A paltry crowd of 12,000 fans in New York's Yankee Stadium cheered the home team as it trounced the Cleveland Indians, 14-6 on June 13, 1927. Although Yankee sluggers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig had failed to hit one out of the park, four of their teammates notched five home runs
But New Yorkers couldn't be blamed for the small crowd in the south Bronx considering that 4,000,000 people had lined Broadway and 5th Avenue in Manhattan that afternoon. The city had thrown a ticker-tape parade to honor Charles Lindberg's 33-hour solo flight from New York to Paris on May 20-21. The boyish hero rode in an open convertible from the Battery to Central Park, with an interim ceremonial stop at City Hall.
Regardless of the enormous celebration, the East Coast press didn't fully ignore Ruth's quest that year to break his own season record for home runs, 59, that he set in 1921. The next day, the Washington Post published a brief article titled, "Babe Ruth Is Ahead of 1921 Homer Pace." It noted that Ruth had averaged .389 homers per game through the Indians game. The Post declared that pace would yield 60 home runs at the end of the 154-game season on Oct. 1. The ultimate success of Ruth's campaign, however, would remain unknown until the last three games were played 90 years ago this weekend.
