On a day like today, Babe Ruth went from Boston to New York and the baseball fortunes of two cities changed forever:
"On this day in 1920, the New York Yankees major league baseball club announces its purchase of the heavy-hitting outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for the sum of $125,000.
In all, Ruth had played six seasons with the Red Sox, leading them to three World Series victories.
On the mound, Ruth pitched a total of 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings, setting a new league record that would stand for 43 years.
He was fresh off a sensational 1919 season, having broken the major league home run record with 29 and led the American League with 114 runs-batted-in and 103 runs.
In addition to playing more than 100 games in left field, he also went 9-5 as a pitcher.
With his prodigious hitting, pitching and fielding skills, Ruth had surpassed the great Ty Cobb as baseball’s biggest attraction."
The rest is history. The trade haunted the Red Sox for years. I think that many fans in Boston really came to believe that "the Bambino" had indeed put a curse on their team and Fenway Park. The Red Sox lost the '86, '75. '67 and '48 series. They lost dramatic playoff games to the Yankees in '78 and '03. It was painful to follow the Red Sox for all of those years.
New York went on to become the most successful sports franchise in the US. They won over 25 titles, including 5 in a row from 1949 to 1953.
The "curse" finally ended in 2004 when Boston won its first World Series since selling Babe Ruth. The "curse" lasted over 80 years! It almost destroyed Boston and the baseball fans of New England.
Looking back, he is still the greatest player ever to play major league baseball. He may be the most consequential athlete in US history.
Babe Ruth understood that he was a performer as well as a baseball player. He knew that teams needed to sell tickets. He got people to buy tickets and watch baseball games. He did it with style and with monster home runs.
Long live Babe Ruth!
We spoke a bit about this on Thursday's show:
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