When one thinks of the 1927 Yankees, the mind automatically goes to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig – and with good reason. Ruth hit is record-setting 60 home runs that year, complimenting his .356 batting average. Lou pounded out 47 homers and batted a majestic .373 to win the AL MVP Award. Paramount to the team’s success that season were two Californians, each in their second full season with the club: Tony Lazzeri and Mark Koenig. Lazzeri had set the organized baseball home run record in 1925 when he hit 60 home runs for Salt Lake City. By 1927 he was the Yankees starting second baseman and well on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

The other Californian was shortstop Mark Koenig. A singles hitter, Koenig batted in the second slot in front of Ruth and Gehrig, and when one of those two hit a homer, more often than not Koenig scored as well. Koenig would later be traded to the Cubs where he was the catalyst behind the most famous event in baseball history – Babe Ruth’s Called Shot in the 1932 World Series. The thing set the ’27 Yanks apart from the crowd was Miller Huggins’ bullpen. Back in 1927 it was common for a pitcher to throw all nine innings of a game, and the bullpen was often a place where the untried rookies or over the hill starters resided, only called upon to mop up games or come in when a starter hurt himself. But in 1927, Huggins’ bullpen included a trio of very talented arms: Bob Shawkey, Wilcy Moore and Myles Thomas. Shawkey had been the Yankees’ ace starter since 1915 where he led the New Yorkers to four pennants and a World Championship and held the club record for strikeouts in a game. By 1927 he was 36 years-old and Huggins began using his arm for late inning emergencies and his wisdom to mentor the young pitchers. Wilcy Moore was a rookie from Texas who Huggins used as a spot-starter and long relief man who not only contributed 19 wins in 1927, but also pitched a complete game in Game 4 of the Word Series, winning the game and World Series. Myles Thomas was a rarity for the time, a college-educated man who chose baseball over a more serious career. Babe Ruth called him “Duck Eye” and his arm gave the Yankees 7 wins that summer. It was a fictionalized version of Thomas that ESPN used to tell the story of the ’27 Yankees in the season-long serialized “1927: The Diary of Myles Thomas” in 2017.  

This Reach Official American League Ball features those seven members of the most famous sports team in history: Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri plus shortstop Mark Koenig and relief pitchers Bob Shawkey, Wilcy Moore and Myles Thomas. The players have signed in black fountain pen with Ruth and Gehrig ideally appearing together on a side panel. The ball shows scuffing and toning to the surface and it appears that a coat of shellac has been applied, with some loss to the coating in places. The ball comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (P01011) for the signatures.

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