The Babe Ruth Story - The Fierce Rivalry Of The
Red Sox And The Yankees
Author: FR Penn

Near the end of the 1919 season, Harry Frazee, then owner of
the Boston Red Sox, decided to sell a group of his star players
to the New York Yankees. Among them was George Herman Ruth, also
known affectionately as "Babe". Ruth's career reflects the
change in strategy and the shift in dominance from pitching to
hitting at this time.

Babe Ruth had a reputation for being one of the fiercest
"leftys" to ever take the mound. It was soon discovered that he
wasn't too bad with a bat either, and Ruth became the most
celebrated and successful player in Boston. He was practically
an institution. When many Bostonians awoke on January 6, 1920,
and opened their morning newspapers, they mourned the fact that
an icon had been sold to New York. The Babe was gone.

Boston did not seem to be able to recover from this catastrophe
until the 2004 World Series, when the "Curse of the Bambino" was
finally put to rest after 86 years. From 1903, when the Red Sox
were established, until 1920, the club had appeared in five
World Series, and won every one of them.

In the 1916 and 1918 World Series, Babe Ruth set a record, not
for hitting home runs, but for pitching when he notched a 0.87
ERA while pitching 29 and 2/3rds scoreless innings. This record
for shutout innings would stand for 43 years. In 1919, Ruth hit
29 home runs, the most ever by any player at the time.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox finished in sixth place that season.
For a club accustomed to tremendous success, this was a
disaster.

Frazee responded by selling players, Ruth included, that
started a rebuilding period in Boston. The strategy did not
work and Boston finished in last place nine out of the next
eighteen seasons. They wouldn't win another pennant until 1948.


When Ruth arrived in New York, the Yankees had never won the
American League pennant, let alone been to a World Series. They
won their first pennant in 1921, and then won their first World
Series in 1923. In 1920, the Babe hit 54 home runs, a
mind-boggling number given that baseball was just coming out of
its Dead Ball Era. Yes, this was a new era, an exciting one with
tremendous offense and tremendous flamboyance on and off the
diamond.

Ruth hammered 59 homers the following year (1921), and was
showcased in the World Series. Babe Ruth's 1921 season was
arguably the best batting year of any player ever. He played in
152 games and hit .378, collecting 204 hits, 44 doubles, 16
triples, 59 home runs, 177 runs scored, 171 RBIs, 144 walks,
119 extra base hits (a record that still stands), an .846
slugging average, and 457 total bases (another standing
record).

From 1923- 1931, Ruth led the league in homers each season,
except for one. In 1927, he had his best year for round
trippers, knocking 60, a record that would stand for 34 years.
Some still say to this day that the 1927 Yankees' "Murderers
Row" was the best offensive team to ever play the game of
baseball.

The sheer numbers for the Yankees in 1927 make their own
argument. The Curse of the Bambino may have been a nightmare
for Boston Red Sox fans, but for the rest of the baseball
world, Ruth was the messiah of a very worried and downtrodden
sport. The 1919 White Sox (eight of them) had just thrown the
World Series, causing the integrity of the game to be
questioned by a disenchanted public.

Ruth lived with great enthusiasm, and he seemed to immediately
become a living legend after arriving at the media capital of
the world. When he started producing monstrous offensive
firepower, baseball was suddenly exciting again, and the fans
that had turned away in light of the White Sox gambling scandal
started returning to the ballparks. He was "bigger than life,"
and he was the drum major that marched America into "the
Roaring Twenties."

He was a media magnet and hype machine. Some sports reporters
surmised that in one season with the Yankees the Sultan of Swat
"might" slug more than his single season record of 29 homers.
When Ruth destroyed the home run records year after year,
Yankee fans were overjoyed. When he continued to raise the
expectations of fans everywhere, baseball had been resurrected
from the depths of despair and corruption to a bright and
shining era of hope and enthusiasm.


About The Author: By FR Penn sponsored by
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