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Ruth Builds a House in the BronxYankees-Red Sox Rivalry Shifts to Yankee Stadium for the 1920sThe Yankees-Red Sox rivalry heated up of the field long before the two teams became bitter enemies between the lines. When Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth, a Curse Was Born.
Babe Ruth Becomes a New York YankeeAs we said in the Yankees vs. Red Sox: the Early Years, Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth for $100,000 to the New York Yankees on January 3, 1920. At the time, the trade was buried by the headlines of the gambling scandal created of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox, who were about to face trial for conspiring with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. The trial resulted in all charges being thrown out by the questionable Chicago legal system. However, baseball's new commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, ignored the judiciary's ruling and banned eight members of the Chicago White Sox for life. Among those expelled were sure-fire Hall of Famers Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Ciccotte. Commissioner Landis also expelled third baseman Buck Weaver, who swore until the day he died that he was not involved in the scheme to defraud the Series. Baseball Was in Need of a HeroAs a result of the Black Sox Scandal, morale was at an all-time low in America's game. The sport needed an infusion of energy, of passion and excitement, but not the kind found in the betting parlors of the day. Enter the new and improved Babe Ruth. Fresh off his trade from the Red Sox, the Babe took New York City by storm. He had given up his pitcher's glove in favor of a 42-ounce piece of hickory. Ruth used that bat to change the game of baseball forever. In his first season in New York, he batted hit .376, and broke his own major league home run record of 29 by crushing 54 round-trippers. Ruth's total was more than any other team hit that season. Ruth also had 137 RBI, scored 158 runs, and set new records for on-base average and slugging percentage. But he failed to lead the Yankees to the American League pennant, which prompted Yankee owners to seek new players from a familiar source: the Boston Red Sox. With Frazee more interested in Broadway than Fenway, the Yankees were able to buy many of the players that built the Red Sox dynasty of the 'teens. Between 1920 and 1923, the Yankees imported several Red Sox stars, including: perennial 20 game winner Carl Mays; iron man player Everett Scott, solid starter Joe Bush and future Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt. The infusion of this Boston talent, combined with Ruth's moster 1921 season (.378, 59 HR, 171 RBI), led the Yankees to their first American League Pennant. They repeated the feat in 1922. Each year, howeverm they lost the World Series to the New York Giants. They needed only one more piece of the puzzle to finally break through. Yankee Stadium OpensIn addition to all of the new players, the Yankees got a new home. The new Yankee Stadium, the first three-tiered sports arena in history, opened for business on April 14, 1923. Ruth christened the park by hitting a home run in his first at-bat. The Yankees won their third straight American League crown, and then finally knocked off the Giants in the 1923 World Series. Meanwhile, Back in BostonWith Frazee selling all of his star players to the Yankes, the Red Sox fate turned for the worse. From 1920 through 1923, they finished in 5th, 6th, 8th and 8th place. It was about to get even worse for Boston. And it was about to get much, much grander for the Yankees. At that point, the only rivalry between the teams existed in a series of business negotiations that gutted one great team to build another. The fan bitterness of the losers, and the gloating of the winners, would become a lasting characteristic in the budding rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Read on about the Rivalry with "Murderers Row" . . .
The copyright of the article Ruth Builds a House in the Bronx in Baseball is owned by James Lincoln Ray. Permission to republish Ruth Builds a House in the Bronx in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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