The 1919 sales contract that famously sent George Herman Ruth from Boston to New York is going up for auction again. The document in question is the Yankee copy—the Red Sox copy was previously sold for $996,000 in 2005. Red Sox owner
Harry Frazee sold Ruth for $100,000 (and a $300,000 mortgage loan on Fenway Park) after an unsuccessful 1919 season—despite the Babe's offensive and pitching dominance that year. Said Frazee at the time,
"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 that finishes in sixth place." Eighty-six years later, we finally won it all again. Thanks, Harry.
