It took 126 games.
The 1927 Yanks are indeed all they are cracked up to be. They travelled forward throught time and visted 1953 Brooklyn. And in a 154 game match-up, the Murderers' Row boys proved murderous and merciless. The Brooklyn Dodgers fought hard and acquitted themselves nobly.
Game number 126, a hard fought contest in the Bronx, saw each of Brooklyn's Big Four come through... each with an rbi, trying to stave off defeat and elimination.
But they did neither. The Yankees of 1927 are simply too much. Babe Ruth did not homer in this contest. He did not hit or score. But his understudy, Ben Paschal drove one out instead. And six other Yankees had at least one run driven in as their attack sealed the season with a 9-4 victory.
130 games:
1927 Yanks 80-50
1953 Bklyn 50-80
Ruth 93hr 196rbi
Gehrig 69hr 160
Meusel 10hr 84
Lazzeri 31hr 95rbi
Pipgras 18-1
Shocker 15-7
Thomas 10-3
Robinson 7hr 102rbi
Snider 9hr 113rbi
Campanella 25hr 114rbi
Hodges 10hr 85rbi
Erskine 9-9
Loes 11-11
Labine 7-6
This is how the season has gone thus far:
After 4 games: Bklyn 4-0
After 30 games: NY 16-14
After 70 games: NY 39-31
After 100 games: NY 61-39
After 130 games: NY 80-50
As you can see, the Dodgers started off great. They won the first four at Ebbets Field. The fourth game was a sign of things to come... Bklyn prevailing in a 16-13 slugfest. The Yanks got homers from the Babe (2), Lou, Lazzeri and Dugan, but it wasn't enough.
After the Yanks finally won one, the teams shifted to Yankee stadium... the boy's played five game series in each park, alternating... and the Dodgers won the Yankee home opener as well, 8-7. As amother sign of things to come, Clem Labine, the Dodger reliever, picked up his his fourth victory! He was 4-0 after six games!
I remember thinking myself, "This could get very interesting." But then the 1-5 Yanks ripped off 8 straight. Then the Dodgers answered with another four straight. And I settled into my chair. Two heavyweights were going to slug it out. No backpedaling. No dancing. Just toe-to-toe, center of the ring brawling.
This was going to be real good, and real bloody.
After only 30 games the Yankees had scored ten or more three separate times... and lost all three. They'd also scored eleven or more four other times... and won all four.
It was games 41-50 where New Yourk first began to assert their dominance, winning 9 0f ten. But then, once again, Brooklyn bounced back taking 8 0f ten themselves. It was about this time that I decided to sit down the Babe, Meusel, and Dugan, and give some of the scrubs a chance to play. Babe had 45 0r 46 homers in the first 45 games, and was making a mockery of things. But with the scrubs in place, the Bronx steamroller kept right on going.
Game 61 proved to be the apex of the Yankee season... a 23-1 thrashing of the Dodgers at the Stadium. Ruth was still riding the pines. But his sub, Ben Paschal in RF, was himself in the middle of an incredible run. He drove in three, Earle Combs knocked in five, Mike Gazella plated three more (playing for Jumpin Joe Dugan at third), and Cedric Durst added another ribbie (in LF for Meusel). George Pipgras, the Yankees' fifth starter, improved to 8-0.
That HAD to shake the Brooks at least a litlle, getting knocked around by scrubs like that. But there was no dog in these Dodgers. They hung in there until game 70, when the Yanks first stringers all returned after a 25 game rest.
And that proved to be it.
The Bombers have gone 41-19 since then to put the thing away.
I will study the stats more intensely at the season's end. I know it lookks way out of whack for the Babe and Lou. I am also wondering why the Dodgers home run totals are low. But except for the Babe and Lou, everybody else's run production pretty much is in line with their actual seasons. I may go back and tabulate Carl Furillo's numbers. As I have already said, he might be the best seventh-place hitter in baseball history. And I will look at Gilliam's stolen bases... he seems to have swiped a lot. Speaking of stolen bases, here's an anomaly: Jackie has none. Zip. Bagels! (Damn, I'd love bagels right now!). I have no explanation. I though he'd go wild, since none of the three Yankee receivers had the defensive reputation of a Johnny Bench. I would blame it on the big scoring, but Pee Wee Reese and Gilliam are running. For that matter, so is Tony Lazzeri... he must have 20 or 30. But no Jackie. Jackie is batting third, right in front of the Duke. And since they are both having fine years, maybe Jackie is just content to rattle the pitchers and let Snider get his hacks in.
But as far as Babe and Lou, maybe that guy that wrote that book. "The Year Babe Ruth hit 104 Home Runs" was right. THe parks in Ruths times wer mostly much, much bigger. I have diagrammed a couple... even Yankee Stadium was 429 to deep RIGHT-center. That had to be tough on Ruth and Gehrig. Ruth played in the Polo Grounds from 1920-22. In either stadium, if you didn't pull it right down the line, it wasn't going out. Most parks were simply bigger in those days, including Ebbets, as the Babe pointed out.
So perhaps we are finding out what Ruth and Lou can do with modern day power alleys. Maybe I'll pit these guys against the modern day Reds. Unfortunately, the computer simulation game does not give you Yankee Stadium in the twenties, with the 429 deep right center, the 495 center, and the 460-470 left center. Heck, it was 415 straight-away left to the bull-pen! But it does give you the classic YS of 1947-73, with 461 to dead center... so teams still have to muscle up when they come to visit.
We'll see how the season goes. I'll probably give Babe a shot at 100 homers and 200 ribbies, then sit him down. I'll probaby give Lou a crack at 200 ribbies too. I want to put Paschal back in. He's good! And I want to see how far fifth-starter George Pipgras can take his season. If he has a shot at 30 wins, I might go to a four-man rotation to give him his chance... 18-1!
See you at the end!
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