Once you see the names, you understand the results. Here was Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Tony Lazzeri and Herb Pennock. And there is why from 1921-28, the Yankees won six championships in eight seasons.
It sounds hard to believe given their history, but in their first 18 years, the Yankees had never finished a season in first place. That all changed in 1921, when they went 98-55 under Miller Huggins, taking the AL by 4½ games over Cleveland. They dropped the World Series to John McGraw’s Giants, but the point had been made. This was a new Yankee team, one that wouldn’t be tasting failure quite as much anymore.
They lost the Series again to the Giants in 1922, but the next season, the Yankees won the first of their 26 titles, a 4-2 triumph over the Giants. They’d take the title again twice more under Huggins, romping in 1927 and 1928 with sweeps over the Pirates and Cardinals, respectively.
It was the 1927 outfit, in particular, that was almost unfair in its dominance. The Yanks won the AL by 19 games with a 110-44 record (that’s .714 baseball), thanks to Ruth’s 60 home runs (more than every other AL team), Gehrig’s unheralded 47 homers (more than four AL teams) and four pitchers who won 18 or more games (Waite Hoyt, Urban Shocker, Pennock and Wilcy Moore). It was the pinnacle of a dynasty and the crowning moment of an era that changed the franchise.
1927
THE REGULARS
POS. … PLAYER … AVG. … HR … RBI
1B … Lou Gehrig … .373 … 47 … 175
2B … Tony Lazzeri … .309 … 18 … 102
SS … Mark Koenig … .285 … 3 … 62
3B … Joe Dugan … .269 … 2 … 43
C … Pat Collins … .275 … 7 … 36
OF … Earle Combs … .356 … 6 … 64
OF … Babe Ruth … .356 … 60 … 164
OF … Bob Meusel … .337 … 8 … 103
TOP STARTERS
PITCHER … W-L … ERA
Waite Hoyt … 22-7 2.63
Herb Pennock … 19-8 … 3.00
Urban Shocker … 18-6 … 2.84
Dutch Ruether … 13-6 … 3.38
George Pipgras … 10-3 … 4.11
TOP RELIEVERS
PITCHER … W-L … ERA … SV
Wilcy Moore … 19-7 … 2.28 … 13
Bob Shawkey … 2-3 … 2.89 … 4
Myles Thomas … 7-4 … 4.87 … 0
AL STATISTICAL RANKINGS
CATEGORY … NO. … RANK
RUNS … 975 … 1st
HITS … 1,644 … 1st
HR … 158 … 1st
RBI … 908 … 1st
AVG. … .307 … 1st
OBP … .381 … 1st
ERA … 3.20 … 1st
WINS … 110 … 1st
LOSSES … 44 … 1st
SAVES … 20 … 3rd
STRIKEOUTS … 431 … 3rd
AL STANDINGS
TEAM … W … L … PCT. … GB
Yankees … 110 … 44 … .714 …
Philadelphia … 91 … 63 … .591 … 19
Washington … 85 … 69 … .552 … 25
Detroit … 82 … 71 … .536 … 27½
Chicago … 70 … 83 … .458 … 39½
Cleveland … 66 … 87 … .431 … 43½
St. Louis … 59 … 94 … .386 … 50½
Boston … 51 … 103 … .331 … 59
