The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend

by Glenn Stout

WINNER of the Society for American Baseball Research's (SABR) 2017 Larry Ritter Award for best baseball book of the Deadball EraThe Selling of the Babe tells the complete story surrounding the most famous and significant player transaction in professional sportsThe sale of Babe Ruth by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1919 is one of the pivotal moments in baseball history, changing the fortunes of two of baseball's most storied franchises, and helping to create the legend of the greatest player the game has ever known.More than a simple transaction, the sale resulted in a deal that created the Yankee dynasty, turned Boston into an also-ran, helped save baseball after the Black Sox scandal and led the public to fall in love with Ruth. Award-winning baseball historian Glenn Stout reveals brand-new information about Babe and the unique political situation surrounding his sale, and the lifting of Blue Laws in New York affected Yankees owner and beer baron Jacob Ruppert-Previously unexplored documents reveal that the mortgage of Fenway Park did not factor into the Ruth sale-Ruth's disruptive influence on the Red Sox in 1918 and 1919, including sabermetrics showing his negative impact on the team as he went from pitcher to outfielderThe Selling of the Babe is the first book to focus on the ramifications of the sale and captures the central moment of Ruth's evolution from player to icon, and will appeal to fans of The Kid and Pinstripe Empire. Babe's sale to New York and the subsequent selling of Ruth to America led baseball from the Deadball Era and sparked a new era in the game, one revolved around the long ball and one man, The Babe.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Biography

399 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 8, 2016

About the author

Author of the Jazz Age true crime yarn Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple (2021), NY Times bestseller The Pats: An Illustrated History of the New England Patriots (2018) The Selling of the Babe (2016), Fenway 1912 (2012) and Young Woman the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World (2009) currently set up and in development as a major motion picture for Disney +. (ETA 2021). Since becoming a full-time writer in 1993, Glenn Stout has written, ghostwritten or edited 100 books representing sales in excess of two million copies. Stout is also author of The Cubs, The Dodgers, Nine Months at Ground Zero, Yankees Century, Red Sox Century, and has served as Series Editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception. Glenn also consults on a variety of writing projects (books, proposals, Longform narratives). He has won both the Seymour Medal and Ritter Award (twice) by the Society for American Baseball Research, and Yes Se Can! made the 2012 Amelia Bloom list for feminist content. He lives in Vermont.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love baseball, I love the Red Sox, and I love Babe Ruth. Reading baseball books is one of my great pleasures, because the game so readily lends itself to literary endeavors. I'll say this in favor of The Selling of the Babe: I learned a lot about Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, particularly about his relationship with Ban Johnson, that I didn't know before.

The rest of the book? Well, there are many feats a baseball writer can hope to lay claim to, but making Babe Ruth (!) boring ought not to be one of them. This book lacks passion, humor, life, historical color, and reads like a series of fact charts. It's too bad, because the topic is so ripe for a deep mining and the characters in baseball and Frazee's Broadway ought to have leaped from the pages.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough review of baseball's transition from the 'dead ball' era to the modern 'live ball' era. The sale of Babe Ruth from Boston to NY was part of the story; the author fills in the rest very nicely.

[Mike Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read which gives an account of Ruth's early years in baseball up through the 1920 season, his first with the New York Yankees. It also dives into Harry Frazze and his ownership of the Boston Red Sox, Col. Jacob Rupert and his ownership of the New York Yankees as well as Ban Johnson and his stewardship over the American League. It's an interesting read for someone, like myself, who enjoys reading about the game and the country was at this time.

[Larry Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book - it was not an effort to be a biography or portrait of Babe Ruth, but was a deeper dive into the 1919 and 1920 seasons and specific circumstances surrounding the Babe Ruth deal that sent him from the Red Sox to the Yankees. It was part social history, like the US entry into World War I and how that impacted teams and players, including how the war changed how the physical baseballs were made and marking the end of the "dead ball" era of baseball, and how the beginning of Prohibition necessitated a new source of income for the Yankees owner. It also covered a good deal of the inside politics of the ownership of Major League teams and their motivations, both personal and financial. And of course, it covered Babe Ruth's contribution to elevating individual athletes to celebrity status, with individual performance becoming as much or more of an appeal to fans than the team's performance. Well written and tightly focused; highly recommended for those interested in baseball and US history of this era.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Stout has written a refreshingly objective accounting of these early years prior to Ruth becoming a titan of the game. Stout’s insights on the foibles and infighting between Ban Johnson and the unscrupulous behaviors that set the framework for an independent commissioner are very informative. Harry Frazzee receives a level headed examination, lacking the villainy biases so popular in baseball lore and reveals him to be a much savvier (and richer) businessman than the popular press’ lasting caricatures. His tone is occasionally mercenary in seeking the objective truth, so cloaked in mystery and whitewash is this particular subject. I appreciate the effort, as it’s more academic and journalistic in scope than other attempts at tackling this vexing topic. By a fan, for fans who want an informed baseball read to get them through once the pennants are again decided.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-researched and outstanding read for a baseball fan. It provided excellent insights of the sale of the Babe by Red Sox owner Harry Frasee, correcting numerous misconceptions of other writers.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and reasonably well-written, but the author has a habit of aquatinting ballplayers of the 'teens and 'twenties with more modern players, and of using modern slang (even some mild present day obscenities) that took me right out of the era of the story.

[John Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly straightforward tome on the creation of Babe Ruth, stripping away the years and the false mythology. There was no curse, just poor management that followed the arrival of a talent no one had experienced or knew how to control. The Babe became baseball as he remade it in his own image.

[James Hansee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so much more than just the selling of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The author does a good job of explaining baseball in the context of the era and of explaining the shift from the dead ball era to the live ball era. If you are a fan of baseball, this is a great read.

[Brady Hartle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great book I learned a lot of stuff about Babe Ruth that I did not know

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read more than a few Ruth biographies and appreaciations and have always left them with no greater understanding of who Ruth was and what he thought and felt than before. To be fair, that is because, in part, because the interior Ruth did not exist - he left no letters, diaries, or other writings beyond what ghostwriters wrote for him. Consequently, what we do of Ruth is not what he said but what he did. Glenn Stout, the author of "The Selling of the Babe: The Deal that Changed Baseball and Created a Legend" takes a deep dive into the years 1918-1920, explaining how the Boston and the rest of the baseball world saw Babe Ruth at the time and how what he did on the field and off led Harry Frazee, the much-maligned owner of the Boston Red Sox, to the very reasonable decision to sell him to the New York Yankees. This was a deal, according to Stout, that was a win-win for all involved, including Frazee, who was able to buy Fenway Park and sell the Red Sox a few years later for twice the purchase price.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book puts to bed a lot of the urban legends behind the transaction that sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. No, it was not to finance a musical production for Red Sox owner Harry Frazee. No, Ruth was not the beloved Red Sox player as he often was selfish and slumped when upset. There were a lot of politics involving Frazee and American League president Ban Johnson. The research in this book is superb and well written for the most part. There are a few passages that require careful reading but overall this is a terrific book on the biggest transaction in baseball history.

[Lee Schnitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. What a terrific read. A great book for Yankees fans, Babe Ruth fans, and yes, even Red Sox fans. Even the casual baseball fan will enjoy this.

Finally a book that shatters the old story of Frazee selling Ruth to finance a play. It's an in depth dissection of how war, industry, money, politics and power all shaped the advent of modern baseball as we know it. And it all began with Babe Ruth.

Baseball season is about to start. Give this a read. You won't be disappointed.

[Ian Yarington · Rating 4 out of 5]

being a huge baseball fan and playing it for most of my childhood, even into adulthood, I can't help but have a special place in my heart for the Babe. Before Bonds broke the record he was the homerun king and his lore was bigger than life. I think this is what made me appreciate the book the most, it brought the situation back down to Earth and made it easy to understand. Not just easy to understand, it went in depth, and really got into it. I really enjoyed this book.

[Lane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is interesting but lacking. As a stand alone book it covers the years of 1918 to 1920 in baseball with a focus on Babe Ruth and his sale to the Yankees from the Red Sox and its influence on the game of baseball. It is a good overview but sadly Ruth does not come alive. If you have not read many of the numerous others books on Ruth and Baseball history, this story is limited and really only fills out if you have the background of the players and times.

[John Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times it was hard to put down---part baseball, part finance, it describes why the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

[Jon Nielson · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting facts, but it's a slow read.

[Pocosnoopy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concentrated view of three years in Babe Ruth's career; 1918, 1919, and 1920.