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1919 Harry Frazee Signed Purchase Agreement for 1,500 Shares of Boston Red Sox Preferred Stock – Prelude to the Sale of Ruth’s Contract (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
<p>Two-page typed agreement, dated December 15, 1919, between Red Sox majority owner Harry Frazee and Charles Taylor, in which Frazee agrees to purchase Taylor's 1,500 shares of preferred stock of the Boston American League Baseball Club. The agreement calls for Frazee to pay Taylor $150,000 for the shares, plus an additional $13,500 in both paid and unpaid dividends due to him. Signed in black fountain pen (grading 9/10 overall) by both Frazee and Taylor, plus a witness. </p><p>The purchase of Taylor's shares of preferred stock was necessary for Frazee in order to ultimately obtain full ownership of Fenway Park, which was to be used as collateral for a $300,000 loan he hoped to receive from the New York Yankees. The loan was an integral part of the deal for the sale of Babe Ruth's contract, along with $100,000, which occurred on December 26, 1919. Accompanying the agreement is a two-page typed letter, dated December 15, 1919, from Thomas Barry, Frazee's attorney, which represents the original draft of the agreement. Frazee made several changes to the agreement in black ink, and signed the final page in black fountain pen (grading 9/10). <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Both the final agreement (8.5x13") and draft letter (8.5x11") display several horizontal folds and light creases. The agreement is marked "Duplicate" in black ink in the upper left corner. Both documents have been encapsulated by PSA, with the Frazee signatures each certified as "Authentic."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This letter, along with nearly every other surviving document relating to the sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, originates from the estate of Ed Barrow, who was manager of the Boston Red Sox at the time of the transaction, and soon after became the longtime business manager/general manager of the New York Yankees. Many years after Barrow's death, legendary collector Barry Halper purchased Barrow's entire business archive from the Barrow family, which included dozens of documents relating to Boston's historic sale of Ruth. (Barry Halper's collection is considered by many to have been the finest private baseball-memorabilia collection ever assembled.) In 1999, Halper sold nearly his entire collection at auction through Sotheby's in New York (the collection was so vast that it took over a week of twice-daily live auctions and three months of weekly internet sales to liquidate it). Lot 560 in the live-auction portion of the sale featured a large collection of documents relating to the sale of Ruth, from which this letter, as well as every other "sale of Ruth" document featured in our previous auction, originates. </span></p>
Past Sports Card, Memorabilia, Non-Sports Card and Collecitble Auction Items
Other past auction items that may be of interest to you.
February 25, 1920, Colonel Tillinghast Huston Handwritten Letter to Jacob Ruppert Regarding The Sale of Babe Ruth - From The Barry Halper Collection (PSA)
Barry Halper's "Copy" of the 1919 Babe Ruth Sale to New York Yankees Contract (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
Historic December 26th, 1919, Jacob Ruppert Sale of Babe Ruth Letter to Harry Frazee the Day Yankees and Red Sox Owners Agreed to Terms - Ruppert Loans Frazee $300,000 for Fenway Park Mortgage (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
Tentative Payment Schedule of Notes for Babe Ruth (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
December 30th, 1919, Colonel Huston Letter "Consummating a Certain Important Base Ball Deal" aka The Babe Ruth Sale (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
1920 Harry Frazee Promissory Note Directly Relating to the Sale of Babe Ruth (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
December 26th, 1919, Promissory Note from Yankees Co-Owner Colonel Tillinghast Huston to Boston Red Sox for The Sale of Babe Ruth - The Day Yankees & Red Sox Agree to Terms (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
