On December 26, 1919, Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000. That deal led to an 86-year drought for the Boston Red Sox without winning a World Series championship. The nickname for the drought famously became known as “The Curse of the Bambino”.
Harry Frazee, the Red Sox owner at the time, completed a deal with Col. Jacob Ruppert that trumped an offer by the Chicago White Sox. That deal included Shoeless Joe Jackson and $60,000. Ruppert was trying to compete with the New York Giants and he needed a big name for a box-office draw, and he closed the deal. The transaction was finally announced the first week of January 1920. Years later, George Herman Ruth would go down in history as a Yankee Legend, and most importantly the greatest player to ever play this game we call baseball.
“It must be said that virtually every assumption that underlies ‘the Curse’ is factually incorrect,” Stout wrote. “Frazee was neither a failure in the theater nor ever broke. Neither did he use the proceeds of the sale to finance his play ‘No, No, Nanette’ or any other. In fact, Frazee was actually one of Broadway’s grand success stories.”
Yesterday, marked the 20 year anniversary of Billy Martin’s death.
Kevin Rozell
M. B. Rozell
Ray Rothfeldt
Eduardo Perez
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Jason
GIANTStalk.com
“Frazee was neither a failure in the theater nor ever broke. Neither did he use the proceeds of the sale to finance his play ‘No, No, Nanette’ or any other. In fact, Frazee was actually one of Broadway’s grand success stories.”
So in other words, Frazee was just an idiot. A perfect Red Sox owner. Imagine Steinbrenner making record profits from this ship building business, and then selling Jeter for a million bucks when he doesn’t need the money. That’s why the Red Sox suck! Well, that and a million other reasons.
Great Post…..
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Thanks for sharing….