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1927 Yankees Roster Was an Embarrassment of Riches

Babe Ruth and the rest of the 1927 Yankees' Murderers' Row

The 1927 Yankees roster wasn’t nicknamed Murderers’ Row recklessly.

Decades before power was a well-embraced part of the game of baseball, the Yankees innovated in the department, surrounding Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig with a requisite cadre of mashers (as well as a few Hall of Famers in the rotation, too).

Though the name has come to describe the entire outfit, the first six hitters were the true “murderers” — Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Ruth, Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. Combs and Lazzeri would eventually join their three-four combo in Cooperstown; Combs was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970, and Lazzeri joined him posthumously in 1991.