By Mike Whiteman
December 9, 2023
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We know that the Yankees have had some great seasons through their franchise history. In 1927 they won 110 games. They had 109 wins in 1961, and 114 in their memorable 1998 season.
But what was the Yanks’ best year?
On May 30th, 1927, the Yankees won the second game of a doubleheader over the Philadelphia Athletics. They were already off to a good start, and the victory gave the team a 26-14 record, good for first place in the American League. This game, while just one of many in the course of a long regular season, set off something significant.
Through a 162-game stretch that started that day and ended with a win over the Cleveland Indians on June 9th, 1928, the Yanks won 124 games. Keep in mind that the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners hold the record for wins in a season with 116. The only team with a better "year" was the 1906-1907 Cubs of Tinker to Evers to Chance, who were 126-36. Now, this stretch of baseball probably doesn’t surprise a lot of Yankee fans, knowing that the 1927 team is considered one of the greatest in the history of the sport, and the 1928 version won 101 games and another World Series championship. During this time the Yankees won at a .765 clip! Within that year, the Yanks’ best run was a 67-16 mark from August 24th 1927 through June 9th 1928. That's .807 baseball over the equivalent of half a season.
Here are some stats over the remarkable year: Babe Ruth - .354 batting average, 67 home runs, 185 RBI Lou Gehrig - .358, 49, 165 Tony Lazzeri - .332, 20, 111 Earle Combs - .352, 10, 77 Bob Meusel - .322, 9, 102 Waite Hoyt - 23-6 won/loss, 3.31 ERA Herb Pennock - 23-8, 2.75 George Pipgras - 20-4, 3.24
Credit to the best website ever, baseball-reference.com, for the tools to help me put together this article.
