Murderers' Row

This article is about the baseball team. For the 1962 novel, see Murderers' Row (novel). For the 1966 motion picture based on the novel, see Murderers' Row (film). For the group of boxers, see Murderers' Row (boxing).

Murderers’ Row were the baseball teams of the New York Yankees in the late 1920s, widely considered one of the best teams in history. The nickname is in particular describing the first six hitters in the 1927 team lineup: Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri.

Original "Murderers' Row"

The term was originally coined in 1918 by a sportswriter to describe the pre-Babe Ruth Yankee lineup of 1918. A 1918 newspaper article described it: "New York fans have come to know a section of the Yankees' batting order as 'murderers' row.' It is composed of the first six players in the batting order—Gilhooley, Peckinpaugh, Baker, Pratt, Pipp, and Bodie. This sextet has been hammering the offerings of all comers."[1]

1927 Yankees

The term was initially associated with the beginning of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Yankee teams in the mid-1920s, and is commonly recognized to refer specifically to the core of the 1927 Yankee hitting lineup.

Owner Jacob Ruppert is the man most often credited with building the team, although general manager Ed Barrow may have had as much to do with it. In a game of a July series against the Washington Senators, the Yankees beat their opponents 21–1, and prompted Senators' first baseman Joe Judge to say, "Those fellows not only beat you but they tear your heart out. I wish the season was over."[2]

Season results

The 1927 season was particularly spectacular by baseball standards for the Yankees. After losing in the 1926 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, they went 110–44 the next year, winning the A.L. pennant by 19 games and sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1927 World Series. Only four teams have won more regular season games: the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners with 116, the 1998 Yankees with 114 and the 1954 Cleveland Indians with 111. However, the 1998 Yankees and 2001 Mariners played in 162-game schedules. Both the Cubs and the Indians lost in the World Series, while the Mariners lost to the Yankees in the 2001 ALCS. The 1998 Yankees went 11–2 in the playoffs, sweeping the San Diego Padres in the World Series.

The 1927 Yankees batted .307, slugged .489, scored 975 runs, and outscored their opponents by a record 376 runs. Center fielder Earle Combs had a career best year, batting .356 with 231 hits, left fielder Bob Meusel batted .337 with 103 RBIs, and second baseman Tony Lazzeri drove in 102 runs. Gehrig batted .373, with 218 hits, 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs, a then record 175 RBIs, slugged at .765, and was voted A.L. MVP. Ruth amassed a .356 batting average, 164 RBIs, 158 runs scored, walked 137 times, and slugged .772. Most notably, his 60 home runs that year broke his own record and remained the Major League mark for 34 years until Roger Maris broke it by one with 61; however, just like the 1998 Yankees and 2001 Mariners, this was done in a 162-game schedule, a fact that Commissioner Ford Frick wanted noted when the single-season home run record was to be referenced.[3] The pitching staff led the league in ERA at 3.20, and included Waite Hoyt, who went 22–7, which tied for the league lead, and Herb Pennock, who went 19–8. Wilcy Moore won 16 as a reliever. The 1927 Yankees would eventually send six players along with manager Miller Huggins and president Ed Barrow to the Baseball Hall of Fame; only the 1928 Yankees had more with nine players along with Huggins and Barrow. Three other Yankee pitchers had ERAs under 3.00 that season. After sweeping the Pirates in the Series, the Yankees repeated the feat by sweeping the Cardinals in the 1928 World Series. The Yankees remain the only team to ever sweep the World Series in consecutive years; the Yankee teams of 1938–1939 and 1998–1999 repeated the feat.

Roster

Key
dagger Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
# Position in the lineup
AB At-bats
H Hits
BA Batting average
OBP On-base percentage
SLG Slugging percentage
HR Home runs
RBI Runs batted in
Starting lineup
# Player Position Games AB H BA OBP SLG HR RBI
1 Combs, EarleEarle Combsdagger CF 152 648 231 .356 .414 .511 6 64
2 Koenig, MarkMark Koenig SS 123 526 150 .285 .320 .382 3 62
3 Ruth, BabeBabe Ruthdagger RF 151 540 192 .356 .486 .772 60 164
4 Gehrig, LouLou Gehrigdagger 1B 155 584 218 .373 .474 .765 47 175
5 Meusel, BobBob Meusel LF 135 516 174 .337 .393 .510 8 103
6 Lazzeri, TonyTony Lazzeridagger 2B 153 570 176 .309 .383 .482 18 102
7 Dugan, JoeJoe Dugan 3B 112 387 104 .269 .321 .362 2 43
8 Collins, PatPat Collins C 92 251 69 .275 .407 .418 7 36
Bench players
Player Position Games AB Hits BA HR RBI
Bengough, BennyBenny Bengough C318521.247010
Grabowski, JohnnyJohnny Grabowski C7019554.277025
Gazella, MikeMike Gazella IF5411532.27809
Morehart, RayRay Morehart IF7319550.256120
Wera, JulieJulie Wera IF384210.23818
Durst, CedricCedric Durst OF6512932.248025
Paschal, BenBen Paschal OF508226.317216
Pitchers
Player Role G IP W L ERA SO
Hoyt, WaiteWaite Hoytdagger SP36 256 1⁄32272.6386
Pennock, HerbHerb Pennockdagger SP34 209 2⁄31983.0051
Pipgras, GeorgeGeorge Pipgras SP29 166 1⁄31034.1181
Ruether, DutchDutch Ruether SP271841363.3845
Shocker, UrbanUrban Shocker SP312001862.8435
Thomas, MylesMyles Thomas RP21 88 2⁄3744.8725
Shawkey, BobBob Shawkey RP19 43 2⁄3342.8923
Giard, JoeJoe Giard RP1627008.0010
Beall, WalterWalter Beall RP11009.000
Moore, WilcyWilcy Moore RP502131972.2875

Legacy

The term "Murderers' Row" is commonly used as a descriptor for teams with formidable talent.[4][5]

During the 2006 ALDS, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland referred to the 2006 Yankees as "Murderers' Row and Cano" since the entire lineup consisted of players such as Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada and new second baseman Robinson Canó all of whom would have multiple All-Star game appearances over their careers. Despite Leyland's nomenclature, the team did not have the success of the original 1927 team as they were defeated by the Tigers in that series.

In 2016, ESPN announced 1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas, part a new genre of storytelling known as "real-time historical fiction."[6] The core of the project is a historical novel in the form of a diary of Myles Thomas, written by Douglas Alden, complemented by a wealth of fact-based content from the season, all published along the same timeline as the events unfolded almost 90 years ago. Through Myles Thomas’s diary entries, additional essays and real-time social-media components (including Twitter[7]) “re-living” that famous Yankees season, the goal is to explore the rarefied nexus of baseball, jazz and Prohibition — defining elements of the remarkable world that existed in 1927. The diary runs the length of the full 1927 season, from April 13 through October 10, 1927.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Big Apple: Murderers' Row. Barry Popik. Accessed October 29, 2007.
  2. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=awtbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LU4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1186,85065
  3. ↑ http://www.salon.com/2001/10/03/asterisk
  4. ↑ Archived December 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Murray ChassPublished: October 26, 1999 (1999-10-26). "ON BASEBALL; Yanks' Starters Are Murderers' Row of the 90's". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  6. ↑ 1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas
  7. ↑ 1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas on Twitter
  8. ↑ About the Diary of Myles Thomas
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