This date in baseball, January 3, 1920

[Auggie]

The secret deal made on December 26 to sell Babe Ruth to New York for $125,000 (twice the amount ever paid previously for a player) is announced publicly. Harry Frazee, the cash-strapped owner of the Red Sox, also secures a $300,000 loan from the Yankees as part of the deal to help finance the stage play My Lady Friends, which eventually became the musical No, No, Nanette.

:rofl:

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No,_No,_Nanette
http://www.nationalpastime.com/

[MaineDem]

1. Cursed anniversary: Babe's sale turns 90

I read this the other day...
12/26/09 2:30 PM EST

Saturday marked the 90th anniversary of the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. There was a time when that topic got people's blood boiling. Now, it is just a transaction in the bio of the greatest player ever.

If you look up the history of Dec. 26, in fact, that secret deal in 1919 doesn't look as big anymore. That same day in 1776, the British lost at the Battle of Trenton. Chairman Mao was born that day in 1893; FM radio was patented that day in 1933; Time magazine's 1982 Man of the Year went instead to the personal computer; the United Soviet Socialist Republic was formally dissolved that day in 1991; and disasters occurred with an Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and a Taiwan earthquake in 2006.

Even in Massachusetts, where generations of frustrated Red Sox faithful once winced whenever that deal was brought up, it is probably more meaningful that on this day in 1620 the first pilgrims landed at what became New Plymouth. This is the day after Christmas, and it is the start of a week-long Kwanzaa holiday celebration. It is a generally happy time for masses of people, and kids are outside playing with their new presents.

Is the big deal a big deal anymore? Of course it is to Yankees fans, because that was the day their team officially owned the contract of pitcher/outfielder George Herman Ruth, then age 24, and it was the impetus for an organization that would rack up 27 World Series titles. You can find his likeness all over new Yankee Stadium, where people congregate on Babe Ruth Plaza. It is notable for baseball history and society in general, because Ruth changed the game perhaps more than anyone, introducing the home run as theater and introducing the concept of the sports mega-celebrity.

For Red Sox fans, it is a footnote, maybe a reminder of how life was like before five years ago, a date to acknowledge and then move on to the day's events at hand. They remember where they were when the so-called "Curse of the Bambino" was ended in October 2004, when the Red Sox overcame a 3-0 Yankees lead in the American League Championship Series and then swept St. Louis. Five Decembers ago, Red Sox season-ticket holder Stephen King and a coauthor were already out with "Faithful" -- the first of volumes of books that offseason chronicling the end of a constantly discussed "curse." Boston would win again in 2007.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091226&content_id=7855388&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos&partnerId=rss_bos