The 1939 Yankees, the Greatest Road Team Ever

The 1939 Yankees are known as one of the greatest teams of all time. They were an outstanding squad, finishing 17 games ahead of the second-place Boston Red Sox and winning the AL pennant in a breeze. Sportswriters of the day referred to the 1939 American League as the Yankees and the seven dwarves. The World Series was not much more of a challenge, as the Yankees swept the Cincinnati Reds in four games. But were they the greatest road team ever?

The 1939 Yankees had a better record on the road than at home: at home 52-25, for a winning percentage of .675; on the road 54-20 (T-1), for a winning percentage of .730. Since 1900 only two major league teams have had better road winning percentages than the 1939 Yankees. They were the 1906 Cubs (60-15-1, .800), and the 1909 Cubs (57-20-1, .740). The selection, of the 1939 Yankees as the greatest road team ever is based on the incredible average of runs scored vs. runs allowed. In the 1939 season in road games, the Yankees outscored their opponents by 295 runs (585 runs scored while allowing only a little more than half that number, 295). This amounted to a scoring differential of 3.9 runs per game. In addition, the Yankees’ 585 runs scored in 75 games set the major league road scoring record of 7.8 runs per game. By comparison, the 1906 Cubs had a scoring differential of 2.5 runs per game, while the 1909 Cubs were outscoring their opponents by a mere 2.0 runs per game.

How did the Yankees overpower their opponents that season on their opponents’ home turf? The first part of the answer is that the 1939 Yankees had an outstanding lineup. The Yankees’ lineup was all the more impressive as Ruth had retired four years earlier and Gehrig, beset by an illness that would be named after him, played only eight games that season. The second part of the answer is the Yankees hit much better on the road than at home. As a team the Yankees scored 585 runs in 75 road games based on offensive performances of: .304 BA, .394 OBP, and .470 SLG. The Yankees’ respective home marks were .268/.352/.429. Only in home runs (84 to 82) did the Yankees

have a home performance that was better than on the road. The Yankees’ road batting marks are all the more impressive when it is known that in this era (1931-39) the entire AL had on average better home batting performances. The 1931-39 AL average home/road batting ratios were: 1.049 BA, 1.053 OBP, and 1.057 SLG.1 Adjusting the Yankees’ road batting by the average AL home/road effect gives the following for the equivalent of an AL average home park: .319 BA, .415 OBP, and .497 SLG.

The Yankees’ regular lineup that season included four left-handed batters (LHB), four right-handed batters (RHB), and a frequently used utility player Tommy Henrich (LHB). On the road that season, seven of these nine players put up astounding offensive numbers. Seven of the nine regulars hit above .300, and had OBP of .400 or better. The individual road batting marks for the nine regulars are shown below:

The road batting data for DiMaggio suggest that if Joe had played his home games in a merely average AL ballpark, he would have hit better than .400 that season—his actual BA for the season was a not-bad .381. DiMaggio’s OBP (.486) and SLG (.769) in 1939 were amongst the top all-time AL batting performances on the road. As a group the LHB (including pitchers and reserves) hit .322 with an OBP of .422 and a SLG of .469. The RHB group had figures of .287/.367/.471. The RHB hit exactly twice as many home runs in road games as at home (58 versus 29), with Crosetti hitting seven of his 10 on the road and Dahlgren contributing 13 of 15.

In away games that season, the Yankees had overwhelming success against all opponents except the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees compiled the following W-L record and runs scored (R) and runs allowed (Opp. R) on their visits to AL cities:

 

Club	W	L	T	R	Opp R
Boston	3	5	1	65	62
Chicago	8	3	—	86	46
Cleveland	9	2	—	63	28
Detroit	7	4	—	101	53
Phila.	9	2	—	114	32
St. Louis	11	0	—	75	26
Washington	7	4	—	64	39

 

The visits to Philadelphia were especially enjoyable for the Yankee hitters. The games included numerous thrashings of the A’s, highlighted with wins of 23-2 and 21-0. In the 11 games played in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, the Yankees hit .335 with an OBP of .411 and a SLG of .567. Against the woeful St. Louis Browns (the eighth-place Browns finished 642 games out that season), the Yankees were unbeaten in the 11 games played at Sportsman’s Park.

In the Yankees’ 20 road losses that season, six were by one run and an additional four by two runs. Had the Yankees been able to save some of their “excess runs” (scored in blowout victories) and used them in their one- and two-run losses, their number of road victories would have been in the 60-65 range. The 1939 Yankees were a superlative offensive team on the road.

As for the pitching, the Yankee staff of starters Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez, Bump Hadley, Atley Donald, Monte Pearson, and ace reliever Johnny Murphy was first in team ERA that season. In their games at their opponents’ home fields they held opponents to a .249 BA, .333 OBP, and .358 SLG. In home games that season the AL as a whole had offensive marks of BA .281, OBP .355, and SLG .409. Thus the Yankee pitchers held their opponents to reductions in average Home offensive performance of BA -11%, OBP -6%, and SLG -13%. In addition, Yankee pitchers allowed the fewest runs of any AL team that season. The AL average in road games was 5.09 run per game, while Yankee pitching staff held opponents to 3.93 runs per game (a 23% lower level).

In summary, the 1939 Yankees were the greatest road team ever because the Bronx Bombers were such a great hitting aggregation outside their home turf in New York.