For the third straight year, Babe Ruth broke the existing single season home run record. This year, he upped his total to 59; Ken Williams and Bob Meusel tied for second, with 24. Ruth's team, the New York Yankees, won the first pennant in franchise history, and it wouldn't be the last.

         Ruth's run scored total is a major league record, one of the few that he still holds. His slugging percentage was only one point behind his 1920 mark; these were the only two seasons a player has cracked the .800 slugging mark until Barry Bonds set a new record in 2001. Two of Ruth's records that no one has broken are his 457 total bases and 119 extra base hits from this season. In my own opinion, this was Ruth's greatest season, and probably the greatest year ever by a ballplayer.
        The public's impression of Ruth seems to be that he was a fat guy who hit home runs. This, I think, was true starting around 1927-28, when the Babe was in his 30's and had consumed enough beer and hot dogs to feed a small nation. Most of the pictures of Ruth were taken during or after the 1927 season, when Ruth was 32 years old. That was the year that Ruth hit 60 homers, and it was a great season - but it was not Ruth in his prime.
        Babe Ruth's greatest seasons were from the years 1916-1924; in 1925 he turned 30, and that was also the year of his infamous tummy-ache. The Babe remained a great player until 1933, but in his later years he began to resemble the character played by John Goodman in the movie The Babe. In his prime, though, the Babe was an awesome athlete with a Jose Canseco-like body, stronger than an ox with a great throwing arm (as you would expect from a great pitcher).
        It was during that 1916-24 period that Ruth broke the home run record three times, and also set single season records for runs scored, RBI, walks, slugging percentage, total bases, runs produced, home run percentage, extra-base hits. He also set his mark of 29 consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series, and also became the first player to hit three homers in a World Series in 1923. Some of those records have been broken, others remain intact. But I think that there is very good evidence that the Young Babe was the most dominant player in baseball history.
        After Ruth, I think the two best players of this group were two Tiger outfielders, Harry Heilmann and Ty Cobb. Heilmann gets a slight edge. Ken Williams also had fine numbers, but almost all of his home runs were hit in the friendly confines of his home field, Sportsman's Park.
        Roger Peckinpaugh was an elite defensive shortstop who had an unusually good year with the bat, and he helped the Yankees win the pennant.