7 Reasons the Babe Ruth Trade was Not the Worst in Major League Baseball History

One of the most debated topics among baseball fans is "What was the worst trade in baseball history?" Any time this question is brought up you are sure to get a Boston Red Sox fan that will argue that not only did their team trade possibly the greatest player of all-time, Babe Ruth, for $125,000 but the team was cursed for a century afterward. It's time to put this theory to rest. The trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees is not the worst trade of all-time and here are seven reasons why.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because Babe Ruth wouldn't cooperate. Anybody that thinks threatening to sit out of games in order to get more money is a new thing in sports is fooling themselves. Babe Ruth is one of the most revered athletes of all-time but he was a spoiled brat and kind of an ass.

After the 1919 season Babe Ruth demanded to make 20,000 dollars a year because that was how much Ty Cobb was being paid. Babe Ruth said if he didn't get paid the amount he wanted he would sit out. The players, the coaches and the owner all realized this wasn't just an idle threat because Babe Ruth had sat out of games for no reason many times in his career. Babe Ruth even sat out the last game of the 1919 season to prove a point to the Boston Red Sox.

Any time a player refuses to play until he gets paid more and it forces you to trade him you're never going to get equal value for him. The other teams know that you have to trade him so they have all the leverage. A perfect example of this is Shaquille O'Neal. When Shaquille O'Neal wanted to be traded away from the Los Angeles Lakers all the offers were lowball offers and the Lakers had to settle for an uneven trade. Obviously this trade is still not a great one because of the lack of an uneven trade, but if it's the best you can do then it's the best you can do. There have been hundreds of trades since Babe Ruth where the team didn't do the best they could do.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major Leagues Baseball because the other teams would not cooperate. When the Boston Red Sox decided to trade Babe Ruth all the teams except for two refused to work with the Boston Red Sox, the reason I'll get to in a little bit. Just like Babe Ruth demanding to be traded this hurt the chances of the Boston Red Sox making a good move. They only had two offers to choose from so once again the two teams making offers, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox, could make lowball offers

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because the American League President wouldn't cooperate. When the Boston Red Sox decided to trade Babe Ruth five of the other seven teams refused to talk with Boston because the president of the American League, Ban Johnson, pressured them not to. Ban Johnson didn't like the owner of the Boston Red Sox and wanted to go as far as to take the Boston Red Sox away from him. There isn't a whole lot you can do when the President of the American League is trying to destroy your team.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because there is no such thing as fair trade value. Babe Ruth might not be the greatest baseball player of all-time. It might be Hank Aaron or Willie Mays or Barry Bonds even before steroid allegations. But one thing is for sure when Babe Ruth was playing there was a bigger gap between him and the rest of the league than there ever was in baseball and maybe any sport. There was no such thing as fair trade value for Babe Ruth. In order to get trade value for Babe Ruth another team would have to give the Boston Red Sox so many players they wouldn't be able to field a team the next season. Babe Ruth might be the one example in sports history where a fair trade value was impossible.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because the Boston Red Sox got a lot of money. Most people quote the $125,000 dollars as what Babe Ruth was traded for. Actually the Boston Red Sox were paid $25,000 a year for the next 3 years on top of the $125,000. The owner of the New York Yankees also loaned the Boston Red Sox $300,000 on top of that. The Red Sox had to pay back the $300,000 loan eventually but at the time the Boston Red Sox actually got $500,000, not $150,000.

Half a million dollars won't go very far in baseball today but at the time it was a lot of money. As I said before Babe Ruth wanted $20,000 because that is how much Ty Cobb was being paid. So $500,000 was enough money to pay both Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb for 12 and a half years. With that kind of money the Boston Red Sox could have become a dynasty at the time. They weren't a dynasty so clearly they didn't use their money wisely but that doesn't make the trade a bad deal; that makes the deals after the trade bad deals.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because they took the best trade available. As I said before two teams were making offers to the Boston Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox offer was Shoeless Joe Jackson and $60,000. Shoeless Joe was a great player and $60,000 on top of that is a lot of money but if Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb were making $20,000 then how much was Shoeless Joe worth? $10,000? $15,000? The Boston Red Sox got $500,000 from the New York Yankees. They could have bought several players of Shoeless Joe's caliber for several years with the Yankees' offer. Let's also not forget that this was the offseason of 1919, the year of the Black Sox scandal. Though the White Sox didn't go in front of a grand jury until a year later Shoeless Joe's name had already been tainted by allegations that he helped fix the 1919 World Series and cheating in baseball is considered the worst possible crime.

The Babe Ruth trade was not the worst trade in Major League Baseball history because there is no such thing as curses. One of the reasons the Babe Ruth trade is considered so bad is because the Boston Red Sox were cursed. My short answer to that is that is crap and the Boston Red Sox fans need to stop making excuses for being the second best choke artists of all-time (thank you Cubs).

My longer explanation is this. The Boston Red Sox weren't cursed; they were in the same division as the New York Yankees. Let's face it the New York Yankees are the best franchise in Major League Baseball history and they will be for a long, long time. Even if the New York Yankees completely fell apart tomorrow and never won another Championship it would probably take another franchise 50 years to accomplish as much as the New York Yankees, 30 years at least. The reason the Boston Red Sox have lost to the New York Yankees in the standings and in so many close games over the years is just because the New York Yankees are that good, but the Boston Red Sox are also a good enough franchise to frequently be the second best team. If the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox were in the same division as the Yankees all these years instead of the Boston Red Sox then it would probably seem they are cursed too, but it wouldn't be a curse, they just wouldn't be as good as the New York Yankees. I know that Boston Red Sox fans would rather come up with some bogus curse than admit the New York Yankees are just that much better than them but a curse is about as real as Harry Potter.