1927 Yankees won 110 of 154 games 71.4%. Plate Appearances: Babe Ruth 691, catchers 626. Who wanted to see those catchers bat?

The 1927 Yankees is one of the greatest teams of all time. They played 99 years ago.

Babe Ruth set the season Home Run record for the fourth and final time with 60.

Lou Gehrig hit 47 HR, second most through 1927 only to Ruth:

For single seasons, up to 1927, Playing in the AL or NL, in the regular season, requiring Home Runs >= 40 and Adjusted OPS+ >= 0, sorted by descending Home Runs.

https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/erekS

Rk	Player	HR	OPS+	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB
1	Babe Ruth	60	225	1927	32	NYY	AL	151	691	165	137	89	.356	.486	.772	1.258	225	417
2	Babe Ruth	59	239	1921	26	NYY	AL	152	693	168	145	81	.378	.512	.846	1.359	239	457
3	Babe Ruth	54	255	1920	25	NYY	AL	142	617	135	150	80	.376	.532	.847	1.379	255	388
4	Lou Gehrig	47	220	1927	24	NYY	AL	155	717	173	109	84	.373	.474	.765	1.240	220	447
5	Babe Ruth	47	226	1926	31	NYY	AL	152	652	153	144	76	.372	.516	.737	1.253	226	365
6	Babe Ruth	46	220	1924	29	NYY	AL	153	681	124	142	81	.378	.513	.739	1.252	220	391
7	Rogers Hornsby	42	207	1922	26	STL	NL	154	704	152	65	50	.401	.459	.722	1.181	207	450
8	Babe Ruth	41	239	1923	28	NYY	AL	152	699	130	170	93	.393	.545	.764	1.309	239	399
9	Cy Williams	41	136	1923	35	PHI	NL	136	604	114	59	57	.293	.371	.576	.947	136	308

Provided by Stathead: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 5/24/2026.

Ruth led the league in Walks (Bases on Balls: BB) in all six years he is on that list, including the ridiculous 170 BB in 1923. MLB should have changed the walk rule before the next season but it was not even considered. It still hasn't been.

For single seasons, since 1903, Playing in the AL or NL, in the regular season, requiring Bases on Balls >= 150, sorted by descending Bases on Balls.

https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/jDfpQ

Rk	Player	BB	HR	OPS+	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	AB
1	Barry Bonds	232	45	263	2004	39	SFG	NL	147	617	373
2	Barry Bonds	198	46	268	2002	37	SFG	NL	143	612	403
3	Barry Bonds	177	73	259	2001	36	SFG	NL	153	664	476
4	Babe Ruth	170	41	239	1923	28	NYY	AL	152	699	522
5	Mark McGwire	162	70	216	1998	34	STL	NL	155	681	509
6	Ted Williams	162	32	205	1947	28	BOS	AL	156	693	528
7	Ted Williams	162	43	191	1949	30	BOS	AL	155	730	566
8	Ted Williams	156	38	215	1946	27	BOS	AL	150	672	514
9	Barry Bonds	151	42	188	1996	31	SFG	NL	158	675	517
10	Eddie Yost	151	11	104	1956	29	WSH	AL	152	684	515
11	Babe Ruth	150	54	255	1920	25	NYY	AL	142	617	458

Provided by Stathead: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 5/24/2026.

Notice Bonds and McGwire in years when they broke the HR record with at least 70.

MLB needs to have the better hitters hit much more than the weak hitters AND not simply be walked or Hit By Pitch (HBP).

Yankee batters Judge and Caballero: top v. bottom of the order.  Friday, May 1, 2026

• Eliminate the bottom of the order: 3 Designated Fielders. All batters also field but 3 fielders do not bat.  Saturday, April 18, 2026
• Fix walk rule: option to pinch run and batter gets new Plate Appearance.  Monday, August 12, 2024

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On the 1927 Yankees there were three catchers who only played that position and only batted 8th in the lineup. The pitchers batted 9th.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1927-batting-orders.shtml

The catchers Games Started (GS) add up to the Yankee games played (110-44-1): 74+56+25=155. In some games, more than one of them caught.

Player	Age	B	T	G	GS	P	C ▼	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF	OF	DH	PH
Pat Collins	30	R	R	92	74	0	89	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Johnny Grabowski	27	R	R	70	56	0	68	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Benny Bengough	28	R	R	31	25	0	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Plate Appearances (PA) totaled 626. PA and OPS+

Collins 313    116

Grabowski 223    78

Bengough 90    65

Since Collins had exactly half their PA, I think that the OPS+ for all three catchers nets out to 100, league average hitting.

Babe Ruth PA and OPS+: 691    225

The catchers had 90.5% as many PA as Ruth. Do you think fans in 1927 wanted to see them nearly as much as they wanted to see Ruth? And that's not even factoring in walks. Ruth had a league leading 137. 

In addition to the pitchers, the 1927 Yankees had two starting players with OPS+ below 100:

SS Koenig: 568 PA, OPS+ 83

3B Dugan: 429PA, OPS+ 78

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1927-batting-orders.shtml

Koenig batted #2 in 115 of his 123 games.

Dugan batted #7 in 109 of his 112 games.

Here are the number of games started for batting order position #7 and their OPS+:

Dugan-109    78

Gazella-31    115

Morehart-8    79

Wera-7    70

Note: In 1927 Ruth batted only #3 and Gehrig batted only #4, which is why the Yankees assigned those numbers to them when the team introduced numbers in 1929. They were associated with those places in the batting order despite some changes in 1928 due to Gehrig's slump.

In 1927 or 2026 who the heck wants to see batters 7, 8, 9?

MLB could improve enormously if it implemented my recommendations about the batting order. Plus, ...

If starting extra innings with a runner on second is OK, why aren't other changes ... like start each inning with top of the order?  Sunday, May 10, 2026

Make the damn Strike Zone smaller: ball must be COMPLETELY inside the imaginary box.  Wednesday, May 20, 2026