The nickname “Murderers’ Row” was most commonly used for the 1920s teams of the New York Yankees and specifically the 1927 Yankees. But its origin resides before Babe Ruth. A sportswriter in 1918 used the term to describe the first six players in the lineup for that year consisting of Gihooley, Peckinpaugh, Baker, Pratt, Pipp, and Bodie.
The 1927 Yankees won 110 games, winning the American League pennant by a wide margin. Needless to say, they went on to sweep the Pirates in the World Series. The 1927 “Murderers’ Row” was made up of Combs, Koenig, Ruth, Gehrig, Meusel, and Lazzeri.
“Murderers’ Row” was just a nickname but in Wyoming during 1911, an all-star team was led by a convicted murderer.
The Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars featured some of the hardest known criminals at the time. Their first game had a 12-man roster of three rapists, a forger, five thieves, and three killers. And due to corruption, these were not just baseball games.
According to the Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss’s book The Death Row All-Stars: A Story of Baseball, Corruption, and Murder, if the team won, they were told time would come off their sentences but, “Individual errors that cost the team the win,” they wrote, “would result in death.”
I can’t imagine playing against a team with such much on the line. I think I would rather pitch against the 1927 Yankees than the Penitentiary All-Stars. The agony of defeat just took on a new meaning.
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