What a day it was on August 22, 1927 — Babe Ruth, the Yankees' larger-than-life slugger, launched his 40th home run of the season, adding yet another chapter to a career that would forever define baseball greatness.
Babe Ruth came into the world in 1895 and broke into major-league baseball in 1914 as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. Despite his youth, he wasted no time building a reputation as a standout on the mound who could also hold his own at the plate. Then, in a move that sparked widespread controversy, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold him to the New York Yankees in 1919 — a decision that would set the stage for Ruth's transformation into one of the sport's brightest rising stars.
Everything changed in 1920, when Ruth shifted away from pitching and reinvented himself as a power-hitting outfielder. He rapidly emerged as one of the Yankees' marquee players, helping the team attract seven-figure crowds to their games. Over a remarkable fifteen-season stretch in New York, Ruth appeared in more than 2,000 games and shattered batting records along the way.
Few teams in baseball history can rival the 1927 New York Yankees, a squad so dominant and so feared for its offensive firepower that it earned the legendary nickname "Murderer's Row." It was during this iconic season that Ruth reached the 40-home-run mark on August 22, a staggering single-season accomplishment at the time. And he was far from finished — by season's end, Ruth would tally an extraordinary 60 home runs.
Over the course of his career, Ruth powered the Yankees to four World Series Championships and seven American League pennants. To this day, he remains widely celebrated as one of the greatest baseball players the game has ever seen.