Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, but could Hank Aaron or Roger Maris hit 60 back then too? Tune in to find out the answer plus insights behind these MLB powerhouse legends leading up to their historic marches to these exciting record breaking events.

Would Aaron or Maris Hit 60 Home Runs in 1927?

One of the most fascinating questions MLB fans wonder about is how their favorite players or teams would do against others back in time. In 1927 all-time great Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs to set a new single season home run record that stood for decades.

Babe Ruth became the first player in MLB history to break 50 home runs when he finished with 54 in 1920. The next closest was George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns with 19. Though he wasn’t known as a power hitter, Sisler was the real deal; he batted .407 and had 19 triples with 49 doubles that season. Two seasons later he batted .420 and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1939.

In 1921 Babe Ruth dominated again, raising the bar with a 59 home runs. Bob Meusel and Ken Williams came in a distant second with 24 home runs. The Babe batted .378 and repeated that sky-high average at the plate in 1924. Yet, as remarkable as that average is, it wasn’t his highest single season batting average. Ruth finished the 1923 season with a blazing .393 average.

Several years later, in what has become one of the most memorable in sports history, Babe Ruth belted 60 home runs in 1927. By the end of his great Hall of Fame career, he finished with 714. They became one of the most well-known and recognized records in MLB, let alone sports history.

Roger Maris 1961 Home Run Record Breaking Season

Decades later in the 1960’s and 1970’s, two men were chasing these records, Roger Maris and Hank Aaron. Maris and Mickey Mantle, called the M&M Boys were slugging it out in 1961, smashing long balls that were pushing the Babe’s single season record of 60. Late in the season, Mantle was sidelined in the hospital with an abscessed hip he got from of all things, a flu shot. He finished with 54 home runs. Meanwhile Maris went on to crack the Babe’s home run record on the last game of the season, October 1^st in a 1-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox. He was facing Boston rookie pitcher Tracy Stallard, popping out to left field in his first at bat. The record breaker took place during his second plate appearance. In the 4^th inning with the bases empty let’s listen to Red Barber make the call. The pitch was a waist high fastball Maris drove out to set a new MLB single season HR record at 61; a right field blast that landed 10 rows deep. 

In July, Commissioner Ford Frick announced he wouldn’t consider the home run record broken unless it was accomplished in 154 games or less like the Babe had done. There was talk of an asterisk next to Maris’ record for years afterwards. Instead of celebrating the record-breaking achievement, many were angry about it. Friends of Ruth like Frick, Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, and others were not on board. MLB didn’t consider Maris’ feat to stand by itself, instead they looked at both records as separate accomplishments. 30 years later a MLB committee on historical accuracy voted to remove the distinction and fully awarded the single season home run record to Maris. Sadly, he had died of cancer six years earlier.

Hank Aaron Legendary Career and 715th Home Run

Hall of Famer, Hank Aaron played 23 seasons in the Major Leagues from 1954 to 1976. A role model of great consistency, he had 20 straight seasons with 20 or more home runs, a record that still stands today. In nearly half of those seasons during his illustrious career he hit 40 or more home runs. He was also a terrific overall hitter, finishing up with a .305 career batting average, .555 slugging average, and whopping .928 OPS.

Among other records he holds today, he’s the all-time leader in MLB history with 2297 RBI’s. He’s also the all-time leader with 6856 total bases. That’s enough base running, 90 feet at a time for over 116 miles to start from Chicago and run well past Milwaukee where Aaron wound up his career playing for the Brewers.

He downplayed chasing Ruth’s all-time home run record. In 1973, playing for the Atlanta Braves he walloped 40 home runs in 392 at-bats, ending the 1973 season one home run short of the record. That Braves team had a solid lineup with home run power on par with the mighty 1927 Yankees. 

In 1974, he turned 40 years old and went on to break Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record with his 715^th round-tripper. A record that stood since the Babe retired in 1935. Let’s listen in to the call by Vin Scully.

Hank Aaron & Roger Maris – Could They Reach 60 Home Runs in 1927?

Now let’s dive into the question, would either of these two MLB home run record breakers surpassing Ruth been able to match his 60 home run performance in 1927? This was back in the day when hitting most other hitters would consider 30 home runs to be phenomenal unless you were named Ruth or Gehrig.

To answer this question I used the Baseball Classics Baseball Game and the player cards of 1973 Atlanta Braves for Hank Aaron and 1961 New York Yankees Roger Maris to face the same 1927 AL pitching staff that Ruth did.

Baseball Classics player cards are based on 3 six-sided dice, thus ranging from a roll of 3 to 18. There is also a binary die used to determine whether to reference the current player at bat or the pitcher he is facing. Each Baseball Classics card has a “Results” column from 3 to 18 displaying the outcome based on the dice roll. Simply roll all 4 dice and use outcome of the binary die to reference the pitcher card with a 0, or the batter’s card with a 1. Then add up the 3 six-sided dice and reference the outcome in the Result column.

Each Baseball Classics player card uses dozens of algorithms to generate their play results based on their actual season performance. Throughout the years many customers have played Baseball Classics with full MLB season replays of a specific team. They shared the final results that always come very close to mirroring the final actual season performance.  Tune into this show to find out whether or not they can reach 60 home runs by facing the American League pitching Babe Ruth did as explained in the Baseball Classics Podcast on this show!

Baseball Classics Resources Used For This Podcast

Baseball Classics – www.BaseballClassicsBaseballGame.com

Baseball Reference – www.baseball-reference.com

Mickey Mantle Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org

Roger Maris Breaks Home Run Record – www.this-day-in-history.com

Hank Aaron Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org

Baseball Classics Baseball Game 1927 Home Run Comparison Test Results