Babe Ruth Sale Contract (Red Sox to Yankees)

A holdout and a cash sale

In 1919 Babe Ruth was in the middle of turning from a star left-handed pitcher into the game's dominant hitter. Playing mostly in left field for the Boston Red Sox, he hit 29 home runs, a new single-season major league record, and led the American League with 113 RBI and 103 runs scored. He also started 15 games as a pitcher.

Before the 1919 season he had signed a three-year contract at $10,000 a year, and he now wanted that doubled. On October 24, 1919, waiting at a Boston train station for a train to Los Angeles, he told the Boston Globe: 'I will not play with the Red Sox unless I get $20,000.' By December, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was hinting that he would trade anyone on his team except outfielder Harry Hooper.

The Red Sox had won the World Series in 1918 but fell to 66-71 and sixth place in 1919, despite Ruth's record. The Yankees, without him, finished third. Frazee later explained the sale on those grounds: '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.' He also called Ruth 'more spectacular than useful,' and he disliked Ruth's lifestyle.

Ruppert, Frazee and the fine print

The agreement is dated December 26, 1919. It transfers Ruth's services from the Boston American League Baseball Club to the American League Baseball Club of New York for $100,000 and is signed by Jacob Ruppert and H.H. Frazee. Byron Clarke, the notary, wrote 'President' under both names, and he is believed to have made most of the handwritten notes in the document.

The price was not made public at the time. The Boston Globe reported '$100,000 Cash' and The New York Times '$125,000.' Economist Michael Haupert's research found that the price was $100,000, payable in four annual installments of $25,000 at six percent interest. The National Baseball Hall of Fame holds one of the promissory notes, dated December 26, 1919, for $25,000 and signed by both owners. It was donated in 1999.

The contract does not mention the second half of the deal. On May 25, 1920, Ruppert made Frazee a personal loan of $300,000 with Fenway Park as collateral, so if Frazee had defaulted, the Yankees' owner would have owned the Red Sox ballpark. The popular story that Frazee sold Ruth to finance the musical No, No, Nanette is, in the words of the 2017 sale catalog, an urban myth, although Frazee's theater business was struggling.

Ruth signed with the Yankees for $20,000 a season for 1920 and 1921. 'When I made my demand on the Red Sox for $20,000 a year I had an idea they would choose to sell me rather than pay the increase,' he said.

America at the turn of 1920

The deal was struck as the country came out of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919, and the U.S. Senate voted it down that November. Boston's police went on strike in September. The first Palmer Raids against suspected radicals began in November, and in October the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series in what became the Black Sox scandal.

Ruth's sale was announced on January 5, 1920, a week after the deal closed. Less than two weeks later, national Prohibition took effect. That summer the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was adopted. Ruth hit 54 home runs in his first Yankee season, nearly doubling the record he had set in Boston the year before.

From a collector's binder to a record sale

Both surviving copies came out of the collection of Barry Halper, the best-known baseball memorabilia collector of his era. In the early 1990s, dealer Josh Evans visited Halper's home and saw a binder labeled 'Ruth' holding both originals. Evans bought the Red Sox copy, formerly owned by Frazee's family, for $25,000, and it sold at auction in 1993 for $99,000 to Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein.

Actor Charlie Sheen, unhappy at missing that copy, asked Evans to get the other one. Evans bought Jacob Ruppert's copy, which Halper had acquired from the Ruppert estate, for $150,000 and sold it to Sheen privately for an undisclosed sum. Sheen kept it for more than two decades. According to Evans, Sheen at one point turned down an offer of $5 million.

The Frazee copy came back to market after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. Feinstein, who had raised money for charity by selling copies of it, listed it in an online auction that October, and on June 10, 2005, it sold at auction in New York for $996,000 to a Yankees fan and dealer. The proceeds went to a hunger-relief charity.

In May 2017 the Yankees copy was announced for an online sale, alongside Ruth's 1927 World Series ring, also from Sheen's collection. Bidding closed on June 30, 2017. The contract brought $2,303,320 after 32 bids, more than double the price of the Frazee copy, and the ring brought $2,093,926. The buyers were not named. Sheen said he did not remember what he had paid and felt it was time for a new owner.

Three copies, two known

Three copies of the agreement were made: one for the Yankees, one for the Red Sox and one for the American League. The Yankees and Red Sox copies are the only two known. The American League copy has never surfaced, and the 2017 sale catalog said it hoped one day to offer that one too.

The Yankees copy is a six-page document with handwritten notes throughout, housed in a period blue legal jacket. The cover reads 'American League Baseball Club of New York Incorporated - And - The Boston American League Baseball Club AGREEMENT,' with 'Ruth' scrawled at the top. It came with a third-party letter of authenticity. Contemporary reports described the Red Sox copy sold in 2005 as a five-page typed contract.

Accounts of the provenance differ in small ways. The 2017 catalog dates the Frazee copy's sale to 2004, but reports published at the time place it on June 10, 2005; the 2004 date matches only the online listing. One report says Sheen paid $150,000, while the dealer's own account says $150,000 was what the dealer paid Halper and that Sheen's price was undisclosed. Reports of the 2017 price print $2,303,320 or $2,303,920; the sale record shows $2,303,319.60.

The curse on paper

The sale reshaped baseball. The Yankees went 95-59 in 1920 and played their home games at the Polo Grounds until Yankee Stadium opened in 1923. Frazee sold the Red Sox in 1923, and Boston was not competitive again until 1934. The Red Sox did not win another World Series until 2004. By then the Yankees had won 26.

Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber put the deal's reach this way: '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?' The 2017 catalog went further and compared the document to the Declaration of Independence. In 2017 the Yankees copy sold for more than double what the Red Sox copy had brought 12 years earlier.

The numbers

1919 batting (Red Sox)

130 G, .322 BA, 29 HR, 113 RBI, 103 R, 1.114 OPS

1919 pitching (Red Sox)

9-5, 2.97 ERA, 17 G, 15 GS, 12 CG, 133.1 IP

1920 batting (Yankees)

142 G, .376 BA, 54 HR, 135 RBI, 158 R, 150 BB, .847 SLG

Salary

$10,000 in 1919; $20,000 with New York in 1920

1919 standings

Red Sox 66-71, sixth; Yankees 80-59, third

1920 standings

Yankees 95-59; Red Sox 72-81

Career

22 seasons, 714 HR, .342 BA, 2,214 RBI

Timeline

1. 1918

   The Red Sox, with Ruth, win the World Series.

2. 1919

   Ruth hits a record 29 home runs for Boston; the Red Sox finish sixth.

3. Oct 24, 1919

   Ruth tells the Boston Globe he will not play for the Red Sox for less than $20,000.

4. Dec 26, 1919

   Jacob Ruppert and Harry Frazee sign the agreement selling Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000.

5. Jan 5, 1920

   The sale is announced.

6. May 25, 1920

   Ruppert lends Frazee $300,000, with Fenway Park as collateral.

7. 1923

   Yankee Stadium opens; Frazee sells the Red Sox.

8. 1993

   The Red Sox copy, bought from Barry Halper's collection, sells at auction for $99,000 to Alan Shawn Feinstein.

9. 1993

   The Yankees copy is bought from Halper for $150,000 and sold privately to actor Charlie Sheen.

10. 1999

    A $25,000 promissory note from the sale is donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

11. Oct 2004

    After the Red Sox win the World Series, Feinstein lists the Red Sox copy in an online auction.

12. Jun 10, 2005

    The Red Sox copy sells at auction in New York for $996,000.

13. May 23, 2017

    The Yankees copy is announced for sale with Ruth's 1927 World Series ring.

14. Jun 30, 2017

    Bidding closes; the Yankees copy sells for $2,303,320.

The world in 1919

• Jun 28, 1919

  The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.

• Sep 9, 1919

  The Boston Police Strike begins.

• Oct 9, 1919

  The Chicago White Sox throw the World Series in the Black Sox scandal.

• Oct 28, 1919

  Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

• Nov 7, 1919

  The first of the Palmer Raids against suspected radicals is carried out.

• Nov 19, 1919

  The Treaty of Versailles fails a critical ratification vote in the U.S. Senate.

• Jan 1920

  Nationwide Prohibition takes effect under the Eighteenth Amendment.

• Aug 26, 1920

  The Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women's suffrage, is adopted.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Babe Ruth Sale Contract (Red Sox to Yankees) is number 39 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (36 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The contract itself never mentions the $300,000 loan, secured on Fenway Park, that made the deal work for Frazee.
• The New York Times first reported the price as $125,000. The real figure was $100,000, paid in four installments at six percent interest.
• The American League's copy of the agreement has never been found.
• The Red Sox copy sold for $99,000 in 1993 and $996,000 in 2005. Its owner raised money for charity by selling copies of it, and the 2005 proceeds went to a hunger-relief charity.
• In 2017 the Yankees copy sold alongside Ruth's 1927 World Series ring, which also came from Charlie Sheen's collection and brought $2,093,926.
• When the sale was announced, Yankees pitcher Bob Shawkey said: 'Gee, I'm glad that guy's not going to hit against me anymore.'