Originally Posted by
Bill Burgess
OK. I'm gonna give this subject a shot of my brand. Wish me luck.
The modern branding of the New York Yankees starts in 1915 when Jake Ruppert and Tillinghast L' Hommedieu Huston bought team for $480,000. from Frank Farrell & William S. Devery in 1915. Two millionaires is always better than one. Twice the bankroll.
Ruppert was the senior partner and President, while Huston was the junior partner and vice-president. Each put up around $200,000.
Ruppert's background was that his father owned a beer empire and lots of real estate. Jake was 4 term US Congressman from 'Silk Stocking' district of Manhattan, 1898-1906.
Huston was a a civil engineer, contractor & agriculturist, he supervised much of construction of Yankee Stadium, which cost about $3m.
Right away, the 2 Colonels serve notice to the other owners and AL President that they are serious about acquiring top talent. In 1915, it is common knowledge among all ML team owners that all major player transactions must go through his office for approval. Johnson ran the AL as his private domain.
The 2 colonels are quickly told that Cobb was unavailable for any price. Detroit boss Navin simply will not part with him. Speaker is in Boston and seems planted there. Collins and Joe Jackson have just been installed in Chicago and are locked up in multi-year contracts to Johnson's crony, Comiskey.
So, one of the few venues for the 2 Colonels to acquire good players fast was from Red Sox owner, Harry Frazee. Harry proved willing to part with his players for affordable prices. Like Gimbels' bargain basement.
In the next several seasons Harry parted with pitchers; Carl Mays, Herb Pennock, Sam Jones, Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush, Ernie Shore. He also sold shortstop Everett Scott, catcher Wally Schang, and left fielder Duffy Lewis.
These transactions did not go unnoticed by the other AL owners or Ban Johnson. They precipitated enormous conflicts within the AL.
In 1919, Red Sox pitcher Carl Mays got so intensely disgusted with his team blowing one of his games, that he simply walked off the team and went fishing. He didn't intend on going back to his team. He let that be known. Eventually, word of his defection got back to the 2 Colonels, who were always on the alert to acquiring quality talent. They contacted Carl and he indicated his desire to go to New York and work for them.
Which is exactly what he did. And his former Boston owner, Harry Frazee didn't seem to care, as long as he got some money for Mays. The Colonels gave Frazee some money (I don't know how much), and things seemed settled.
That was until AL President Johnson was reading his morning newspaper and read the story. He almost lost his breakfast. He was so furious that he could hardly contain himself. He immediately contacted Frazee and the Colonels and instructed them to return Mays to Boston, and fined Mays.
The real reason that Johnson hated the deal was his eternal hostility to any player that showed any sense of freedom over their career. Johnson just wouldn't have a player walking off his team. Ever.
The Colonels just laughed at him and promptly and summarily refused to consider it. Johnson then instructs his AL umpires not to allow any games to take place if Mays tries to pitch for the Yankees. The Colonels instantly anticipate this and get a New York judge to restrain the AL umpires from obstructing their 'commerce'. Johnson then gets another Chicago judge to restrain the New York injunction. It comes down to 'dueling restraining injunctions' and the Colonels win. Which is to say that money always wins. If you have enough of it, plus the savvy political maneuvering that comes from having been a politician, as Ruppert had been.
Mays stayed with New York, but the matter is never forgotten by Ban Johnson. This was the first challenge to his power and was the opening salvo which all but tore the AL apart. In the political in-fighting, Chicago owner Charles Comiskey allies with Frazee and the 2 NY Colonels.
From 1919 on, the story of the AL was the story of power in the AL and who was in charge. Who controlled the major moves? On one side it was AL President Ban Johnson, A's owner and manager Ben Shibe/Connie Mack, Senators' owner Clark Griffith, Browns' owner Phil Ball, Indians' owner James Dunn, Tigers' owner, Frank Navin. They became known as "The Loyal 5".
On the other side of the aisle were Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, the 2 New York Colonels, and White Sox boss, Charles Comiskey. They were presumably, "The Disloyal 3".
At one point, the injunctions became so bitter, that the Disloyal 3 threatened to leave the AL and start a rival league. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
The way that baseball solved its 'Ban Johnson' problem was that it brought in an outsider to rule the game as its 'Czar'. It brought in Federal Judge Ken Landis, who was given a free hand. He was appointed baseball's first Commissioner, November 21, 1920. He was brought in specifically to quell the mutiny of the 'Disloyal 3', who were threatening to pull out of the AL.
That was the real reason Landis was brought onboard. But to say so out loud was indiscreet and bad public relations, so the party line was created that he was brought in to clean up the game from the gambling interests. And coincidently, one of his first acts was to ban the "Eight Men Out" of the Black Sox. And that is how the game sold the line ever since. Typical of millionaires to lie through their teeth, smiling all the while. But business will always come first with those types of people. Back to our task at hand.
The Yankees continued to market their brand by their explosive acquisition of Babe Ruth from Frazee. Johnson had no legal standing to block this transaction.
The details of the sale are actually quite a bit more complicated than is generally understood. So, I will let wikipedia save me some typing here and pick up the tail after that. So, the following is what appears in wikipedia for the Ruth sale to NY.
below is Wikipedia excerpt of Ruth's sale to the Yankees.
On December 26, 1919, Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. Popular legend has it that Frazee sold Ruth and several other of his best players to finance a Broadway play, No, No, Nanette (which actually didn't debut until 1925). The truth is somewhat more nuanced.
After the 1919 season, Ruth demanded a raise to $20,000 ($212,733 in current dollar terms)—double his previous salary. However, Frazee refused, and Ruth responded by letting it be known he wouldn't play until he got his raise, suggesting that he may retire to undertake other profitable ventures. He'd actually jumped the team[citation needed] several times, including the last game of the 1919 season.
Frazee finally lost patience with Ruth, and decided to trade him. However, he was effectively limited to two trading partners—the Chicago White Sox and the then-moribund Yankees. The other five clubs rejected his deals out of hand under pressure from American League president Ban Johnson, who never liked Frazee and was actively trying to remove him from ownership of the Red Sox. The White Sox offered Shoeless Joe Jackson and $60,000 ($638,200 in current dollar terms), but Yankees owners Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston offered an all-cash deal—$100,000 ($1,063,667 in current dollar terms).
Frazee, Ruppert and Huston quickly agreed to a deal. In exchange for Ruth, the Red Sox would get $125,000 in cash and three $25,000 notes payable every year at 6 percent interest. Ruppert and Huston also loaned Frazee $300,000, with the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral. The deal was contingent on Ruth signing a new contract, which was quickly agreed to, and Ruth officially became property of the Yankees on December 26. The deal was announced ten days later.
In the January 6, 1920 edition of The Boston Globe, Frazee described the transaction:
"I should have preferred to take players in exchange for Ruth, but no club could have given me the equivalent in men without wrecking itself, and so the deal had to be made on a cash basis. No other club could afford to give me the amount the Yankees have paid for him, and I don't mind saying I think they are taking a gamble. With this money the Boston club can now go into the market and buy other players and have a stronger and better team in all respects than we would have had if Ruth had remained with us."
However, the January 6, 1920 The New York Times was more prescient:
"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."
It also turns out that there was a solid basis for the No, No, Nanette story. As Leigh Montville discovered during research for his book, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth (Random House, 2006, p. 161-164), No, No, Nanette had originated as a non-musical stage play called My Lady Friends, which opened on Broadway in December 1919. His research indicated that that play had, indeed, been financed as a direct result of the Ruth sale to the Yankees.
(end of the wikipedia excerpt.)
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So, in 1920 the Yankees have Carl Mays, Babe Ruth, Duffy Lewis and Ernie Shore, who had all been previously with the Red Sox. And Frazee would soon send them; Wally Schang, Herb Pennock, Sam Jones, Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush and Everett Scott.
The 'Rape of the Red Sox' would devastate the Boston franchise for years to come. You just cannot sell that many good players for cheap and expect to stay competitive. Maybe Ban Johnson was right to try to drive Frazee out of baseball after all.
Other developments are relevant to how the Yankees established their brand, too. Elsewhere in the AL, things were brewing. The Chicago White Sox threw the World Series to the Reds in 1919, which led to the permanent banishment of the Black Sox 8. No franchise can absorb that much loss of talent, with absolutely no compensation and stay competitive.
The White Sox still had Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk, Dickie Kerr. But they were not enough. Not by a long shot. So, the upshot is that the 2 strongest AL teams in the 1910s, the White Sox and the Red Sox, were gutted, leaving the fight to others.
The Yankees were the beneficiaries by default, as were the Tigers, Senators, Browns and Indians. The Browns were competitive in 1922, thanks to Sisler/Ken Williams, but couldn't keep it up. Sisler's eye problems did them in.
The Tigers could hit but lacked strong enough pitching to make a real fight of it, despite their credible showing in 1922-24. It remained for the Washington Senators to challenge the Yankees in the 20's and this they handled with 2 pennants. Thanks to Walter Johnson, Goose Goslin, Bucky Harris and Sam Rice. But then they too weakened.
Colonel Huston sold his interests in the Yankees to Ruppert (June, 1923) for $1,250,000. And Jake just kept rolling along. He was quoted as saying, "In no sport can a man of means get the fun he will find in the ownership of a ball club." Apparently he was for real.
In addition to bringing almost the entire Red Sox team to the Big Apple, Jake was quite serious about acquiring other players, when available. When the 1925 Yankees collapsed to 7th place, manager Huggins to GM Barrow and Ruppert, "This team is fried. They are bloated on success."
Huggins and Barrow got rid of most of them and started their '26 spring training a new shortstop (Mark Koenig), catcher (Pat Collins) and second baseman (Tony Lazzeri).
Jake Ruppert was just barely beginning to flex his wallet. Jake Ruppert armed his Yankee dugout with Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel, Earl Combs, Marty Koenig, Joe Dugan. Jake was intent on making his team the envy of Balldom.
Meanwhile, over in Philadelphia, hardly less earnest activity was in progress to meet the Yankees challenge on even terms. Mack suddenly was spending like Ruppert in an exclusive men's clothing shop. Mack & Ruppert turned
the '20's into dueling checkbooks, & neither were bouncing any checks. Over in Philly, Mack was rebuilding & Connie wasn't kidding. In '21 he got Eddie Rommel, in '22, Bing Miller & Joe Hauser, '23 Rube Walberg, in '24, he got Al Simmons & Max Bishop.
For 1925, he picked up Grove, Cochrane, Foxx, veteran pitcher Jack Quinn. For '26, he got shortstop Billy Wambsganss and vet pitcher Howard Ehmke, whom Ty had discarded after '22. These players proved that Connie wasn't fooling about bringing pennants home. He paid $100K for Grove in 10 installments, $50K for Cochrane( plus $150K invested in Portland team, just to sign Cochrane). These were major moves. Back in Detroit, Frank Navin contemplated no such moves during Ty's reign as manager.
Both these teams, the 20's Yankees and Phil. A's were only 2 of the teams determined to win glory in the AL in the 20's. Coping with 2 of the greatest baseball teams of history was the task of the other AL team owners in the 20's. To this day, most of the most respected, authoritative baseball minds consider the 1929-31 Phil. A's & the 1926-28 Yankees as 2 of the very finest baseball teams in all-around balance, that ever played the game. And the 1924-25 Senators were just more icing on the cake.
So, the BB powers in NYC & Philly not only were possessed of deeper pockets, but far more importantly, were possessed of far deeper determination to bring pennants home. They not only out-spent most of the other owners, they buried them completely.
Lou Gehrig's coming to the Yankees was a blessing that slipped by the normally discerning eye of Giants' long-time manager, John J. McGraw. Apparently, John also missed the potential of Hank Greenberg, too. Both were products of the New York sidewalks. Home-grown products. Shame on McGraw. He normally was sharper than that. Lack of defensive skills is something that can normally be taught to rookies. Hitting is much harder to teach.
Several other factors factor into this tale of how the Yankees succeeded so magnificently in branding themselves as the team to envy. The 1929 Wall Street Crash and the prohibition against the playing of professional baseball in Pennsylvania.
It was said that both events crippled the A's as a major rival to the Yankees. It was said that Connie Mack lost a fortune in the 1929 crash and he also had to contend with his team couldn't play baseball in Philadelphia on Sundays until 1934. In November, 1933, the Pennsylvania legislature finally abolished its antiquated 'blue laws'. So, starting in 1934 both the A's and the Pirates could play double-hitters on Sundays, fattening up at the gate.
After 1934, the A's couldn't compete with the Yankees anymore, despite their being allowed to play on Sundays.
Babe Ruth made his exit from the Yankees after 1934. Yankee GM mailed Babe a contract for 1$. Babe returned it unsigned. And that allowed the Yankees to say that it was Babe's choice to not play for the Yankees anymore!!!
That is how the Yanks showed how much they appreciated his fans paying off Yankee Stadium. And they also showed enthusiasm at his going to the Boston Braves!! How nice of them. That's like your ex-spouse showing great enthusiasm at you marrying the next person.
Lou Gehrig played great baseball up until 1937, when he first became ill. He was slumping at the end of the year, so he probably was suffering from his disease even that early.
Joe DiMaggio was scouted by many ML teams when he was setting the Pacific Coast League on fire by hitting in 62 consecutive games. But he hurt his left knee several times and the last time he hurt it, all the other teams lost interest, except the Yankees. And their patience was well-rewarded for the next 15 seasons. You spoke with a thick Italian accept and was very self-consciouses and gave the appearance of being shy and introverted. The NY media machine went to work on turning his negatives into positives. Something they are very adept at doing. They are equally fluent in doing the opposite, when so inclined.
But when you're playing for one of their teams, and hitting in many consecutive games in a row, they were inclined to spin him 'the right way'. Just like they did for The Babe. And Lou.
The New York media machine is quite predictable. They laud you when your interests and theirs converge. When you help them sell their newspapers, they laud you. When you can't produce for them anymore, like Babe/Lou, they ignore how your team threw you away, and write how you were so good when in your prime. Typical media. They are professional sceptics.
When Lou Gehrig got sick, he was allowed to remain on the team for 1939. His job was to give the umpire the Yankee lineup at the beginning of the game. As team captain, this he did. He had the dignity to take himself out of the lineup early at the start of the 1939 season. He was given a Lou Gehrig Day on July 4, I think. This was very nice. And then it came out later that year that he had been sick.
But after the season ended, he was told by GM Ed Barrow, "I think it's time you found a real job." Meaning the Yanks wouldn't carry him another season, or give him a pension. That was before the days of baseball pensions, which only came along in the 50's. This was a cruel thing for the Yankees to do. Lou had been a strong, quiet, unassuming guy. The kind of conservative that Ruppert liked. But Ruppert himself had died January 13, 1939, and the team was controlled by people who might not have known Lou personnally. But Barrow knew him and he could have pensioned Lou like the Pirates had pensioned Wagner. They could have let him coach 3B and carried him at a modest salary of $10K annually. Down from his $39K salary. But they did not carry Lou. It remained for New York City Mayor La Guardia to put Lou on their parole board, since Lou had to keep working to pay his bills. So much for the Yankees taking care of their own.
Cougar was responding to the idea that David Wright is not a team leader.
xFIP?! I laugh at you!
Did you apply an LQ adjustment to your list.
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