Top 25 MLB batting seasons of all time

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NEW YORK – 1927. The American League Champion New York Yankees Baseball Club appears in Yankee Stadium in an official team photograph for the season of 1927. Hall of Fame players on the team include Waite Hoyt, top row, fifth from right, Miller Huggins. middle row sixth from right, Herb Pennock, top row, second from left, Lou Gehrig, top row, far left, Tony Lazzeri, top row, third from left, Earle Combs, top row, third from left, and Babe Ruth, top row, fifth from left. (Photo by Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images) /

17. Murder’s Row, 1927

One spot on this list is given to an entire team, the Murderer’s Row 1927 New York Yankees, who put on an offensive display for the ages while running roughshod over the American League. This was the year that Babe Ruth hit his record 60 home runs, but he had plenty of help from his teammates.

As a team, the Yankees batted .307/.384/.488. Discounting their pitchers, since this was still pre-DH, the team slugged over .500. The Yankees scored 975 runs on the year and only had eight losing streaks on their way to winning 110 games and outscoring their opponents by a record 376 runs. Put in different terms, the Yankees average margin of victory was nearly 2.5 runs, and they won 43 games by five runs or more.

Ruth and Lou Gehrig were the biggest stars on this team. Gehrig drove in 173 runs and batted .373 in one of the greatest individual seasons in MLB history. Earle Combs matched Ruth’s .356 batting average and had 36 doubles with 23 triples. Bob Meusel hit .337 with 47 doubles and had 24 steals. Tony Lazzeri also batted above .300 and drove in over 100 runs. The poor Pittsburgh Pirates never stood a chance in the World Series as the Yankees steamrolled them in four games, scoring 23 runs against Pittsburgh’s ten.

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