We’re only a few days away from the start of this year’s MLB Winter Meetings, a gathering of representatives from every team that becomes a recruiting ground for free agents and potential trade targets known as the “hot stove.” With more deals around the corner that will keep us talking, let’s take a look back at some of the significant, and at times lopsided, deals made in the MLB offseason.
Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees
The Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees rivalry is among the greatest in sports, and one of the critical events in the rivalry was when Red Sox owner Henry Frazee sold one of the greatest players of all-time, Babe Ruth, to the Yankees for just $100,000 in 1919. Ruth went on to spend 15 years in New York, hitting 659 home runs and winning four World Series championships. The Red Sox, who won their last title with Ruth in 1918, didn’t win another championship until 2004. Many fans referred to the drought as the “Curse of the Bambino.”