Ray Morehart and the 1927 Yankees

In an earlier story, I mentioned the AC baseball team traveling to Austin and losing to Bibb Falk and the Longhorns in 1919. Falk would then move on to the Chicago White Sox, where he replaced Shoeless Joe Jackson in left field and enjoyed an 11 year career in the majors. After retirement, Falk returned to Austin to coach the Horns for another 21 years, winning two national championships.

So surely advantage Falk & the Horns, right? Oh no! :)

The 1919 Roos included a solid second baseman by the name of Ray Morehart. After graduation, Morehart began a baseball career of his own. His minor league career from 1922 to 1924 was so solid that he was picked up in 1924 by the very same Chicago White Sox. After two years of sitting in the dugout with Falk, Morehart was traded at the end of the 1926 season to the New York Yankees.

Yes, that's right. Ray Morehart. Austin College class of 1922. And member of the greatest team in baseball history, the 1927 New York Yankees.

Morehart was a utility player that season, batting .256 in 230 plate appearances over 73 games. The height of his career was a June series at Yankee stadium against, yup……..the Falk-led Chicago White Sox.

On June 8, the Yankees found themselves down 5 in the bottom of the ninth. But a rally which included a single by Babe Ruth & a double by Lou Gehrig allowed the home team to send the game into extras. And in the bottom of the 11th, Morehart's walk off RBI single won the game for New York. Yankees 12, White Sox 11.

The very next day, on June 9, the Yanks found themselves down 1 in the bottom of the 7th. That deficit was erased when a New York rally scored 6, primarily from a 3-run Morehart HR. Ruth played a small role as well, hitting a triple in the very next at bat and stealing home on a wild pitch to Gehrig. ;) Yankees 8, White Sox 3.

All with Falk watching from the opposing dugout.

The Yankees would win 110 games that year, and sweep the World Series. Morehart would soon be back in the minors, and finished his career in 1933. After retirement, Morehart returned to Sherman to coach the Roos for a year, before moving on to other challenges. At the time of his death in January 1989, the New York Times mentioned that Morehart's departure left only one survivor of the 1927 Yankees. January 1989 was also a time when a young Kevin Krause was just beginning to take over 2B responsibilities in Sherman. I believe you were second base, right Kevin?



Photo of Morehart as a Yankee, the 1927 Yankees with Ruth, Gehrig, & Morehart (front row, third from right), and Morehart's return to Austin College in 1933.



The 1927 Yankees. Morehart appears at 3:25, right after Gehrig.


Morehart's New York Times Obit in January 1989.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/15/sports/ray-morehart-yankee-with-ruth-dies-at-89.html

Video of Roo Morehart's RBI walkoff in 1927 is unavailable, but I did find another recent one. ;)