NEW YORK — It happened in a secret meeting. The day after Christmas. 106 years ago.
Nobody knew at the time. The newspapers would not report it for another week. But on December 26, 1919, baseball changed forever and so is the Yankees history.
One team would become the most successful franchise in North American sports. The other would suffer for 86 years.
The deal involved cash, a loan and a mortgage on a stadium. It also involved a 24-year-old outfielder who would become the greatest player the game had ever seen.
The secret handshake that shook baseball
On December 26, 1919, Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee agreed to sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The official sale price was $100,000. It was payable in four annual installments of $25,000 at six percent interest.
But that was only part of the deal. Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert also agreed to loan Frazee an additional $300,000. The collateral was Fenway Park itself.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame holds a promissory note from that day. It is dated December 26, 1919. The document sits in a display case in Cooperstown as proof of what happened.
The public would not learn about the sale until January 5, 1920. The owners had agreed to wait until Ruth accepted the terms before making an announcement.
Why Frazee needed the money
Frazee was a theatrical producer from New York. He had purchased the Red Sox but not Fenway Park. He owed money on the stadium. He also had failing Broadway productions draining his finances.
Ruth had just set a single-season home run record with 29 in 1919. He wanted a raise. He demanded $20,000 per season. Frazee refused.
The Red Sox had won three World Series with Ruth on the roster. They won titles in 1915, 1916 and 1918. But the 1919 team finished in sixth place with a 66-71 record.
Frazee tried to justify the sale to reporters. “I do not wish to detract one iota from Ruth’s ability as a ballplayer nor from his value as an attraction,” he said. “But there is no getting away from the fact that despite his 29 home runs, the Red Sox finished sixth in the race last season.”
He added: “What the Boston fans want, I take it, and what I want because they want it, is a winning team, rather than a one-man team which finishes in sixth place.”
What the Hall of Fame says about this moment
Tom Shieber, the lead curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, put the sale in perspective.
“Like all things Ruthian, everything about Babe Ruth’s sale from the Red Sox to the Yankees was outsized,” Shieber said. “The price tag was unparalleled in sports history, the story was obsessively covered in the press, and every last detail was voraciously consumed by baseball fans nationwide.”
He then offered a stunning comparison. “With the possible exception of the Louisiana Purchase, what other acquisition has reached the same level of long-term recognition in the American public’s conscience?”
Yankees explosion that followed
Ruth had been a pitcher with the Red Sox. He was also playing outfield by 1919. But the Yankees made him a full-time hitter.
The results were staggering. Ruth hit 54 home runs in 1920. He posted the first double-digit WAR of his career. He would lead the majors in home runs in nine of the next 12 seasons.
The Yankees had never won a pennant before Ruth arrived. They won their first World Series in 1923. It was the first of 27 championships that would make them the most decorated franchise in American sports history.
Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of its first five members. He is still considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.
The curse that haunted Boston
The Red Sox would not win another World Series for 86 years.
They lost the 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 World Series. All four went seven games. The drought became known as the Curse of the Bambino. Writer Dan Shaughnessy popularized the term in his 1990 book.
Fans tried everything to break the curse. They placed a Boston cap atop Mount Everest. They burned a Yankees cap at its base camp. They searched for a piano Ruth supposedly pushed into a pond at his Massachusetts farm.
The curse finally ended in 2004. The Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees in the ALCS. It remains the only time in MLB history a team has won a seven-game series after losing the first three. They went on to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series.
The numbers that tell the story
The Red Sox had won five of the first 15 World Series before the sale. The Yankees had won zero.
In the 84 years after the sale, the Yankees played in 39 World Series and won 26 of them. The Red Sox played in just four and lost each one in seven games.
The Yankees now hold 27 World Series championships. That is more than double any other franchise in Major League Baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals are second with 11. The Red Sox have won nine.
The Yankees have appeared in 41 World Series. They have won 40 American League pennants. Both are records that may never be broken.
The deal that never stops echoing
Marty Appel, Yankees historian and author, summarized the transaction in his book about the franchise.
The deal “changed the fortunes of two high-profile franchises for decades,” Appel wrote.
One hundred six years later, that remains the defining truth. A Christmas-week meeting in 1919 set two franchises on opposite paths. One became the most successful in sports history. The other waited nearly a century for redemption.
The document that started it all still sits in Cooperstown. Dated December 26, 1919. The day baseball changed forever.
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