Boston Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan packed his bags for Maine at the end of the 1916 season. He was done. For Babe Ruth and the rest of the crew, the post-season didn’t end with retirement. It ended with a hunting trip in New Hampshire. Their wives tagged along. It was a winner’s vacation.
Babe had just collected his share of the World Series profits. The check? $3,780.25. That was more than his entire yearly salary. Season earnings for the young pitcher topped nearly $7,500. Think about that. You could buy a brand new car for a few hundred bucks in that era. Ruth spent the money fast. He bought an 80-acre spread in Sudbury, Massachusetts. It was 20 miles from Boston. He and his wife Helen named it “Home Plate Farm.”
It should have been paradise. It wasn’t. Helen spent years there. Ruth found it too quiet. He preferred the noise of the world. The fun wasn’t going to stop. He just didn’t know how fast it would change.
The Villain Arrives
Carrigan wasn’t the only big name leaving Boston. Joe Lannin, the owner, was in trouble. Bad heart. Upset about Carrigan quitting. Frustrated by the fan backlash over the Tris Speaker trade. On November 1, he announced he was selling the club. The price tag? $650,000. The buyers? A trio of investors.
The leader was Harry Frazee. A New York theatrical producer. He would later be remembered as the greatest villain in Red Sox history. But in 1917? He was just a charming showman.
Frazee had risen from a bellhop in Peoria, Illinois, to owning two of the nation’s top theaters. He knew how to sell. He convinced Boston fans he cared about their team. He didn’t. His mind was always on the next show.
Within five years, he would tear down the team. He shifted the American League’s power center from Boston to New York. The Yankees started winning championships. The Red Sox started floundering near the bottom of the standings for over a decade. None of that happened overnight.
Frazee spent his first months trying to coax Carrigan back. He also claimed to be negotiating a massive $60,000 deal for Walter Johnson. Both attempts failed. The Johnson deal was likely a public relations scam. Fans ate it up anyway.
He even promised to become a Massachusetts resident, provided he could return to New York each New Year’s Eve. The Boston Globe wrote:
“Harry Frazee, at least, combines experience in the game [with] a genuine love for it… he is a fan ‘from way back,’ and that is reassuring.”
Nobody saw the trap.
Ruth Gets a Raise
Babe Ruth liked Frazee. Or at least, he liked the idea of him. American League president Ban Johnson was warning that salaries had to come down for the league to survive. Frazee cut paychecks for most of the World Series winners. He offered almost no raises.
Except for one. Ruth’s salary went from $3,500 to $5,000. He was pleased. He reported to spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was fit. Helen was with him.
He felt like a veteran. His teammates accepted him as a star. The camp under new manager Jack Barry was loose. Carefree. Ruth’s loud laugh echoed in the bowling alleys and around the poker tables.
The real world was tense. The threat of World War I was growing. Ban Johnson ordered drill practice. Players ignored it. Then President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2. Finally, the teams took it seriously. Ballplayers marched in time before Opening Day.
Patriotism filled the air. Babe Ruth shut out the Yankees 10-0 in Boston’s opener at the Polo Grounds.
But this was a peak before the drop. The infrastructure of the team was rotting from the top down. The money was going elsewhere. The talent was being traded away.
Ruth’s future held both highs and lows. The rise was real. The fall was coming.
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