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1920 Colonel Huston Distress Letter to Jacob Ruppert Regarding "Ruth Notes" Payment (ex-Barry Halper Collection)
<p>New York Yankees one-page typed file-copy letter, dated February 25, concerning Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee's financial problems, with reference to the sale of Babe Ruth's contract. In this letter, written by Yankees co-owner T. L. Huston to his partner Jacob Ruppert, Huston makes Barrow aware of an imbalance in Frazee's books. This letter is dated almost two months after the Yankees purchased Babe Ruth's contract from the Red Sox. Frazee sold Ruth because he was in dire financial straits at the time, and even with the sale, in which he received $100,000 and a $300,000 loan, we see here that he was still in precarious financial straights. </p><p>One of Frazee's problems centered around still unsettled issues with his original Fenway Park mortgage. Until that matter was settled he could not avail himself of the Yankees $300,000 loan (Fenway Park was listed as collateral for the loan). Also, the $100,000 that Frazee received from the Yankees was not in one lump sum. Frazee agreed to take $25,000 in cash, with the remainder to be paid in three notes of $25,000, each coming due, respectively, on November 1st over the next three years. The initial $25,000 that he received in cash, was not nearly sufficient to cover his debts. </p><p>In this letter, Huston makes Ruppert aware that Frazee was attempting to discount all three of the notes he received from the Yankees in an effort to have access to immediate cash. He further adds "It appears to me the Frazee has devoted $50,000. (our cash payment and note discounted at my bank) to other purposes, and what looked like a very clean proposition two months ago is now a very serious problem to face and solve." (The "clean proposition" alludes to the sale of Ruth's contract, which both Huston and Ruppert clearly felt would solve Frazee's financial problems. The fact that it didn't is what leads Huston to describe Frazee's current state of affairs as a "very serious problem to face and solve.") Huston then lists Frazee's liabilities and assets, which show that he is in need of $55,000 "To overcome." Frazee's largest liability (as listed here) was a $240,000 payment to former Red Sox owner Joseph Laninn, which represented final payment for the club (Frazee purchased the Red Sox from Lannin in 1916). While it is clear that the problem is Frazee's alone, and the Yankees are not directly involved, Ruppert and Huston were close friends of Frazee and were doing everything in their power to help him extricate himself from the financial straitjacket he was in. Because this is a file copy letter, it is not signed, but the "T" in the lower left corner (not to mention the content) identifies the writer as T. L. Huston. The letter (8.25x11") displays complete tears along both horizontal mailing folds, each of which has been repaired by clear tape, as well as toning and several border tears/chips. In Fair to Good condition overall. </p><p>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 his 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 this auction, originates. The entire content of Lot 560 in the 1999 Sotheby's Halper Collection auction has been consigned to this auction by the original purchaser, making this just the third time since 1919 that these historically significant documents will have traded hands. </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)
