But this Game 4 concludes in an unusual fashion: In the bottom of the 9th, with the score tied, Pirate pitcher Johnny Miljus loads the bases with no out. He begins to work out of it, striking out Lou Gehrig swinging and Bob Meusel looking. Facing Tony Lazzeri with 2 outs and an 0-and-1 count, Miljus uncorks a wild pitch, and Earle Combs races home with the winning run, to give the Bronx Bombers the sweep and their 2nd World Championship.
This is the only time the winning run of a World Series has scored on a wild pitch. Flip the last 2 digits, and in 1972 the Pirates became the 1st (and still only) team to lose a League Championship Series on a wild pitch, by Bob Moose against the Cincinnati Reds.
The team was known as "Murderer's Row" as early as 1926, when they won the 1st of 3 straight Pennants, but lost the World Series before winning it in 1927 and 1928. Right fielder Babe Ruth was the greatest player in the history of the game. Gehrig was the greatest 1st baseman ever. 2nd baseman Lazzeri, center fielder Combs, and pitchers Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock joined Ruth and Gehrig in the Baseball Hall of Fame, as did manager Miller Huggins, general manager Ed Barrow, and owner Jacob Ruppert. Left fielder Meusel was a heavy hitter, and shortstop Mark Koenig and 3rd baseman Joe Dugan were decent players.
Dugan was circumspect about his role on the team: "It's always the same: Combs walks. Koenig singles. Ruth hits one out of the park. Gehrig doubles. Meusel singles. Lazzeri triples. Then Dugan goes in the dirt on his can." In other words, pitchers were tired of pitching to these guys, so they threw Dugan a brushback pitch.
Oddly, the team was the weakest at the most important position: They never settled on a starting catcher, with Pat Collins playing 92 games, Mike Gazella 54, and Benny Bengough 31.
Koenig was the last living member of the Yankees' 1927 and 1928 World Champions, living until 1993.
On a 1998 episode of the ABC sitcom Sports Night, Casey McCall, the anchor of the eponymous show-within-the-show (played by Peter Krause), was asked to compare the Yankee team that had just gone 125-50 and swept the World Series with the 1927 edition. He remarked that the 1998 Yankees would win, because the 1927 Yankees would have been too confused by the airplanes flying overhead to focus on beating the 1998 version. Series creator and writer Aaron Sorkin must have forgotten that there were airplanes in 1927. Or maybe he thought the '98 Yanks played home games at Shea Stadium.
UPDATE: Among the Yankees' many traditions is Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. From the 1920s Dynasty, they have honored manager Miller Huggins, right fielder George "Babe" Ruth, and 1st baseman Lou Gehrig with Monuments. Huggins never wore a number, but the team retired Number 3 for Ruth a 4 for Gehrig, although they didn't start wearing the numbers until the 1929 season. They have also honored team owner Jacob Ruppert and general manager Ed Barrow with Plaques.
Despite having been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, pitchers Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock have never been honored in Monument Park.
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October 8, 1927 was a Saturday. There were no other baseball games. The NHL season wouldn't start for another month. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There was an NFL game played, but it wasn't worth watching: The Frankford Yellow Jackets and the Dayton Triangles played to a 0-0 tie at Frankford Stadium in Northeast Philadelphia.
However, there were college football games, including these:
* Illinois beat Butler, 58-0 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. The Illini went on to win the Big Ten Conference title, and were retroactively awarded the National Championship.
* The University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia, eventually their arch-rivals, 40-0 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* Notre Dame beat the University of Detroit, 20-0 at Titan Stadium in Detroit. Now known as the University of Detroit Mercy, the Catholic school dropped their football program after the 1964 season. In their 1st season with the "Fighting Irish" name being official -- they had previously been the "Ramblers" -- Notre Dame went 7-2-1.
* Mississippi College, the team that went on to win the Southeastern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, forerunner of the Southeastern Conference were idle. Not to be confused with "Ole Miss" or Mississippi State, Mississippi College now play in NCAA Division II.
* Missouri beat Nebraska, 7-6 at Memorial Stadium (now Faurot Field) in Columbia, Missouri. The Tigers went on to win the Missouri Valley Conference, a precursor to the Big 8/Big 12.
* Texas A&M beat Sewanee, 18-0 at Fair Park Stadium in Dallas. The Aggies went on to win the Southwest Conference title, finishing undefeated at 8-0-1.
* Stanford beat Nevada, 20-2 at the old, but then-new, Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California. Stanford, then known as the Indians but later as the Cardinal, won the Pacific Coast Conference title, and beat Pittsburgh in the Rose Bowl.
* Army beat Marquette, 21-12 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.
* Navy beat Drake University, 27-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
* Among New York City teams, Columbia beat Wesleyan University, 28-0 at Baker Field in Manhattan. New York University beat Alfred College, 65-0 at Ohio Field in The Bronx. City College of New York and St. Lawrence University played to a tie, 14-14 at Weeks Field in Canton, New York. Fordham were idle. Columbia and Fordham now compete in NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA); while NYU, Wesleyan and St. Lawrence compete in NCAA Division III; and CCNY no longer play football.
* Among New Jersey teams, Rutgers lost to Lafayette, 56-0 at Fisher Field in Easton, Pennsylvania. And Princeton beat Lehigh, 42-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. Rutgers and Princeton used to be arch-rivals, while Lafayette and Lehigh still are. Princeton, Lafayette and Lehigh now compete in NCAA Division I FCS.
And in English soccer, North London's Arsenal beat Portsmouth, 3-2 at Fratton Park in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
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