Harry Frazee

The man who sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 and a $300,000 loan, Frazee was a theatrical producer who bought the World Champion Red Sox for $400,000 in 1917 and sold the last-place team for $1.5 million in 1923. Often when he needed money to cover his theatrical investments, he would sell off his best players, frequently to the Yankees. In the middle of the 1919 season, he sold pitcher Carl Mays, who had left the team, to New York. AL president Ban Johnson voided the deal, insisting Mays should have been suspended and not available for sale or trade. The Yankees went to court and won, causing a rift between club owners that was not healed until Johnson resigned nine years later. Meanwhile, Frazee had contributed Everett Scott and Herb Pennock to the budding Yankee dynasty.