Editing Babe Ruth (section)

===Sale to New York===
As an out-of-towner from New York City, Frazee had been regarded with suspicion by Boston's sportswriters and baseball fans when he bought the team. He won them over with success on the field and a willingness to build the Red Sox by purchasing or trading for players. He offered the Senators $60,000 for Walter Johnson, but Washington owner [[Clark Griffith]] was unwilling. Even so, Frazee was successful in bringing other players to Boston, especially as replacements for players in the military. This willingness to spend for players helped the Red Sox secure the 1918 title.<ref>{{harvp|Reisler|2004|pp=4–5}}</ref> The 1919 season saw record-breaking attendance, and Ruth's home runs for Boston made him a national sensation. In March 1919 Ruth was reported as having accepted a three-year contract for a total of $27,000, after protracted negotiations. Nevertheless, on December 26, 1919, Frazee sold Ruth's contract to the New York Yankees.<ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=204–205}}</ref>

[[File:Babe Ruth by Paul Thompson, 1920.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Ruth in his first year with the [[New York Yankees]], 1920]]
Not all the circumstances concerning the sale are known, but brewer and former congressman [[Jacob Ruppert]], the New York team's principal owner, reportedly asked Yankee manager [[Miller Huggins]] what the team needed to be successful. "Get Ruth from Boston", Huggins supposedly replied, noting that Frazee was perennially in need of money to finance his theatrical productions.<ref>{{harvp|Reisler|2004|pp=2–3}}</ref> An often-told story is that Frazee needed money, and sold Ruth to finance the musical ''[[No, No, Nanette]]''; that play did not open until 1925, by which time Frazee had sold the Red Sox,<ref name="c20" /> but was based on a Frazee-produced play, ''My Lady Friends'', which opened in 1919.<ref>{{harvp|Montville|2006|pp=101–102}}</ref> There were also other financial pressures on Frazee, despite his team's success. Ruth, fully aware of baseball's popularity and his role in it, wanted to renegotiate his contract, signed before the 1919 season for $10,000 per year through 1921. He demanded that his salary be doubled, or he would sit out the season and cash in on his popularity through other ventures.<ref name="c20">{{harvp|Creamer|1992|p=20}}</ref> Ruth's salary demands were causing other players to ask for more money.<ref>{{harvp|Stout|2002|p=83}}</ref> Additionally, Frazee still owed Lannin as much as $125,000 from the purchase of the club.<ref name="r5">{{harvp|Reisler|2004|p=5}}</ref>

Although Ruppert and his co-owner, Colonel [[Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston|Tillinghast Huston]], were both wealthy, and had aggressively purchased and traded for players in 1918 and 1919 to build a winning team, Ruppert faced losses in his brewing interests as [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] was implemented, and if their team left the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees were the tenants of the New York Giants, building a stadium in New York would be expensive. Nevertheless, when Frazee, who moved in the same social circles as Huston, hinted to the colonel that Ruth was available for the right price, the Yankees owners quickly pursued the purchase.<ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=205–207}}</ref>

Frazee sold the rights to Babe Ruth for $100,000, the largest sum ever paid for a baseball player. The deal also involved a $350,000 loan from Ruppert to Frazee, secured by a mortgage on Fenway Park. Once it was agreed, Frazee informed Barrow, who, stunned, told the owner that he was getting the worse end of the bargain.<ref>{{harvp|Reisler|2004|p=1}}</ref><ref name="creamer208plus">{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=208–209}}</ref> Cynics have suggested that Barrow may have played a larger role in the Ruth sale, as less than a year after, he became the Yankee general manager, and in the following years made a number of purchases of Red Sox players from Frazee.<ref name="r2" >{{harvp|Reisler|2004|p=2}}</ref> The $100,000 price included $25,000 in cash, and notes for the same amount due November 1 in 1920, 1921, and 1922; Ruppert and Huston assisted Frazee in selling the notes to banks for immediate cash.<ref name="creamer208plus" />

The transaction was contingent on Ruth signing a new contract, which was quickly accomplished—Ruth agreed to fulfill the remaining two years on his contract, but was given a $20,000 bonus, payable over two seasons. The deal was announced on January 6, 1920. Reaction in Boston was mixed: some fans were embittered at the loss of Ruth; others conceded that Ruth had become difficult to deal with.<ref>{{harvp|Stout|2002|pp=86–88}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' suggested that "The short right field wall at the Polo Grounds should prove an easy target for Ruth next season and, playing seventy-seven games at home, it would not be surprising if Ruth surpassed his home run record of twenty-nine circuit clouts next Summer."<ref name="Year1920">{{cite news|title=Ruth Bought By New York Americans For $125,000, Highest Price in Baseball Annals|work=The New York Times|date=January 6, 1920|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/01/06/102732651.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008233249/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/01/06/102732651.pdf|archive-date=October 8, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Reisler, "The Yankees had pulled off the sports steal of the century."<ref name="r2"/>

According to Marty Appel in his history of the Yankees, the transaction, "changed the fortunes of two high-profile franchises for decades".<ref>{{harvp|Appel|2012|p=94}}</ref> The Red Sox, winners of five of the first 16 World Series, those played between 1903 and 1919,{{efn|There was no World Series in 1904 or 1994.}} would not win another pennant until 1946, or another World Series until 2004, a drought attributed in baseball superstition to Frazee's sale of Ruth and sometimes dubbed the "[[Curse of the Bambino]]". Conversely, the Yankees had not won the AL championship prior to their acquisition of Ruth. They won seven AL pennants and four World Series with him, and lead baseball with 40 pennants and 27 World Series titles in their history.<ref>{{harvp|Appel|2012|pp=96–97}}</ref><ref name = "wsoutcome">{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=recaps_index|title=Results and recaps|publisher=[[Major League Baseball]]|access-date=March 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304100545/http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=recaps_index|archive-date=March 4, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>