boston 1st Danny MacFayden W 7-4
Ruth July 8 at Detroit 2nd Don Hankins W 10-8
Meusel September 16 Chicago 5th Ted Blankenship W 7-2
1927 Yankees Stealing of Home
Player Date Opponent Inning Partner Result
Combs May 5 at Washington 1st Gehrig L 1-6
Meusel May 16 at Detroit 2nd none W 6-2
Ruth June 9 Chicago none W 8-3
Gehrig June 11 Cleveland 5th Lazzeri W 6-4
Gehrig June 29 Boston 8th Meusel W 8-2
Gehrig July 30 Cleveland (1) 3rd Meusel W 7-3
Email: jeffrey.linkowski@verizon.net
