The Babe trade turns 90

On December 26, 1919, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and an additional loan of more than $300,000. There is no question that this trade -- which launched the Curse of the Bambino, elevated the Yankees to their now-pristine stature, and kick-started maybe the best rivalry in sports -- is easily the most significant trade in baseball history, and probably the biggest trade in all of sports.

Although the deal was signed off in late December, it wasn’t officially announced to the public until January 5, 1920.

In other words...

It has been exactly 90 years since the Yankees announced they had traded for Babe Ruth.

It’s certainly interesting to think about how much sports have, and haven’t, changed in 90 years. On the one hand, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee decided to move Ruth because he had demanded a 100% payraise from his usual $10,000 salary. Tired of putting up with his antics and demands, Frazee ditched him -- we’ve seen that several times in the last couple years, where a player is traded because the team just can’t pay him anymore. That’s all the Oakland Athletics have done for about ten years now.

Obviously, the biggest way sports have changed since then is in the media. Babe Ruth had an infidelity and it’s utterly forgettable, whereas Tiger Woods has been on the front page of the tabloids for over a month. Granted, Ruth never cheated on his wife with the same number of women that Woods did -- but then again, who has? Still, the age of people respecting the personal lives of athletes are over, and we can only imagine how Babe Ruth would’ve dealt with today’s press had he been transported to 2010.