Babe Ruth

Following his tremendous 1919 season Ruth sought a salary increase from $10,000 per season to $20,000. Frazee, however, still owed the previous Red Sox owner, Joseph Lannin, money for his purchase of the team, and his credit was no longer as solid as it had been a few years earlier. Frazee, a New York theatrical producer, was also good friends with Colonel Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, a partner in the Yankees ownership, and when Ruth kept pressuring for more money Frazee decided to sell his star for $100,000 plus a $300,000 loan from the other Yankee owner, Colonel Jacob Ruppert. The collateral on the loan was Fenway Park, where the Red Sox played ball.

In subsequent years Frazee was demonized for selling Ruth to finance the Broadway show No, No Nanette, but in reality the musical did not open until 1925 (and was successful). Because the Red Sox (as of the 2002 season) had not won another World Championship, the selling of Ruth has taken on mythic proportions of its own and has become known as "The Curse of the Bambino." Indeed, for ten of the next twelve years, Ruth outhomered the entire Red Sox team, which finished in last place most of that time.

During the next two seasons Ruth cemented his legend as the game's greatest slugger. In 1920 he batted.376 with 54 home runs and 137 RBIs. That year he was the first player to hit 30, 40 and 50 home runs in a season. As good as he was in 1920, in 1921 Ruth was even better. His batting average was .378 and he slugged 59 home runs and drove in 171 runs. Only his slugging percentage decreased—and that by one point, from .847 to.846. On July 15, 1921, Ruth slammed his 25th home run of the season, but it was the 138th of his career. That made him the all-time home run champion and every home run he hit for the rest of his career added to his record. (Ruth's all-time record was surpassed in 1975 by Henry Aaron.) Unfortunately for Ruth during these years, there was no Most Valuable Player Award (MVP). It had been awarded in both leagues from 1911 to 1914 (when it was known as the Chalmers Award), but from 1915 to 1921 no award was given. The Chalmers Award was revived in 1922 as the league MVP awards.

In 1920 the Yankees finished in third place, but in 1921 Ruth led them to their first league pennant. New York had its first Subway Series that year with the New York Giants winning the National League (NL) pennant. The Giants, who were the landlords at the Yankees' ball-park, the Polo Grounds, won the World Series five games to three. (Between 1919 and 1921 the World Series was a best five-out-of-nine affair.) Ruth hit .312 with a home run and four RBIs.

The Yankees repeated as AL champions in 1922 with Ruth again leading the way, although his average and power numbers were down from the previous two years. He slugged 35 home runs, had 99 RBIs, and hit for a.315 average. It was the first time since 1918 Ruth had not led the league in home runs (Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns had 39), and the first time since 1919 he was not the RBI leader. (Williams drove in 155 runs.) Still, the Yankees were the champs and once again faced the Giants, who took the Series 4-0. Ruth had a miserable Series hitting just .118 with no home runs and just one RBI.

As if to make up for his poor World Series performance Ruth tore up the league in 1923. It was the inaugural season for the Yankees' new ballpark in the Bronx, Yankee Stadium—or as it came to be known, "The House That Ruth Built." Fittingly he hit the first home run in the Stadium. That season, Ruth led the league in home runs with 41 and RBIs with 131, and was second in hitting with a .393 average. For his efforts he was awarded the AL MVP. Unfortunately, until 1930 previous MVP award winners were ineligible, which probably deprived Ruth of several more awards during the 1920s. For the third year in a row the Yankees met the Giants in the World Series, but this time the outcome was different. Ruth hit three home runs, all solo homers for his only RBIs of the Series, but he batted .368 and scored eight times. The Yankees took the Series 4-2, and for the first time in their fabled history were champions. And Ruth was the king of them all, the Sultan of Swat.

Ruth followed up his MVP season with another tremendous year in 1924, but the Yankees finished in second place. It was a disappointment that presaged the collapse of 1925. Ruth reported to spring training that year even more overweight than usual and with a fever. But after the fever subsided and his wife went back to New York, Ruth returned to his carousing ways. However, by the time the Yankees broke camp to head north, a nagging stomach ache finally forced Ruth out of the lineup and into a hospital. Ruth took a separate train to New York where the pain grew so intense emergency surgery was required for an abscess in his intestine. It went down in Ruthian legend as the Big Bellyache, which sportswriters attributed to too many hotdogs.

Babe Ruth, swinging bat

Ruth didn't really get going until midseason and had only 25 home runs and 66 RBIs that season. As Ruth went so went the Yankees and the team finished seventh.