The triumph of the Boston Red Sox in the 2013 World Series this year harkens back to their 2004 series win and the lifting of the 86-year-old “Curse of the Bambino.” Boston won its fifth World Series in 1918. At the time this was more than any other major league baseball team and the Red Sox were considered one of baseball’s strongest and most stable teams. The New York Yankees, on the other hand, were one of the have-nots of professional baseball, the “least” of the three New York City baseball clubs and lightly regarded throughout professional baseball. In the off season of 1919-1920 the Red Sox sold the contract of George Herman “Babe” Ruth Jr. to the Yankees for cash. The Boston Red Sox were owned by theater impresario Harry Frazee. Frazee had a couple of his productions tank and was in need of cash to produce his production of My Lady Friends. My Lady Friends would morph into the musical No, No, Nanette! Frazee had close ties with the Yankee ownership at the time. Ruth would help to usher in the live ball era of big-hitting, home-run baseball. Ruth started his career as a pitcher. He pitched in the 1914 World Series. He was still pitching in the 1918 season but because a number of players were in the service because of World War I, he found himself used much more as a batter. His unorthodox power swing and ability to hit home runs caused him to be identified primarily as a hitter and he just did not want to pitch anymore. He thought that his career would last a great deal longer as a power hitter. He was permanently moved to the outfield in the 1919 season. He and Frazee didn’t get along. Ruth held out signing a new contract at the end of the 1919 season and the Red Sox management considered him a troublemaker and had grown tired of his drinking and carousing.
His arrival in New York to wear the pinstriped Yankee uniform caused an abrupt and lasting change in the culture of baseball. Most historians call the 1920s the “Golden Age” of American sports and Babe Ruth led the way, almost single-handedly making the Yankees the most successful professional sports team of the era. Football had Red Grange, golf had Bobby Jones, boxing had Jack Dempsey, tennis had Big Bill Tilden, but none were as big as Babe Ruth. Ruth was made to be a New York City sports celebrity. Larger than life in all his pursuits, Ruth took on the status of legendary hero and became the darling of the media — and brother did he ever love the limelight!
Harry Frazee was cast as a fool or even a villain. He was accused of throwing away the identity of the Red Sox and placing a black mark on their future. They had won the most baseball championships including the very first World Series, but after the Ruth deal it would be 82 years before a pennant would hang in Fenway Park. The Yankees have 26 championship banners and are the most successful baseball club in history. Yankee Stadium was completed in 1923. The House that Ruth Built was expressly constructed to show off the talents of the “Sultan of Swat.”
There was something else, however, to make Ruth’s arrival to the City of New York essential. In 1919 the Black Sox scandal occurred. That year the Chicago White Sox had won the American League pennant and met the Cincinnati Red Legs in the 1919 World Series. Many baseball fans felt that the White Sox player roster was the greatest in professional baseball history and it was led by Shoeless Joe Jackson. Jackson was considered by many sports writers to be baseball’s greatest player. The scandal, in which eight White Sox players, including Jackson, were accused of taking bribes from gamblers to throw the series, put a black cloud of suspicion over not only the White Sox but on the game of baseball itself — not only baseball, but all sports. While the eight players were found not guilty of federal charges, they were banned from baseball for life. There were calls for the banning of professional baseball or a government takeover of the administration of the game.
Some club owners, sports writers and even some of the players thought that the attention of the baseball world should be shifted from Chicago to New York. New York was the largest city in the U.S. and the news media center of America. The Yankees were a nondescript team whose mediocrity was unquestioned. They could easily be built into a successful operation and kept under the watchful eye of sports reporters. With Shoeless Joe gone, a new baseball hero was needed. Babe Ruth fit the bill perfectly. So in 1920, the Black Sox were forgotten, and with the help of the news media, Ruth became baseball’s greatest player, and the Yankees started down a road of unprecedented success with 26 World Series titles.
As to the Red Sox, owner Harry Frazee continued producing plays, some successful, some not. Even though he was a Presbyterian, he was accused by Henry Ford of being part of the international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Apparently Ford thought that the Ruth deal was a subversive act to destroy the purity of American sports . . . or something. Ford assumed that anyone from New York City and involved in the theater was Jewish.* Frazee sold the Sox in 1922. The Red Sox came close to winning a couple of series championships over the years and were occasionally involved in the playoffs but the hand of fate always seemed to be lifted against them. The “Curse of the Bambino” legend didn’t catch fire until the 1980s, when Yankee fans started making signs and chanting about it during games with the Red Sox. Boston Globe sports reporter Dan Shaughnessy wrote the “Curse of the Bambino” in 1990 which outlined all the legends of the incident and it became part of the sports nomenclature. ESPN really got it going when they found that an attempt by the Red Sox to trade Ruth to the White Sox for Shoeless Joe Jackson had been made in 1918. However, White Sox owner Harry Comiskey didn’t want to pick up Ruth’s expensive contract of $10,000 and wouldn’t go through with it. Anyway the Red Sox won the series in ‘04 and again this year so if there was indeed a curse, it is officially lifted. Some Boston fans suggested that Ruth’s body be exhumed and brought to Fenway Park to be officially apologized to for the trade to the Yankees. Boston doesn’t owe the Babe an apology for anything. Going to the Yankees was the best thing that ever happened to him.
* I could assume that anyone named Ford who was born in Detroit and owned a car company was a fool.
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