On this day in New York · September 30, 1927
Babe Ruth Hits Sixty
One swing off a journeyman Washington lefty gave the Yankees a number that would take 34 years, and a teammate's understudy, to beat.
The facts
- Date
- September 30, 1927
- Opponent
- Washington Senators, pitcher Tom Zachary
- Final score
- Yankees 4, Senators 2
- Record stood
- 34 years, until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961
On September 30, 1927, in the next-to-last game of the season, Babe Ruth came up in the bottom of the eighth inning against Washington Senators left-hander Tom Zachary with the score tied 2-2. He drove the pitch into the right-field stands at Yankee Stadium for his 60th home run of the year, a two-run shot that won the game 4-2 and set a single-season record no one had come close to before. A Bronx truck driver named Joe Forner retrieved the ball from the bleachers and carried it down to the Yankees clubhouse, where Ruth signed it on the spot. The mark stood for 34 years, until Roger Maris broke it wearing the same pinstripes in 1961.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Sixty! Let's see some son of a bitch try to top that one
Babe Ruth, after the game, September 30, 1927
Source: Wikipedia -
This is the place that the baseballs should be, where they will be safe and for so many to see.
Ken Smith, Baseball Hall of Fame director, replying in 1964 about donating the home run ball
Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Why it still matters
Sixty became the number every slugger in the game got measured against for a generation, and the ball itself still sits in Cooperstown because a truck driver from the Bronx did the honest thing and brought it back.
Sources
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