*Babe Ruth Thread*

[elmer]

Thank You Very Much Sulton Of What!

Elmer

[SultanOfWhat]

Mostly from ebay:

First 5 are from THE WORLD, New York City, April 19, 1929. You can see that Ruth just hit one to the opposite field. Jenkinson says of this HR (occurred April 18), "Line drive over 402-ft. sign into left field grandstand, 420 ft"













"Intimate Moments With Famous People", LIFE. Babe gets medieval on a dusty rug.

[SultanOfWhat]

Ruth hits grand slam. Jenkinson: "Line drive over scoreboard in right center field and across 20th St., 440 ft".





















Thru pic 446

[SultanOfWhat]

"13 Apr 1921 --- They May Bat The Yanks To A Pennant This Year. Ruth making his first angle."
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[SultanOfWhat]

[Cool Papa B.]

December 26, 1919

90 years ago today the Boston red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 cash and three $25,000 notes payable every year at 6 percent interest. The Yankees also agreed to loan Frazee $300,000, with the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral.

Amazing!!

[SHOELESSJOE3]

90 years ago today the Boston red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 cash and three $25,000 notes payable every year at 6 percent interest. The Yankees also agreed to loan Frazee $300,000, with the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral.

Amazing!!

The landscape of the American League is changed.............dramatically, thats an understatement.
The cream of the AL the Bosox on the way down for a long time, the Yanks on the way up.
At times some will try to defend, to downplay Harry Frazee's bonehead move, there is none. To this day it's still the biggest blunder involving an owner making a deal for an individual player, sent packing.

Harry's alibi, Babe was bringing down the team, they would be better off without him. Some news articles where Harry said a leg injury may leave Babe a cripple in the coming years. No defense for some of Babe's actions, staying out late, jumped the team at one time, problems with umps, he was not bigger than the team, deserved what ever scorn he suffered.

Lets use some common sense here, you try to corral him, he was young and wild, Harry was too hasty. Sure Ruth still had some problems while with the Yanks, still again Harry moved too quickly.
Check the AL stats in 1919, Babe led the AL in a ton of stats, even led the NL, next year he's gone. You have to give a guy like this more time. Bad move Harry, soon he would be getting rid of more his players.

As a lifetime Yankee fan, I say it again, God bless Harry Frazee, he got the ball rolling.

[SultanOfWhat]

This pic had a caption that stated this was snapped in 1933, but the Babe looks much too young for that date. Probably taken in 1922 during his suspension:

[BSmile]

This pic had a caption that stated this was snapped in 1933, but the Babe looks much too young for that date. Probably taken in 1922 during his suspension.

Correct. That picture was taken on April 12, 1922 - Opening Day in Washington.
As were these...the 3rd one shows Ban Johnson looking at a not-so-happy Babe.

[SultanOfWhat]

Thanks, those pics are great. I had seen the last one (blowing smoke), but I didn't know the circumstances.

[yanks0714]

The landscape of the American League is changed.............dramatically, thats an understatement.
The cream of the AL the Bosox on the way down for a long time, the Yanks on the way up.
At times some will try to defend, to downplay Harry Frazee's bonehead move, there is none. To this day it's still the biggest blunder involving an owner making a deal for an individual player, sent packing.

Harry's alibi, Babe was bringing down the team, they would be better off without him. Some news articles where Harry said a leg injury may leave Babe a cripple in the coming years. No defense for some of Babe's actions, staying out late, jumped the team at one time, problems with umps, he was not bigger than the team, deserved what ever scorn he suffered.

Lets use some common sense here, you try to corral him, he was young and wild, Harry was too hasty. Sure Ruth still had some problems while with the Yanks, still again Harry moved too quickly.
Check the AL stats in 1919, Babe led the AL in a ton of stats, even led the NL, next year he's gone. You have to give a guy like this more time. Bad move Harry, soon he would be getting rid of more his players.

As a lifetime Yankee fan, I say it again, God bless Harry Frazee, he got the ball rolling.

Joe, I really don't think that Frazee 'acted too quckly'. I think that the sale of Babe Ruth and other players were just what he wanted/needed to do to raise the cash he needed for his braodway play or whatever.

I think it's clear that the Red Sox were not at the top of his preferences or obligations. At least in his mind. He needed cash to meet obligations. The loans, espically the one where he used Fenway Park as collateral were eveidence of that.

In the end, Frazee's excuses about the Babe were simply a smoke screen to deflect the criticism. What were his resons for unloading a number of other players? I think the various loans really tell the story...he didn't care about the Red Sox that much when compared to his other ventures.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Joe, I really don't think that Frazee 'acted too quckly'. I think that the sale of Babe Ruth and other players were just what he wanted/needed to do to raise the cash he needed for his braodway play or whatever.

I think it's clear that the Red Sox were not at the top of his preferences or obligations. At least in his mind. He needed cash to meet obligations. The loans, espically the one where he used Fenway Park as collateral were eveidence of that.

In the end, Frazee's excuses about the Babe were simply a smoke screen to deflect the criticism. What were his resons for unloading a number of other players? I think the various loans really tell the story...he didn't care about the Red Sox that much when compared to his other ventures.

Sure, we can drop the quickly, what ever his reasons, he did not care about the team, he needed the money, bottom line worst decision involving sending one player packing, what a change of fortune in the AL.
Yes he did send others, some good ones but it still doesn't change the first move he made, he just added to it, soon he would sell the team
Who can say how much revenue over the years Ruth would have brought in attendance figures.
So I won't look for any reasons for his action, only that it was huge mistake, for the Bosox, their fans and the city, even if as a business deal, Harry made out.

[SultanOfWhat]

I used figures from the page below to determine that during Ruth's time with the team (1920-1934), the Yankees' attendance was 82.5% higher than the AL average. By contrast, Highlanders/Yankees attendance had lagged the AL average by 6.5% over the 17 seasons (1903-1919) before Ruth arrived.

Even with the surge in attendance brought on The Babe's presence, an average of only 13,000 fans saw Ruth's home games. Seems incredible, compared to the present day. But we have only to look at the tremendous increase in attendance brought on by the advent of night baseball (from 881,000 in 1945 to 6 seasons averaging 2 million fans from 1946-51, after lights were installed in Yankee Stadium) to understand why attendance was limited in Ruth's era.

Too bad the Babe never got to play in the big ballpark under the lights.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/yankatte.shtml

[SHOELESSJOE3]

[QUOTE=SultanOfWhat;1667867]I used figures from the page below to determine that during Ruth's time with the team (1920-1934), the Yankees' attendance was 82.5% higher than the AL average. By contrast, Highlanders/Yankees attendance had lagged the AL average by 6.5% over the 17 seasons (1903-1919) before Ruth arrived.

Even with the surge in attendance brought on The Babe's presence, an average of only 13,000 fans saw Ruth's home games. Seems incredible, compared to the present day. But we have only to look at the tremendous increase in attendance brought on by the advent of night baseball (from 881,000 in 1945 to 6 seasons averaging 2 million fans from 1946-51, after lights were installed in Yankee Stadium) to understand why attendance was limited in Ruth's era.

Too bad the Babe never got to play in the big ballpark under the lights.[QUOTE]



No doubt why many were there at Yankee Stadium. A few articles in the NY Times tell how hundreds and even a couple of thousand at times would leave late in the game after Babe came to bat, thinking this might be his last at bat.
There is no way to measure how many games on the road where some would attend just to see one man. I won't sell the whole great Yankee team short, I'm sure a good number showed up to see the Yanks.
In one exhibition game the Yanks were forced to return money to some who demanded their money back because Babe did not show, he did arrive late.

How many coaches had a clause in their contracts that they would agree to take batting practice with the players. Babe did when with the Dodgers, I guess maybe even a few hundred or more could be added to the attendance, they really milked this guy, even in retirement as a player.
One trick the Yanks would use at times to put an end to any exhibition games. Move Babe in from the outfield late in the game, let him play first base. Once he was that close to the youngsters a few, then more and more would rush the field looking for a hand shake or autograph. Often once that took place order could not be restored, game over.

On the niight games, more than a few owners thought that would really hurt attendance.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

This was the very first season that Comiskey was double decked over the winter of 1926-27........... Charles Comiskey comments............"No one is going to hit anything out of here now".