[Music]
in the video today we're answering of
you a question because Jeremy B asks us
why did the Red Sox
trade Babe Ruth it was a hundred years
ago this year when the Boston Red Sox
gave the New York Yankees a late
Christmas presents on December 26 1919
Boston sold their star pitcher and
emerging slugger George Herman Babe Ruth
to the Yankees of New York for an
eventual sum of either a hundred
thousand dollars or a hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars the exact amount
is disputed or about 1.2 to 1.5 million
dollars today to be paid in $25,000
installments in announcing the sale to
the media Red Sox president and owner
Harry Frazee said he would have rather
taken players but no team could have
given me the equivalent in men without
wrecking itself so he happily took the
cash the Yankees offered quipping that I
do not mind saying I think they are
taking a gamble nearly a century later
this still remains the most famous and
lopsided trade in sports history of
course Babe Ruth went on to become one
of the most famous athletes in history
while leading the Yankees to four World
Championships over his 15 season tenure
with the team the Red Sox after winning
three World Series with Ruth would not
win again until 2004 an 86-year drought
so here is the story of how it all went
down a century ago and why the Red Sox
chose to sell the best player in
baseball in the first place George
Herman Ruth was born poor On February
the 6th 1895 in Baltimore to a saloon
owner and a mother a failing health as a
young boy he was largely unsupervised
and was generally regarded as a
troublemaker when he was 9 he was sent
to st. Mary's industrial school now the
site of a hospital and baseball field
that's where he was introduced to the
game of baseball by a canadian-born
priest named brother Malthus who Ruth
would later call the greatest man I've
ever known on the diamonds is where Ruth
found his calling light years ahead of
his young peers in every facet of the
game from fielding to pitching to
hitting he was quickly signed by his
hometown minor league team the Baltimore
Orioles where he got his famed nickname
because of his boyish looks and manner
five months later he was sold to the
Boston Red
and nineteen years old Ruth was a major
leaguer and made his pitching debut on
the 11th of July 1914 while immensely
skilled Ruth struggled with being away
from home for the first time when in
Baltimore he was often able to go back
to some Mary's for guidance and
counseling from brother Mathis but there
was no brother Mathis in Boston the
older players like Smokey Joe wood and
Tris speaker weren't exactly the best
influences and they weren't particularly
friendly to young Ruth either giving him
the nickname the big baboon this was a
reference to his stature and a not so
vague racial epithets
to the rumor that Ruth was in fact of
African heritage he began going out at
night with teammates often drinking too
much and staying out too late but he was
talented even after spending a good deal
of the summer sitting on the bench and
playing in Providence Boston's minor
league team he emerged in 1915 as one of
the best pitchers in baseball going 18 8
with an e ra of 2.44 which was for
modern fans and ER a+ of 114 he helped
lead the Red Sox to the 1915 World
Championship still trouble was afoot the
20 year old had just gotten a raise and
was taking full advantage of being a
well paid professional athlete as the
2007 biography the big band the life and
times of Babe Ruth put it he was a kid
Letta loose in an adult fun house nights
only ended when morning arrived money
removed the last of his few inhibitions
home Warren is rather legendary exploits
with the ladies see our video on the
today I found out channel Babe Ruth the
ladies man he was beloved by some
teammates and hated by others for his
loud profane and uncontrollable ass use
in fact teammates started calling him to
head in a reference to his literal and
figurative large hat while the team
mints coaches did what they could to
corral him a bit they did not do enough
after all he was too good and too
important of the team to impose real
consequences on his potentially
destructive behavior in 1916 Ruth was
even better and the Red Sox won the
World Series again
however again Ruth's social life
threatened his baseball career despite
getting marrieds the year before the
late-night partying and womanizing it
increased arethe was just as good of a
player in 1917 and pitched his own
no hitter but that year he also started
hitting while he didn't play everyday he
occasionally pinch-hit and often knocked
the cover off the ball
in 1918 after battling with the coaching
staff about more playing time he was
finally inserted into the lineup and
began as Sabre puts it likely the
greatest nine or ten week stretch of
play in baseball history while also
continuing a dominating stretch of
pitching after another championship roof
should have been a Red Sox for life but
he wasn't in 1919 the Red Sox lost more
games than they want you in large part
to pitching injuries despite Ruth's
setting the all-time record for most
home runs in a single season at 29 the
reasons for selling Babe Ruth's contract
when numerous ants
went beyond his behavior for one he saw
his own future as a power hitting
everyday player not a pitcher who played
only every few days Ruth hated sitting
on the bench and he knew that he was as
valuable if not more so hitting and
playing the field every game the Red Sox
declined to see it this way after 1919 s
lost season because of injuries to
pitchers the Sox felt like they had to
have Ruth on the mound in addition
decreased attendance to Fenway Park
resulting from the Red Sox's poor season
and partially the after-effects of World
War one made owner Frazee a bit worried
about money he also felt Ruth's constant
demands for a pay rise were not only out
of line but something he simply could
not afford anymore there was also the
matter of the relationship between
Frazee in Yankees own Jacob Ruppert put
forth the American League's founder ban
Johnson in court for not disclosing his
stakes in other competing teams phrasing
rivet were friends making a deal between
the two teams easily sorted out to
validate this a side deal that could
have never happened today was struck
where rivets took on Frazee's Fenway
Park mortgage for a short time as a
secret thank you for selling him the
best player in baseball even if Ruth's
talents were undisputed the trade it
wasn't immediately cursed in Boston many
vans knew of Ruth's late-night constant
marathon like exploits and his heavy
indulgences there was a fear that he
would party himself out baseball sooner
rather than later
Rendon Deeds the once chiseled physique
of Ruth's early years was already
beginning to balloon into the tabie
persona that we all remember
today Frazee seized upon this using the
excuse that Ruth was a loose cannon it
had too much of an ego as the reason for
the trade on top of that while he had
proved his exploits as a hit sir that
was a sense that pitching was more
important than hitting anyway in the
so-called dead ball era what no one saw
coming was that Ruth nearly by himself
would turn baseball into a hitting sport
after the trade was made
Ruth negotiated a contract that easily
made him the highest-paid player in
baseball history he did not disappoint
in his first season with the New York
Yankees leading the American League in
eight offensive categories and helping
the Yankees become the first team in
history to attract more than a million
fans to the ballpark he also led the
league with an astonishing 54 runs the
next closest home run hitter that year
had only 19 in 1921 the Ruth led Yankees
made it to the first of seven American
League pennants in a 12-year span which
included four World Series wins the
impact of the Babe Ruth trade has
resonated for a century now since 1920
the Yankees have won 40 pennants 27
World Series and the club is generally
regarded as the most successful team in
baseball history the red sox has won
only eight pennants and four World
Series in that time so I really hope you
found that video interesting if you did
please do give us a thumbs up and don't
forget to subscribe this is a new
channel so it really does help also do
check out my other channel today I found
out that is linked to below and as
always thank you for watching