1927 New York Yankees, 110-44, .714
.700 club rank: 6
Any time the all-time great teams are considered, the 1927 Yanks are sure to be in the mix … and with good reason.
This is the ballclub that featured both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in their absolute primes.
Ruth batted .356 with 60 home runs and 165 RBI that year, yet lost the Most Valuable Player vote to Gehrig, who hit. 373 with 47 home runs and 173 RBI.
The Yanks averaged 6.3 runs per game, while the pitching staff allowed just 3.9. In that fall’s World Series, the Yankees supposedly intimidated the NL champion Pittsburgh Pirates with their display of might during pregame batting practice.
That may or may not be true, but this is: New York outscored Pittsburgh 23-10 in that World Series, and outhit the Pirates .279-.223.
Winning their first six decisions, the Yankees never spent as much as a day out of first place, and won the AL pennant by 19 games. Like the 1939 Yanks, they could pile up big numbers. The 1927 team managed double-figure run production 26 times, and were shut out only once. That was by Lefty Grove, 1-0, on September 3.
Waite Hoyt, 22-7, led a staff of six double-digit winners. Four Yankees – Ruth, Gehrig, left fielder Bob Meusel, and second baseman Tony Lazzeri – drove in at least 100 runs.
The team batting average was an intimidating .307.