Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-10-2020

Babe Ruth, quoted in the Pittsburgh Press, January 10, 1920:

[Red Sox owner Harry] Frazee is through in Boston and he knows it…Frazee cares nothing for the Boston baseball public and his actions show it.

I have always given the best I had. Frazee tries to alibi by saying that as a star I would be an obstacle to the club winning pennants. I have been with the Redsox six years, and in that time we won three pennants…I have always played for the interests of the [ballclub and Frazee] knows it. Take the Ruth day in Boston for instance, the Knights of Columbus, of which order I am a member turned out in a body to honor me and what did he do? He raised the price of the grandstand seats and held them up. After the game he called me into the office and gave me a nickel cigar for drawing 32,000 people into the park. I even paid for my wife to get in. He talks about shooting square. I guess he did by raising the prices on that day. He is lucky to have anybody in the park at all next year if he owns the ball club.
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I am refused the privilege of playing in my favorite city all because the man who owns the club is money mad.

Somebody call the cops. Babe Ruth has just murdered Harry Frazee with words.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-6-2020

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, January 6, 1920:

BABE RUTH IS BOUGHT BY YANKEES FOR $125,000

Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox, baseball’s super-slugger, was purchased by the Yankees [yesterday] for the largest cash sum ever paid for a player. The New York club paid Harry Frazee of Boston $125,000 for the sensational batsman who last season caused such a furor in the national game by batting out 29 home runs in 140 games, a new record in long distance clouting.

Miller Huggins, manager of the New York Americans, [yesterday] announced he had signed Babe Ruth, champion home run hitter, to play with the Yankees next season…He refused to state what salary Ruth was to receive.

President Harry H. Frazee of the Boston Americans said [yesterday] that he had sold Babe Ruth to the New York Americans because he thought it was an “injustice” to keep him with the Red Sox, who “were fast becoming a one-man team.”

Mr. Frazee said that he would use the money obtained from the New York club for the purchase of other players and would try to develop the Red Sox into a winning team.

As you probably know, Frazee did no such thing. The rest of the Sox transactions before the end of the 1920 season: Traded Bill Lamar and (reportedly a small amount of) cash for Tim Hendryx, claimed Jigger Statz on waivers, purchased waiverbait outfielder Gene Bailey from the Braves, claimed Elmer Myers on waivers.

This was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trade.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-2-2020

A hot take on Babe Ruth’s holdout in the Memphis News Scimitar, January 2, 1920:

Last season the Red Sox owners not only slipped the star a $5,000 bonus for his brilliant work, but they staged a Ruth day in connection with the Knights of Columbus. Several thousand dollars went to Ruth, bringing his earnings for the year to something like $18,000—or more.
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Remember this: baseball can do without Ruth, but Ruth can never do without baseball.

Maybe, but Ruth is still the biggest star in the history of baseball - perhaps the biggest star in the history of North American professional sports. If baseball has ever needed anyone, it was Babe Ruth.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-30-2019

New York Tribune, December 30, 1919:

Boston Gets Outfielder and Pitcher Ready in Case Babe Ruth Deserts Club

The Red Sox gave Bobby Roth, an outfielder, and Maurice Shannon, second baseman [to Washington], and received in exchange Harry Harper, a pitcher; Eddie Foster, second baseman, and Mike Menosky, an outfielder.
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Harry Frazee is evidently taking precautionary measures not to be left flat in case Babe Ruth carries out his threat to quit the Red Sox unless the club meets his demands of $20,000 for the season of 1920.
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The Yankees made an effort to gain title to [Ruth], but were turned down when Miller Huggins proposed a deal to [Ed] Barrow.

I don’t really understand why the Ruth trade was still secret at this point, but it had already been a done deal for four days.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-26-2019

Washington Evening Star, December 26, 1919:

A long-distance telephone conversation with Owner H.H. Frazee of the Red Sox early today brought forth a strong denial that Babe Ruth had been traded to the New York Yankees or that there was a deal on with the New York club for him.
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[Frazee:] “For Ruth, I would expect at least five star players. I think Babe is worth that many, because he is a great drawing card as well as the champion home-run hitter of the game. However, it now looks as though Babe would remain in Boston, because there are no clubs in the American League that could give me the men I want for him.”

Unless…Let me hit you with this idea, Harry. What if - hear me out on this - what if you trade him for a bunch of money and no star players?

Babe Ruth’s 500th Home Run Bat Sells for More Than $1M at Laguna Niguel Auction

Babe Ruth has hit another one out of the ballpark.

The bat used by the legendary baseball player to hit his 500th home run was auctioned on Saturday for more than $1 million.

SCP Auctions didn’t identify the buyer. The auction was held in Laguna Niguel, California.

Ruth hit his 500th homer on Aug. 11, 1929, in a game against the Cleveland Indians. According to SCP Auctions, the ball cleared the right field wall at League Park and rolled down Lexington Avenue.

The Best Post-Season Games Ever Pitched

Don Larsen doesn’t top the list.
Don Larsen doesn’t top the list?!??
Don Larsen doesn’t top the list.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-26-2019

El Paso Herald, November 26, 1919:

Grief reigns in the Ruth family. Bobby Meusel, a mere coast league player, has busted one of Ruth’s “stock” of bats—the “stock” consisting of two specially made clubs.

“Babe” Ruth, the superbatsman, was playing in an exhibition game and had his bats ready in case of emergency. It was Meusel’s turn at bat, and the sturdy Coast leaguer, wishing to have the privilege of batting with one of the clubs that has sent many a horsehide over the big league fences, picked out one of Ruth’s “private stock.”

The ball came straight down the groove and Meusel let go. A sound of splitting wood filled the air as the ball rolled down the field, and Ruth’s bat busted right at the handle. The question now has arisen as to who is the best batsman—Ruth or Meusel. Many believe that Bobby takes the honors, inasmuch as he busted the champion’s bat; while others maintain that the Vernon player failed to hold the bat correctly.

I’ll go with Option C*, that Meusel absolutely knew what he was doing with a bat in his hands, but Ruth was incomprehensibly great.

* - I will not go with Option J, at least not right now.

Babe Ruth’s bat used for 500th homer hits auction block

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The bat used by Babe Ruth to slug his 500th career home run in 1929 is going up for auction, nearly 75 years after he gave it to a friend whose family has kept it ever since.

Ruth became the first player to reach the coveted plateau on Aug. 11, 1929, hitting a solo shot for the New York Yankees off Willis Hudlin at League Park in Cleveland.

In the mid-1940s, Ruth gave the bat to his friend Jim Rice, who was mayor of Suffern, New York. Ruth and Rice enjoyed golfing, bowling and dining together, and Ruth was a regular visitor to the Rice household, where he came to know Jim’s wife, Ethyl, and their children. Rice once beat Ruth in five straight games of bowling.

Terry Rice, an attorney in Suffern and Jim’s only son, is selling the bat. Born two years after Ruth died in 1948, Rice more closely associates Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra with the Yankees of his youth, but he remembers Ruth’s bat sat in the corner behind the television in the family’s den.

Sadly, there’s no evidence that Ruth gave away the bat because he feared Jim Rice…..

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-9-2019

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 9, 1919:

Boston defeated New York in both sections of a double header here [yesterday], the scores being 3 to 1 and 3 to 0.

In the eighth inning of the first game, Ruth hit a home run in the right field for his twenty-sixth home run of the year, breaking the established major league record. Freeman of the Washington National League club, had held the record for years when he hit 25 home runs in 1899.

Clearly a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. It’s tough to imagine anyone hitting more than 26 or 27 home runs in a season.