December 26, 1919: The Yankees Purchase Babe Ruth

Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert,

manager Miller Huggins, and slugger Babe Ruth

December 26, 1919: The New York Yankees purchase the contract of outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. It is the most famous transaction in the history of North American professional sports -- or, if you're a Red Sox fan, the most infamous.

Let's take a step back, to properly set it up: On July 30, 1919, Harry Frazee, owner of the Red Sox, traded pitcher Carl Mays to the Yankees for pitchers Bob McGraw and Allen Russell (neither of whom ever did much for either club) and $40,000. There was a hell of a to-do about this, as Mays had left, or "jumped" the Sox and gone home, and was suspended. At the time, the rules said you couldn't trade a suspended player.

This trade pretty much split the American League: Frazee, Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert, and Chicago White Sox owner Charlie Comiskey were on one side; on the other were AL founder and President Ban Johnson and the owners of the other 5 clubs. They were the brothers John and Ben Shibe and Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics, former Yankee manager Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators, Frank Navin and Walter Briggs of the Detroit Tigers, Phil Ball of the St. Louis Browns, and Sunny Jim Dunn of the Cleveland Indians.

The National Commission, which oversaw baseball in those days, ruled in favor of Frazee and Ruppert, and Mays became the 1st major player to go from Frazee's Sox to Ruppert's Yanks. There would be more. (Mays' role in the death of Cleveland Indians player Ray Chapman is a story for another time.)

As a result of the Mays contretemps, Frazee, Ruppert, and Comiskey, now known as "the Insurrectos," could pretty much now only make deals with each other, as the other AL owners, "the Loyal Five," wanted nothing to do with them.

Due to circumstances that Frazee should have been able to control, but didn't, he had to get rid of Babe Ruth, who, in 1918 and '19, had gone from being baseball's best lefthanded pitcher to being the biggest power hitter in the game, but also the biggest headache. He was already a carouser, and he was demanding that his salary be doubled from $10,000 to $20,000 for the 1920 season.

So Frazee sold the Babe to the Yankees, mainly because Ruppert was willing to pay $125,000 for Ruth's contract; while the other possibility, the White Sox, were run by Comiskey, a notorious cheapskate. (His parsimony led to a problem with that year's World Series, as you may be aware.)

So if you're a Red Sox fan, don't blame Frazee for what happened: He didn't have much choice, unless he wanted the press and the public to think Ruth was running the team.

The deal was announced on January 5, 1920. People in Boston weren't happy about it. But nobody could have foreseen what would result from it. Ruth revolutionized the game with the Yankees, turning the home run from a rare thing into a common occurrence. And there would be more deals between Ruppert and Frazee, as Mays would be joined on the Yankee pitching staff by former Sox Waite Hoyt, "Bullet Joe" Bush and "Sad Sam" Jones.

From 1918 to the present... Yankees 27, Red Sox 0. Without cheating, anyway.

UPDATE: The Red Sox have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 World Champions: Manager Bill Carrigan, shortstop Everett Scott, 3rd baseman Larry Gardner, left fielder Duffy Lewis, center fielder Tris Speaker, right fielder Harry Hooper, and pitchers Smoky Joe Wood, Dutch Leonard, Herb Pennock and Babe Ruth.

But from the 1920s, they have inducted only outfielder Ira Flagstead and pitcher Red Ruffing -- and, in Ruffing's case, it's only because he's in the main Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and that for what he did later, after he was... traded to the Yankees. From the 1930s: Team owner Tom Yawkey, general manager Eddie Collins, shortstop and manager Joe Cronin, catcher Rick Ferrell, and pitchers Lefty Grove and Wes Ferrell. That should give you an idea of how bad the Sox were from the 1919 sale of Ruth until Yawkey bought the team in 1933.

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December 26, 1919 was a Friday. It was the off-season for baseball, The NFL and the NBA did not yet exist. The NHL did, but it held no games that day.

In Western Canada, there was 1 game in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The Victoria Cougars beat the Seattle Metropolitans, 2-1, at the Patrick Arena, built by the hockey-playing brothers Lester and Frank Patrick, in Victoria, the capital of the Province of British Columbia. 

This was no mean feat, as the Metros had won the PCHA title and reached the Stanley Cup Final in the previous season, against the NHL Champion Montreal Canadiens, but it was called off due to the Spanish Flu epidemic. In 1917, they had beaten the Canadiens to become the 1st American-based team to win the Stanley Cup. They would go on to win the PCHA title again in 1920, but lose the Stanley Cup Final to the Ottawa Senators, and fold in 1924.

The Cougars would win the West Coast Hockey League title in 1925, and beat the Canadiens, making them the last team from outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup. They moved to the Western Hockey League, and won their title in 1926, but lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Montreal Maroons. Along with their league, they folded, but the bulk of their players were signed for a new team in the NHL. While not officially true, it can legitimately said that the Victoria Cougars still exist today, as the Detroit Red Wings.

In Britain, December 26 is known as Boxing Day, and England's Football League plays on the day, usually nearby rivals, to make it easier for people to travel. In this era, there tended to be what Americans would call a split doubleheader: Two teams facing each other at one's ground on Christmas Day, and at the other's ground the next day.

For North London team Arsenal, it wasn't a nearby team on this occasion. On the 25th, they lost to Derby County, 2-1 at The Baseball Ground, so named because Derbyshire was one of the few parts of the British Isles where baseball caught on, but only briefly. By this point, the stadium had been redeveloped so that playing baseball there was just about impossible, and you had a stadium which, like the Polo Grounds in New York, was named for a sport that was not being played there. On the 26th, Arsenal and Derby played at Highbury, and Arsenal won, 1-0.

November 11, 1889: Washington Is Admitted As the 42nd State

November 11, 1889: Washington is admitted to the Union as the 42nd State. It is the only State named after a President, George Washington. It is also the only State with a green State Flag, and the only State with a State Flag with the face of a real person on it, rather than a representation of some principle or other.

Other States have been named after people, but not Presidents:

* Delaware: Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a colonial administrator.

* Pennsylvania: William Penn, its founder.

* Georgia: King George II of England.

* Maryland: St. Mary, mother of Jesus.

* South Carolina and North Carolina: King Charles I of England.

* Virginia: Queen Elizabeth II of England, "the Virgin Queen."

* New York: James, Duke of York, brother of King Charles II of England. James succeeded his brother, becoming King James II.

* Louisiana: King Louis IX of France, a.k.a. St. Louis, "the Crusader King." The City of St. Louis, Missouri was also named for him.

Washington was in the Northwest. It had been acquired as part of the Oregon Treaty of 1846. It has become known for its rainy climate; but, when the weather is good, it is known for its outdoor activities: Bicycling, camping in its forests, climbing Mount Rainier, riding the ferry from Seattle (including to Victoria, the Provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada), skiing in the Winter.

Its largest city, Seattle, is particularly known for the U.S. Navy base in nearby Bremerton; the accompanying aviation industry, as the birthplace of aircraft manufacturer Boeing; the computer industry, as the birthplace of Microsoft; and the coffee industry, as the birthplace of Starbucks. The State Capitol is Olympia.

Politically, Washington tends to vote Democratic. However, as with neighboring Oregon, and fellow Pacific Coast State California, the further inland you get, the more conservative people get. This is particularly true of "The Palouse": Eastern Washington (including Spokane), Eastern Oregon, and Northern Idaho, the State's Panhandle. The highest-ranking politician produced by the State has been Thomas S. Foley, who was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995.

That political divide is evident in the 2 major colleges with sports programs: The University of Washington, in Seattle, is generally thought of as liberal; while Washington State University, in Pullman, 288 miles to the east, is considered conservative. The annual Thanksgiving weekdn football game between "U-Dub" vs. "Wazzu" is known as the Apple Cup, named for the State's best-known agricultural product.

Seattle was home to the 1st American team to win the Stanley Cup, the 1917 Seattle Metropolitans. But after their league failed in 1926, the city, and therefore the State, didn't return to the major leagues until 1967, when the NBA expanded to include the Seattle SuperSonics. 

After decades with the Pacific Coast League, with teams called the Siwashes, the Turks, the Giants, the Purple Sox, the Indians, the Rainiers and the Angels, baseball tried the Seattle Pilots in 1969, but they were bankrupt and failed after 1 season. When the Kingdome opened in 1976, the NFL expanded to the Seahawks, and MLB expanded to the Mariners.

The Sonics won the 1979 NBA title, but were moved in 2008. There were new stadiums for the Mariners in 1999 and the Seahawks in 2002. The Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. The Sounds won the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019.

The Seattle Sounders played in the North American Soccer League from 1974 to 1983, and MLS expanded to include a new Sounders team in 2009. In 2021, the NHL expanded to include the Seattle Kraken, and the movement to bring in an expansion or moved team to become the new Sonics remains strong.

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November 11, 1889 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Basketball was 2 years away from being invented. Hockey barely existed. There was 1 college football game on this day: Lehigh University beat Penn State, 106-0 at the Athletic Association's Grounds in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Lehigh coach Jake Robeson mercifully offered to stop the game with 5 minutes left on the clock, and it remains the worst loss in Penn State football history.

This was a long time ago: Teams would sometimes play 2 games in less than 1 week, and Penn State had played Lehigh's nearby arch-rival, Lafayette, just 2 days before, and lost that, 26-0. They did play 2 other games that season, and win both, also against Pennsylvania teams, Swarthmore and Bucknell. Penn State was not yet the power that it would become, and, because of the diversion of the schools' footballing prowess, Penn State have not played Lehigh since 1942, and Lehigh haven't beaten them since 1936.

April 5, 1919: Joe Hall Dies, Stanley Cup Finals Canceled

Joe Hall

April 5, 1919: For the 1st time, the Stanley Cup Finals are canceled. There was little choice, and it had nothing to do with the greed of the hockey teams' owners.

In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans, Champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, became the 1st American-based team to win the Stanley Cup, beating the Montreal Canadiens, defending Champions, and again Champions of the National Hockey Association. At age 29, Pete Muldoon became the youngest head coach ever to win the Cup, and remains so.

The National Hockey League was then formed, and the Canadiens joined it. In 1919, the Canadiens won the NHL title again, with stars like Joe Malone, Edouard Lalonde, Didier Pitre, Joe Hall, Odie Cleghorn and Georges Vézina.

They were skillful: "Cannonball" Pitre was the fastest skater in the League, "Phantom" Joe Malone its leading scorer, and player-head coach "Newsy" Lalonde perhaps its best all-around player. And Georges Vézina was the best goaltender, the man for whom the award for the NHL's top goaltender would eventually be named.

But they were also tough: Odie Cleghorn was dirty, "Bad" Joe Hall was perhaps the dirtiest player in the game, and Billy Coutu would actually go on to get banned for life because of an attack on a referee. (The ban was lifted after 2 years. Odie's brother, Sprague Cleghorn, then with the Ottawa Senators but a future Canadien, was dirtier than Odie, but not dirtier than Hall.)

With future Hall-of-Famers Frank Foyston, Jack Walker and goaltender Harry "Hap" Holmes as holdovers from the 1917 Champions, the Metropolitans won the PCHA title, setting up a rematch with "Les Habitantes."

But the Metros would be going into the Finals without their leading scorer. Not because he was stricken with what became known as "The Spanish Flu," an epidemic raging throughout the world since the previous August. Nor was it because he was serving in World War I. It was because he wasn't serving: Just before Game 1 of the PCHA Finals against the Vancouver Millionaires, Bernie Morris was arrested for draft evasion.

He was a Canadian citizen, and thus a subject of the British Empire. But because he was working in America, even though it was in professional sports, a treaty between the Empire and the United States meant that he was supposed to register for the draft. Once he did that, he would have been allowed to claim an exemption. But he did not appear on his induction date, and became "the first foreign national on the West Coast convicted of draft evasion."

After being sent to the U.S. military prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay -- later to be turned into the most famous of all American civilian prisons -- he was transferred to a U.S. Army unit. In March 1920, he was granted an honorable discharge, and was permitted to rejoin the Metropolitans for the Stanley Cup Finals. Which did them, and him, no good in 1919. (Where was Clarence Darrow when Morris needed him?)

As with 1917, the Canadiens and the Metropolitans reached an agreement: Because of the distance between Montreal and Seattle, all the games would be played at the Seattle Ice Arena, but they would alternate with each league's rules: PCHA rules would be used for Games 1 and 3, and, if necessary, 5; while NHL rules would be used for Game 2 and, if necessary Game 4.

As could easily be guessed, the team whose league rules were used won each of the 1st 3 games. Foyston scored a hat trick in Game 1, part of a 7-0 Metropolitans win. But the Canadiens won Game 2, with Lalonde scoring all 4 of Montreal's goals, before Seattle came back with 2. Perhaps Foyston took that personally, as he scored 4 goals in Game 3, and the Metropolitans won, 7-2.

Frank Foyston

Game 4 was a purist's delight, as regulation, an overtime, and a 2nd overtime all ended 0-0, with both Holmes and Vézina stopping every shot. As the clock was winding down in the 2nd overtime, Louis Berlingette of the Canadiens appeared to have a clear shot, but just missed. Lalonde and Muldoon met, and agreed to halt the game, leaving Seattle up 2 games to 1, with 1 tie. The Ice Arena could only hold 4,000 people, but they all gave both teams a standing ovation.

Newsy Lalonde

But the next day, the agreement between the teams began to break down. Lalonde argued that, since Game 4 did not reach a conclusion, Game 5 should be a replay of it, and so NHL rules should be used. Muldoon insisted that the original agreement, that Game 5 would use PCHA rules, hold. In the end, Lalonde let the original agreement stand, but got a concession that, if the Canadiens won Game 5, tying the series, then Game 6 would be under NHL rules. Since alternating was what had been done, Muldoon agreed.

Pete Muldoon

A deal was also reached between the officials of each league, and the Cup's trustees: No more ties. No matter how long it took -- and, in the 1930s, there would be 2 Playoff games going to 6 overtimes -- the teams would play until somebody scored a winning goal.

On March 29, Game 5 was played. After 2 periods, the Metropolitans led, 2-0. But they faltered, the Canadiens took advantage, and at the end of regulation, it was 3-3. After 15:51 of overtime, Jack McDonald scored to give the Canadiens the 4-3 win. The series was tied, 2-2-1.

After the game, some players were taken to a hospital. Some of the Seattle players were carried home. At first, it was suspected that they were exhausted and dehydrated, from playing 9 periods of hockey in a span of 4 days. But the hospitalized players were diagnosed with the Spanish Flu.

Most countries downplayed the epidemic, which may have reduced the chances of protecting oneself against it, and increased the chance of death. (As with COVID-19, over a century later, people tended to wear masks in public, and, for many people, this worked.) It was feared that, if the solders learned how many people, in their ranks and back at home, had the flu, and how many were dying from it, it would ruin morale.

But Spain was neutral, not fighting in the war. Their newspapers reported on how the flu ravaged their country. Even King Alfonso XIII was infected, although he survived. So the disease became known as "The Spanish Flu," even though it was an All-American thing.

The 1st wave of the flu hit the U.S. in February 1918, and peaked in April. A 2nd wave began in August, and, with U.S. troops having arrived in France, it spread throughout the Allied ranks. British and French soldiers took it to their colonies in Africa and Asia. This 2nd wave peaked in late October 1918, with Philadelphia reporting 4,600 deaths in one week. That's a "9/11" and a half, at a time when our country had about 1/3rd the population it has now.

There was a 3rd wave that began in late February 1919, after the Armistice, and it was still going on April 1, the day Game 6 was supposed to be played. We may never know how many people this epidemic killed: Estimates range from 50 to 100 million, possibly as much as 5 percent of the world's population. That's right: This disease may have killed 1 out of every 20 people in the world at the time. And the war was one of the causes. And not everybody died: About 500 million got sick from it, which could be 1 out of every 4 people. One out of four people on the planet.

There were 70 million people serving in the armed forces of one country or another in World War I. About 10 million people died in service, and at least that many civilians' deaths can be attributed it -- not counting the flu epidemic. So, about 20 million people died as a result of the war. The flu killed at least 3 times as many.

Lalonde -- remember, their head coach as well as their best player -- Hall, Coutu, Berlinguette and McDonald were all in a hospital, across the continent from their homes, and not even in their home country. Their fevers were between 101 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Game 6 was postponed indefinitely.

George Kennedy, the former professional wrestling champion of Canada who had become Montreal's top sports promoter, and owned the Canadiens, asked for emergency conditions: He wanted to use players from the next-closest PCHA team, the Victoria Cougars. But PCHA president Frank Patrick (Lester's brother) refused. With this in mind, Kennedy was willing to forfeit the series, and claim the Stanley Cup and the title of World Champions. But Muldoon was sporting enough to refuse this: He did not want to accept the Cup on the basis of his opponents' catastrophic illness.

Four days later, on April 5, Joe Hall died. He had won the Stanley Cup in 1907 with the Kenora Thistles, and in 1912 and 1913 with the Quebec Bulldogs. But now, he was dead at the age of 37. "Bad Joe" was one of the dirtiest players of his time, but was mourned as if he was already beloved.

Kennedy would also be hospitalized. Although the flu didn't kill him, it permanently compromised his health. On October 19, 1921, a few weeks short of his 40th birthday, he died.

With Hall's death, Game 6 was canceled outright. It is the only time the Stanley Cup Playoffs have been played without reaching a conclusion, and, aside from the canceled season of 2004-05, the only time since the Cup's establishment for the 1893 season that it hasn't been awarded.

At first, the tradition of engraving the winning team's name, and those of its players and officials, onto the Cup was not observed, because there was no winning team. In 1948, when the Cup was given its current "barrel" shape, an engraving was made, reading:

1919

Montreal Canadiens

Seattle Metropolitans

Series Not Completed

The Metropolitans reached the Finals again in 1920, losing to the Ottawa Senators, despite the return of Bernie Morris. In 1921, '22 and '24, they lost the PCHA Final to the Vancouver Millionaires. After the 1923-24 season, they were evicted by the new owners of the Seattle Ice Arena, and folded.

Despite the growth of the NHL, and the existence of the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1979, Seattle wouldn't get another major league hockey team until 2021. On October 26, 2021, the Seattle Kraken raised a banner honoring the 1917 Stanley Cup win, but not a banner representing their 1919 PCHA title and Stanley Cup Finals appearance. The opponent that night, fittingly, was the Montreal Canadiens. Seattle won, 5-1.

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April 5, 1919 was a Saturday. There were no other hockey games. Professional basketball barely existed. Football was out of season. And baseball was still in Spring Training.

There were, however, other sports that day. The 1918-19 season would be the last in English soccer with the Football League suspended, as the war ended too late to start a full new season. So this would be the last season of "The London Combination" and other small regional leagues. Among the games played that day: Arsenal defeated Chelsea, 2-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, known as Highbury for its North London neighborhood.

March 26, 1917: The 1st American Stanley Cup

March 26, 1917: For the 1st time, the Stanley Cup is won by a team from outside Canada. It would be the biggest shock to Canadian hockey until the 1972 Summit Series.

The Montreal Canadiens won the National Hockey Association title in 1916, and beat the Portland Rosebuds for their 1st Stanley Cup. The Rosebuds were the Champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and the 1st American-based team -- the 1st team from outside Canada -- to play for the Cup.

The Canadiens had some of the earliest members of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Centers Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde and Didier "Cannonball" Pitre, right wing Jack Fournier, left wing Jack Laviolette, and goaltender Georges Vézina, for whom the trophy for the NHL's top goalie would be named. (The Vezina Trophy has no accent mark over the E in its official name.)

In 1917, the Canadiens won the NHA title again. This time, the PCHA title was won by the Seattle Metropolitans. Founded in 1915, they included some future Hall-of-Famers: Centers Frank Foyston and Jack Walker, and goalie Harry "Hap" Holmes.

A surviving Seattle Metropolitans sweater

The entire Stanley Cup Finals, best-3-out-of-5, would be played at the Seattle Ice Arena, due to the huge distance between the competing teams' cities. But the rules would alternate between those of the NHA and the PCHA. The Canadiens surprised no one by winning Game 1, 8-4. Pitre scored 4 goals. But in Game 2, also played under NHA rules, the Metros took a 6-0 lead before the Canadiens got a late consolation goal.

Seattle Ice Arena

The PCHA rules took effect, and Seattle lead only 1-0 after 2 periods in Game 3, but Vézina couldn't hold the Metros off forever, and the game ended 4-0. Game 4 was played on March 26, and an early goal by Bernie Morris set the tone. The Metropolitans won, 9-1. Pete Muldoon, who had previously played for the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA, was just 29 years old, and remains the youngest head coach ever to win the Stanley Cup.

The shock to Canadian hockey sensibilities was great. In November, the National Hockey League was founded, to replace the NHA. However, there was no connection between the events: The real reason the NHL was formed was so that the member teams could get away from a troublesome owner, Eddie Livingstone of the Toronto Blueshirts. Essentially, they all dropped out of the NHA and formed the NHL, leaving Livingstone with control of a league with one team in it.

And the NHL took the NHA's place as the PCHA's challenger for the Stanley Cup. In 1918, the Toronto Arenas won the 1st NHL title, and beat the Vancouver Millionaires for the Cup. In 1919, Montreal and Seattle played each other again, but the worldwide flu epidemic forced a halt in the Finals, and no deciding game was ever played. The Ottawa Senators beat the Metropolitans in 1920 and the Millionaires in 1921. The Arenas, having become the Toronto St. Patricks, beat the Millionaires in 1922.

The PCHA folded, and was replaced by the West Coast Hockey League. The Senators beat the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1923 Finals. In 1924, the Canadiens beat the Calgary Tigers. In 1925, the Victoria Cougars beat the Canadiens, and remain the last non-NHL team to win the Cup. In 1926, the Cougars were dethroned by the Montreal Maroons.

The WCHL folded, and the freeing of their players led to the expansion of the NHL, which put teams in New York (2 of them), Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago. In 1928, the New York Rangers became the 2nd U.S.-based team to win the Stanley Cup.

The Seattle Ice Arena was bought in 1924, and the Metropolitans had no place else to go, so they went out of business. Seattle had minor-league teams for decades, not getting a team in either the NHL or the World Hockey Association, until finally getting the Seattle Kraken in the NHL in 2021.

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March 26, 1917 was a Monday. There were no other hockey games. Professional basketball barely existed. Baseball was in Spring Training. And football was out of season. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

But on this day, disc jockey and soul singer Rufus Thomas was born. His daughter, Carla Thomas, would also be a big soul singer.