One June 6, 1927, The White Sox Were Just 1 Game Behind The Yankees, But They Finished The Season 39.5 Games Out

The Yankees finished 110-44 and are sometimes said to be the greatest team ever. The Sox finished 70-83 in fifth place.

But, at the conclusion of play on June 6, the Sox were 31-17 and the Yankees were 31-15. The Sox and Yankees began a 4 game series on June 7.

John Mosedale, in his 1975 book The Greatest of All: The 1927 Yankees wrote:

"Now the Yankees faced their first crucial series of the season. The phrase would assume certain comic overtones before the season was over."

If I recall correctly, Bill James said the Mosedale book was one of the best baseball books of the 1970s in the first Historical Abstract.

The Sox had just won 12 of 14 (and 27 out of their last 37). So they might have looked like serious challengers to the defending Yankees at the time. One newspaper reporter wrote: "Nobody else seems to be able stop the White Sox."

Even after the Sox lost the first game 4-1, another reporter wrote "The irrestistible Yankees met the immovable White Sox." (the Sox only managed to win the last game of the series).

I wondered if the Sox losing 38.5 games in the standings after having played over 40 games was some kind of record. Tom Ruane of Retrosheet and SABR did some research on this at my request and came up with this table:

Teams dropping behind another team by the most games over a 118-day span including those with winning records prior to span and only those with 40+ decisions prior to span

						Prior	During	Oppon
GB-	Year	Team	Oppon	Start	End	W   L	W   L	W   L
-48	1949	WAS A	BOS A	6- 6:	2-Oct	25  21	24  83	74  37
-46.5	1914	CIN N	BOS N	6- 9:	5-Oct	28  18	31  75	79  30
-44.5	1943	PHI A	NY  A	6- 7:	3-Oct	22  21	27  83	74  41
-44	1961	WAS A	NY  A	6- 3:	29-Sep	24  23	35  76	82  35
-42.5	1942	BOS N	STL N	5-31:	26-Sep	25  20	33  68	80  30
-42.5	1949	WAS A	CLE A	6- 6:	2-Oct	25  21	24  83	69  43
-40.5	1949	WAS A	NY  A	6- 4:	30-Sep	24  19	25  83	67  44
-40	1906	PHI N	CHI N	6- 1:	27-Sep	26  18	42  59	82  19
-39	1890	PHI a	LOU a	6-19:	15-Oct	31  15	23  63	63  25
-39	1908	NY  A	DET A	6-10:	6-Oct	23  20	28  79	67  40
-39	1949	WAS A	DET A	6- 2:	28-Sep	22  19	26  83	66  45
-38.5	1927	CHI A	NY  A	6- 5:	1-Oct	30  17	38  65	79  29

So the White Sox had only the 12th biggest relative change in GB. But, among the 12 teams here, they were among the leaders in fewest GB, being only 1 game out. The following table shows how many games out of first each of the above teams were on the date in question.

Year	Team	GB
1949	WAS A	6.5
1914	CIN N	0.5
1943	PHI A	3.5
1961	WAS A	6.5
1942	BOS N	6
1949	WAS A	6.5
1949	WAS A	5.5
1906	PHI N	3
1890	PHI a	up2.5
1908	NY  A	0.5
1949	WAS A	5.5
1927	CHI A	1

Yes, in 1890, the Philadelphia Athletics were actually in first place on their date in question and finished in 7th place in an 8 team league (American Association). Both the 1908 NY Highlanders and the 1914 Reds were even closer to 1st place than the 1927 White Sox and they both ended up in last place in their leagues. Quite a fall, to be so close to first place after 40+ games and end up in the cellar.

The 1890 A's had a .674 winning pct thru June 19 but after that played just .267. Maybe there is a story behind that team. What an epic collapse. Tom Ruane sent me the following comment about this team:

"Not surprisingly money (the Athletics were one of three major league teams sharing the Philadelphia market that summer) had much to do with their second half collapse in 1890. According to David Nemec's "The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Baseball": "... the Athletics, after leading the loop on July 4th... saw the bottom fall out of their season when front office mismanagement left manager Bill Sharsig without any money to pay his players. The Athletics tumbled to seventh place after most of the team quit rather than agree to be paid on a per diem basis when and if funds were available...." They would finish the season with 22 straight losses."