The Day The Baltimore Orioles Sold Babe Ruth
The story you likely never heard of
The Day The Baltimore Orioles Sold Babe Ruth
Most baseball fans don’t know that Babe Ruth originally signed with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League.
The fans that do know tend to assume that Ruth went to the major leagues the same way that minor league players do today.
That would be completely wrong.
The Orioles were owned by Jack Dunn, a man famous for not selling his best players without getting as much money as he could.
However, Dunn was in a tight spot in 1914. The Federal League started playing that season, and included a team in Baltimore. The Baltimore Terrapins attracted large crowds, eating into Dunn’s revenue.
And so, on July 9, Dunn had no choice but to sell his greatest star of all — and before he had even got half a season out of the Babe.
Here is how The Baltimore Sun reported the famous transaction:
The SABR biography for Ben Egan indicates that the three players sold for far less than the reported $20,000:
I’m concerned, however, with how these numbers were derived. This is the footnote:
Stephen McPherson, who wrote the Ben Egan biography, apparently never looked at the Baltimore newspapers. Dunn had just sold Birdie Cree to the New York Yankees 2 days earlier:
The Baltimore Sun then reported the next day that Cree actually earned a price of $8,000, and that two additional players were sold to Cincinnati for a combined $15,000:
Given all I know about baseball in 1915, as well as how clearly talented Ruth was, I strongly suspect that $25,000 was the right price. I also think it was a bargain for the Red Sox, and that the Red Sox knew it.
Ruth actually played in left field the day he was sold:
The Orioles lost, but still had a comfortable hold on first place:
But they couldn’t draw a crowd — not when they were directly competing with a major league club in the same town.
The Sun also featured this short biography of Babe on the same page:
As you know, Shore and Ruth were the two pitching stars of the Red Sox during the 1915 World Series. Shore was good, yes — but there never was another one quite like Babe Ruth.