1927 Yankees - Quotes
Disclaimer: The intention is to deliver a compilation of quotes from many different sources. In every case, no violations of privacy, copyrights or infringement of any kind is intended.
Miller Huggins in spring training: "The Yankees pitching staff has reached a stage where I must
gamble."
Miller Huggins called Pennock "the greatest left-hander of all time."
Ed Barrow regarding Wilcy Moore: "Anyone who has a 20-1 record anywhere is worth taking a
look at."
Miller Huggins: "If Hoyt could curb his temper, he would be a better pitcher. There is no reason
he should not win 20 games every year. He has stuff and he knows how to use it. After the ball he
pitched in the 1921 World Series, he should have gone to the very top."
Babe Ruth on betting teammate Wilcy Moore $300 he wouldn't get three hits all year: "My
money's as safe as a church."
Babe Ruth on hitting home runs: "All the parks are good except the Stadium. There is no
background there at all....I cried when they took me out of the Polo Grounds."
Miller Huggins on Lazzeri, 1927: "I've seen a few better second basemen, but not many. He has a
phenomenal pair of hands, a great throwing arm and he covers acres of ground."
Babe Ruth (early in '27): "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 six men...and fewer
good ones."
Miller Huggins in June 1927: "I have a much better club than last year, and if we don't run into
misfortunes we ought stay on top...it's possible for us to take a slump at any time, but just now I'm
not worrying a great deal. You see my boys are hitting the ball consistently and my pitchers are
working very smoothly. The Yankees, as a team, have improved in every way.
"Gehrig, Lazzeri, and Koenig, the young infielders, are showing the result of last year's experience
by playing with more confidence and steadiness. Koenig is destined to become one of the finest
shortstops in the majors. He is handling balls that he couldn't reach a year ago. and is throwing
wonderfully. Gehrig is the hardest hitting first baseman I've seen and that is saying a lot. Lazzeri
is the best second baseman in the American League.
Joe Dugan isn't hitting but his third base play is excellent. In case of accidents to my regular
infielders, I'll be well fortified. Durst can play first base, while Morehart, Gazella and Wera are
ready to jump into the other positions.
"The pitchers? They've surprised me, particularly Hoyt and Ruether. Pennock hasn't lost a game
yet and Shocker is coming along nicely. Moore...has done splendid relief work."
Babe Ruth: "Pitchers began pitching to me because if they passed me they still had Lou to contend
with."
Ruth and Gehrig were tied at 24 HR's apiece in late June 1927 when Babe Ruth wrote in his
column in The World: "If I am to break my 1921 record, I believe I will do it this year. I'm getting
a bit older now. I figure I have about five or six years, and then I will have to step aside and retire.
Unless I can break my record this year, I believe there are only two men in baseball who have a
chance to do it. One of them is Lou Gehrig and the other is Tony Lazzeri...So far as this year is
concerned, there is just one thing that makes me think I can better the 59 mark, and that's Lou
Gehrig. Having him follow me in the batting order has helped me a lot this year."
Wilbert Robinson in late June 1927: "The greatest club ever got together...our pitchers would
never had stopped Hug's crew."
Washington First Baseman Joe Judge after the Yankees swept a double-header 21-1 and 21-1 on
July 4, 1927: "Those fellows not only beat you, but they tear your hearts out."
Joe Dugan: "It's always the same. Combs walks. Koenig singles. Ruth hits one out of the park.
Gehrig doubles. Lazzeri triples. Then Dugan goes in the dirt on his can."
With Gehrig leading Ruth 28-26, Dan Daniel of the World-Telegram wrote: "It seems to be
slightly better than an even bet that Lou Gehrig will beat Babe Ruth in the great Home Run Derby
of 1927. While it does not appear likely that Lou will excel the Babe's record of 59 homers, even
that is not without the plane of probability."
Paul Gallico wrote: "There has never been anything like it. Even as these lines are batted out on
the office typewriter, youths dash out of the AP and UP ticker room every two or three minutes
shouting, 'Ruth hit one! Gehrig just hit another one!' "
Mark Koenig, on third base after hitting a triple, regarding Ruth's 60th: "I just ran to the dugout.
It was just another home run."
Babe Ruth, after breaking the record: "The first time I believed I had a chance to make it was at
Boston early this month when I socked three in those two games."
Benny Bengough: "See the funny thing about it is, we never figured 60 was going to stand. We
felt Babe Ruth might hit 65 the next year because, see, he was the only real home run hitter. And
Babe never really though about it. He never figured I'll hit 90 home runs this year or 60 or
whatever. He just hit the home runs. He hit 60 and i imagine the next year Babe figured, well, I'll
probably hit 65 or 70-who knows? He never hit that many again, but we thought he might. So it
wasn't that important."
St. Louis manager Dan Howley: "I'd rather see Ruth than Gehrig in a tight place. Sometimes you
can figure what the Babe is going to do, but you can never tell about Gehrig. He is likely to hit any
kind of ball to any field."
St. Louis pitcher Milt Gaston: "I would rather pitch a double-header against any other club than
one game against the Yanks."
Babe Ruth: "We won the World Series before it even got started. The Pirates were the other club,
and the first two games were scheduled for Forbes Field. Naturally we showed up a day early and
worked out in the strange park-and we won the Series during that workout...
"We really put on a show. Lou and I banged ball after ball into the right field stands, and I finally
knocked one out of the park in right center. Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri kept hammering balls
into the left field seats.
"One by one, the Pirates got up and left the park. Some of them were shaking their heads when we
last saw them.
Mark Koenig: "The Pirates watched us take batting practice before the first game. Ruth, Gehrig
and Meusel kept hitting ball after ball out of the park. The Pirates were beaten before they
started."
Miller Huggins: "I've known all along that we had a great ball club. Now I guess everybody will
have to admit it."
Bob Quinn, former President of the Red Sox and Braves on Meusel's arm: "Meusel's arm was the
best I ever saw. And I'm talking about strong arms, not merely accurate ones. Meusel threw
strikes to any base from the outfield."
Babe Ruth: "I don't know where Moore was when all the scouts were gum shoeing around those
parts, because he was just about the best pitcher in our league in 1927. Hug used him mostly as a
relief man, but he was just as good as a starter, winning nineteen games and coming up with the
best earned run average in our league."
George Pipgras: "When we got to the ballpark, we knew we were going to win. That's all there
was to it. we weren't cocky. I wouldn't call it confidence either. We just knew. Like when you go
to sleep you know the sun is going to come up in the morning."
Mark Koenig: "Miller Huggins was a good manager, although he was a nervous little guy who
moved his feet a lot in the dugout. But he didn't have to be much of a strategist with that club.
Lots of times, we'd be down five, six runs, and then have a big inning to win the game."
Miller Huggins: "The backbone of any ball club is the pitching staff. The New York Yankees are
sometimes spoken of as an exception. I have heard it said their tremendous batting punch carries
them through. Now, I appreciate that batting punch as much as anyone, but no team would lead
it's league as we did in 1927 unless they possessed some real pitching strength..."
New York Sun writer H.I Phillips wrote that the Yankees were: "the first team in history to have
magicians, miracle men, jinns, a Beowulf and a couple of Thors on it. It is a team out of folklore
and mythology."
Wilbert Robinson, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in a 1928 interview: "That Yankee ball club
would have murdered my Orioles. I was amazed at what they did to their league, and look what
they did to the Pirates in the World Series. The Orioles never saw the day they could make runs
against Huggins' mob. And you go right out and tell the fans I said so."
Recalled Al Simmons, outfielder with the Athletics: "We were good, a really great team, but when
you compare us with the great Yankee world champions who preceded us, we simply weren't in
their class. I'm not trying to kid myself nor anyone else. I fought those Yankees as hard as any
man in the American League, but when they got us into a tough series, they just batted our brains
out."
Mark Koenig: "I was ordinary, very ordinary. I had small hands and made too many errors. The
only thing I had was a powerful arm. I don't think I could have stayed up on any other club. The
Yankees could have carried a midget at shortstop. That's how good a club it was."
Babe Ruth: "Those Yankees were the best team. Figure it out. After we got going we won twelve
straight World Series games-twelve in a row. It was murder. The Yankees had the greatest punch
baseball ever knew. We never even worried five or six runs behind...Wham! Wham! Wham!
Wham! and Wham! No matter who was pitching."
Mark Koenig: "Just putting on a Yankee uniform gave me a little confidence, I think. That club
could carry you. You were better than you actually were. If I'd have been with a tail end club the
year I came up, I don't think I would have been around for 1927."
Waite Hoyt: "You must understand that Huggins developed as a manager in the same way that
ball players develop as ball players. He handled every player differently, and by 1927 one of the
things that inadvertently meshed was the personalities of the fellows playing on that club. We all
got along. We had inordinate pride in ourselves as a unit...
"The '27 Yankees were an exceptional team because they met every demand. There wasn't any
requirement that was necessary at any particular moment that we weren't up to...
"It was a team that didn't often beat itself. Most baseball is a play on errors. In other words, the
pitcher looks for the deficiency in a batter. And he works on that, he tries to capitalize on the
weakness of his opponent. So many times you beat yourself. Once in a while, you take a
whalloping, the 1927 Yankees probably beat themselves less than any ball club that ever lived.
"When we were challenged, when we had to win, we stuck together and played with a fury and
determination that could only come from team spirit. We had a pride in our performance that was
very real. It took on the form of snobbery. We felt we were superior people, and I do believe we
left a heritage that became a Yankee tradition"
Mark Koenig: "I'll tell you, I never had a better manager than Miller Huggins. And I never got
along better with any team than I did with the Yankees. They all pulled together. A wonderful
team."
Email:
jeffrey.linkowski@verizon.net
