Signed contract of Ruth's sale to Yankees up for auction
Nearly a century later, the most famous transaction in sports history is still making for some very expensive headlines.
The contract that finalized the Boston Red Sox's sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees has been put up for auction by Lelands.com. Bidding opened at $100,000; as of 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, a second bid had upped the price to $110,000, with another 38 days remaining in the auction.
The document being auctioned is from the Yankees' side of the deal, and is signed by both the Yankees' Hall of Fame owner Col. Jacob Ruppert and his Red Sox counterpart Harry Frazee.
Frazee's copy of the sale last hit the auction block in 2005, when Lelands sold it for $996,000, according to ESPN's Darren Rovell.
Ruth became a star in Boston as a pitcher, where he led the Red Sox to three World Series titles in six seasons from 1914-19. But despite his emergence as a two-way player and home-run threat in 1919 - his 29 homers that year broke the single-season record - Frazee famously sold his star in December to the then-moribund Yankees for $100,000, and a $300,000 loan.
The rest, of course, is history. Ruth went on to become baseball's home-run king and turned the Yankees into baseball's marquee franchise, while the Red Sox wouldn't win another championship for 86 years, spawning the infamous "Curse of the Bambino."
Quiz: How well do you know Babe Ruth's career?
Lelands is also auctioning Ruth's 1927 World Series ring that he won as a member of the famous "Murderer's Row" Yankees.