JANUARY 5th - People Do Stupid Things



On this day in 1920, the New York Yankees officially announced the purchase of George Herman Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000. He had played six years for the Bo Sox, starring more as a pitcher, and they had won three World Series. In 1919 Babe had broken the home run record with 29 and had become the biggest attraction in baseball. So naturally new owner, Harry Frazee, decided to sell him to the Yankees enacting an 86 year curse for the most boneheaded trade in sports. 125K. Granted that’s about 1.5 million today, which is still...just awful. Look I’m not saying I’d spit on 1.5 million dollars if you tried to give it to me--and you are welcome to try--but Giancarlo Stanton just got a 325 million dollar deal. The deal was from Miami which means it more than likely a boneheaded move in the opposite direction, but still. Frazee figured Babe Ruth was only worth 1.5 million dollars! Now he may have gotten an additional 300K in loans, putting his value of the Bambino up to around 5 million. So any way you slice it, he was an idiot. Now apparently there were extenuating circumstances such as Ruth holding out and his off-field antics, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Frazee only got 125K for Ruth. But hey sometimes people do stupid things. Like trying to flush the toilet again despite the water in bowl rising. And sometimes they do really stupid things. Hugh Grant got caught with a hooker when he was dating Elizabeth Hurley. Have you seen Elizabeth Hurley? People do stupid things. Life goes on. You keep trucking along. True, it took the Sox 86 years of trucking before they got over it. But Hugh Grant got another five years with Elizabeth Hurley after the hooker debacle. And who could ask for more than five years with Elizabeth Hurley? So keep trucking friends because stupid things can be overcome.

This day has been Marked.

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