The deal that cemented Ruth coming to the Yankees!
New York Yankees typed file-copy letter, dated "December 26th, 1919" in pencil along the top border, in which Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert offers to loan Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee $300,000 in exchange for the right to purchase Babe Ruth's contract for $100,000.
On December 26, 1919, the New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth's contract from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000: $25,000 in cash, with the remainder to be paid in three notes of $25,000, each coming due, respectively, on November 1st over the next three years. While that was a large sum of money, it wasn't nearly enough to cover Frazee's debts at the time. To finalize the deal, Frazee negotiated a loan of $300,000, using Fenway Park as collateral for the loan. This is the Yankees' file copy of Ruppert's offer letter to Frazee detailing the terms of the loan. As we can see here, Frazee and Ruppert agreed to change two of the terms; making the loan payable in five years instead of three and allowing the loan offer to be rescinded in ninety days instead of sixty if Frazee failed to meet all the provisions as provided within. Those changes are represented by pencil cross outs and handwritten replacements. Ruppert's secretarial signature appears in pencil along the base. An ink notation on the reverse reads "Offer of loan to Boston Club," below which are Ruppert's initials ("JR") written in a secretarial hand. The letter (8.5x11") displays two horizontal folds, the bottom of which has several tears that have been repaired with vintage clear tape. A few small edge tears are also evident. In Good condition overall.
Provenance from the Barrow Estate and The Barry Halper Collection.
This letter, along with nearly every other surviving document relating to the sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, originates from the estate of Ed Barrow, who was manager of the Boston Red Sox at the time of the transaction, and soon after became the longtime business manager/general manager of the New York Yankees. Many years after Barrow's death, legendary collector Barry Halper purchased his entire business archive from the Barrow family, which included dozens of documents relating to Boston's historic sale of Ruth. (Barry Halper's collection is considered by many to have been the finest private baseball memorabilia collection ever assembled.) In 1999, Halper sold nearly his entire collection at auction through Sotheby's in New York (the collection was so vast that it took over a week of twice-daily live auctions and three months of weekly internet sales to liquidate it). Lot 560 in the live-auction portion of the sale featured a large collection of documents relating to the sale of Ruth, from which this letter, as well as every other "sale of Ruth" document featured in this auction, originates. The entire content of Lot 560 in the 1999 Sotheby's Halper Collection auction has been consigned to this auction by the original purchaser, making this just the third time since 1919 that these historically significant documents will have traded hands.