1934 Yankees

The 1934 New York Yankees won 94 games, had both the hitting and pitching Triple Crown winners on the same roster, and finished second. That sentence shouldn't make sense, but it does -- because the Detroit Tigers won 101 games and the pennant race wasn't particularly close by September. Lou Gehrig hit .363 with 49 home runs and 165 RBI. Lefty Gomez went 26-6 with a 2.33 ERA and 158 strikeouts. Two Triple Crowns, zero pennants. The '34 Yankees were the most individually brilliant team that didn't win a thing.

McCarthy's Third Full Year

Joe McCarthy ran the club with the same discipline he'd brought since 1932, but this roster carried a different kind of tension. Babe Ruth was 39, still drawing crowds but no longer scaring pitchers the way he once had. Gehrig was 31 and at the absolute peak of his powers. The generational shift was happening in real time, and everyone in the clubhouse could feel it.

Ruth hit .288 with 22 home runs in 125 games -- numbers that would've been respectable for most players but felt like a slow fade for the man who'd built the Stadium. His legs were going. The reflexes had slowed enough that pitchers who'd once walked him on purpose now challenged him. The OPS+ of 160 still qualified as excellent, but Ruth's version of excellent had been 200+ for most of the previous decade.

The Gehrig Show

Gehrig didn't just win the Triple Crown -- he ran away with it. The .363 average led the league. The 49 home runs dwarfed the competition. The 165 RBI represented the highest total by any Triple Crown winner in baseball history. And he played all 154 games, because that's what Gehrig did. The Iron Horse didn't take days off.

On June 25, Gehrig hit for the cycle -- and reportedly didn't realize he needed the triple until his teammates told him in the late innings. He'd been so focused on hitting the ball hard that he hadn't bothered tracking what kind of hits he'd collected. That tells you everything about the man.

Gomez at His Peak

While Gehrig dominated at the plate, Gomez dominated from the mound. His Pitching Triple Crown -- 26 wins, 2.33 ERA, 158 strikeouts -- made the Yankees the only team in baseball with both crowns on the same roster. The left-hander led the American League in seven major pitching categories that year, a level of dominance that's hard to wrap your head around.

Red Ruffing backed him up as the number-two starter, and Bill Dickey handled the catching duties with the quiet authority that made every pitcher's job easier. McCarthy's push-button management kept the staff running smoothly from April through September.

The Pennant That Got Away

The Tigers grabbed control of the race in mid-July and never gave it back. A 12-11 Detroit comeback on July 14 -- with the Tigers trailing the Yankees by half a game -- shifted the momentum, and Mickey Cochrane's club pulled away through August and September. By the final month, the Yankees were playing out the string seven games back.

The cruelest irony of the season belonged to Gehrig. He won the Triple Crown with historically elite numbers and lost the AL MVP Award to Cochrane, who hit .320 with 2 home runs and 76 RBI. Cochrane's case rested entirely on "leading" the Tigers to the pennant -- the playing-manager as inspirational figure. By any statistical measure, the vote was absurd. Gehrig didn't even come close to winning.

The Last of Ruth

Ruth's final game in pinstripes came on September 24. His last home run as a Yankee -- the 708th of his career -- had landed in the distant bleachers at Griffith Stadium in Washington, the kind of towering drive that reminded everyone what he'd once been capable of doing every afternoon.

Within five months, the Yankees released him. Ruth signed with the Boston Braves, chasing a managerial promise that would never materialize. Fifteen years in the Bronx -- seven pennants, four championships, a stadium built on his swing -- and it ended with a transaction wire in February.

What 1934 Meant

The 1935 season would be the first without Ruth. The 1936 season would bring Joe DiMaggio and four straight championships. But 1934 was the hinge -- the year the old guard faded and the new order announced itself. Gehrig's Triple Crown proved he didn't need Ruth batting ahead of him. Gomez's dominance proved the pitching staff could carry its share. The pieces were in place for what came next.

Two Triple Crowns and a second-place finish. Individual brilliance colliding with team disappointment. It shouldn't work as a story, but it does -- because the '34 Yankees weren't about what they won. They were about what they were becoming.

Two Triple Crown winners. 94 wins. Seven games back. Some seasons don't need a quote to tell their story.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the 1934 Yankees season record?

The 1934 Yankees went 94-60 and finished second in the American League, seven games behind the Detroit Tigers. Despite having both the hitting Triple Crown winner (Lou Gehrig: .363/49/165) and the pitching Triple Crown winner (Lefty Gomez: 26 W/2.33 ERA/158 K), the team didn't reach the postseason for the first time since 1929.

Why didn't Lou Gehrig win MVP in 1934?

Gehrig won the Triple Crown with historically elite numbers but lost the AL MVP to Detroit's Mickey Cochrane, who hit .320 with 2 home runs and 76 RBI. The voters rewarded Cochrane for leading the Tigers to the pennant as a playing-manager. By modern statistical analysis, the decision looks difficult to defend.

Was 1934 Babe Ruth's last season with the Yankees?

Yes. Ruth played his final game as a Yankee on September 24, 1934, finishing the season with a .288 average and 22 home runs in 125 games. He was released on February 26, 1935, and signed with the Boston Braves. His 15-year Yankees tenure produced seven pennants, four World Series titles, and 708 home runs in pinstripes.

Did any team ever have both the hitting and pitching Triple Crown winners?

The 1934 Yankees had Lou Gehrig (hitting Triple Crown: .363/49/165 RBI) and Lefty Gomez (pitching Triple Crown: 26 W/2.33 ERA/158 K) on the same roster. This dual achievement is one of the rarest accomplishments in baseball history, making the team's second-place finish all the more remarkable.