Inside the 1927 New York Yankees: Murderer's Row

The current New York Yankees' lineup is so potent that it is being compared to that of the 1927 team, known as Murderer's Row. But fans and experts alike need to stop and think before they make such statements, because there has never been the like of Murderer's Row since that 1927 squad tore through the American League and the World Series. With four future Hall of Famers in the midst of their batting order, Murderer's Row outscored, outhit, outhomered, and outran their opponents by ridiculously wide margins. How good were the Murderer's Row Yankees? The Philadelphia Athletics won a highly respectable 91 games in 1927, but still finished almost twenty games behind Murderer's Row!


The '27 Yankees scored a total of 975 runs in 155 games with a team batting average of .307 and slugging average of .489. They led the league in base hits, triples, homers, walks, strikeouts, and runs. Murderer's Row hit 102 more home runs than the team with the second most, the A's. Four men from Murderer's Row hit better than .337, with Lou Gehrig at .373, Babe Ruth and Earle Combs at .356, and Bob Meusel at .337. Tony Lazzeri hit .307, but was one of four players from Murderer's Row with 100 plus runs batted in. Gehrig had an astounding 175 RBI, Ruth had 164, Meusel 103, and Lazzeri 102.

Ruth scored 158 runs, Gehrig tallied 149, and Combs crossed the plate 137 separate times. Shortstop Mark Koenig almost joined them at the century mark with 99 and Lazzeri had 92 to give Murderer's Row five players with 90 or more runs scored. The swift Combs belted 23 triples to lead the league, while Gehrig smashed 18 and Koenig cranked out 11. Murderer's Row did not play for one run at a time. They clobbered doubles and triples and home runs at an alarming rate and also stole 90 bases with Meusel second in the American League with 24.