"You Shall Find the Babe in a Fenway": A Hundred Years Ago Today

It came upon a midnight clear
That glorious Babe of old
From Ruppert bending near the earth
To open his purse of gold...

That's right, boys and girls:  it is the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Big Bang of the Yankiverse, the most marvelous event in our glorious history.

On this day exactly one hundred years ago, December 26, 1919, Harry Frazee sold George Herman "Babe" Ruth to the New York Yankees for $100,000, or the equivalent of about $1.5 million today.

Frazee, the Red Sox owner but primarily a ruthless Broadway producer—then exponentially bigger money than major-league baseball—claimed he had to do it, telling sportswriters:

"While Ruth is undoubtedly the greatest hitter the world has ever seen, he is likewise one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men ever to put on a baseball uniform."

Uh-huh.

This was so much Broadway palaver, of course.  From 1919-1922, Frazee would also trade catcher Wally Schang, shortstop Everett Scott, third baseman "Jumpin' Joe" Dugan, outfielder Duffy Lewis, and pitchers Dutch Leonard, Ernie Shore, Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Carl Mays, George Pipgras, "Sad Sam" Jones," and "Bullet Joe" Bush to the Yankees as well.  They must have been selfish and inconsiderate, too.

Usually, of course, there was a large cash stipend attached, as well as some loans on the side.  At one point, the Yankee colonels, Ruppert and Huston, were holding the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral.

Contrary to popular wisdom, Frazee did not use the money he got for Ruth to finance the musical No, No Nanette, but the play it was based on, My Lady Friends.  He made a bundle on both.

After dismantling the Red Sox' championship club, Frazee sold out to an under-financed, Midwestern ownership group for another $1.2 million—twice what he had bought the Sox for, just six years before—thereby ensuring the Sox would be awful for another decade.  Then he happily attended the opening of Yankee Stadium as a guest of Ruppert.

Now that's the kind of Red Sox owner we can all love!

"Peace in the Bronx, good will to men"
From Heaven's all gracious Babe
The world in solemn stillness lay
To watch the Bambino play...