WOW! Hard to fathom just how much in debt the game of baseball is to Singy old Charles Comiskey! He actually had a chance to get Babe Ruth before the Yankees???? I never knew that! Baseball is so lucky that did not happen, as you can be sure that the boozing, womanizing Babe would have easily fallen in with the Black Sox in 1919 and the baseball world would have never known how great of a player he was to be, much like Shoeless Joe. Today, we would have stories about a mythical Great Bambino and how great he would have been...
Thing is, if 1919 never happened, the 1920's would have been one of the best decades in baseball history. That White Sox team was flat out loaded and would have been going toe to toe with the Yankees on a yearly basis.
Phil RosenthalPhil RosenthalContact ReporterChicago Tribune
For the Cubs fan who seemingly has everything, here's a gift for Mother's Day or Father's Day to consider if price is no issue:
A telegram in which White Sox owner Charles Comiskey rejects the opportunity to acquire Babe Ruth in 1914 for what today would be roughly $400,000 is up for sale with a New Jersey-based auction house.
The missive is among the letters and telegrams from the White Sox to George Earl Windham Mills, a scout for the team from 1909 to ’15, on the block with Robert Edward Auctions through May 6.
The trove of correspondence was first rediscovered by the scout's family six years ago and originally sold at auction in 2013 for $16,500.
That’s 500 bucks more than the apparent price tag for Ruth that the Sox shot down as too expensive, per a handwritten notation from Mills under a telegram from Comiskey on the matter dated June 27, 1914.
The story unfolds in three Western Union telegrams among the 41 letters and 54 telegrams from Comiskey and the White Sox contained in the scrapbook that belonged to Mills.
The first of the three — dated June 9, 1914 — instructs Mills: “Follow Baltimore Club and advise of best players there.”
The second is dated June 17, 1914. It tells Mills: "Secure best price on men mentioned in your wire and when Dunn will deliver advise me at once.”
Mills, who died in 1947, wrote the last names of the ballplayers in pencil below: “Cree, Daniels, Twombley (sic), Midkiff, Derrick, Ruth.”
Mills’ sister, Ethel, shed more light years later with her own handwritten clarification in the margin of the scrapbook album: "Note: Earl told me he could have all six men for $18,000, but Comiskey turned thumbs down. Too much money. Ethel.”
That teed up the end of this story, dated one week after the second telegram. Wrote Comiskey: “Do not need pitchers bad enough to go that high get prices on other men and stay in Baltimore until further advice.”
Here, in red pencil, Mills provided the historical context that is a figurative dagger for any White Sox fan: “Will sell Ruth to Chicago Club for $16,000 cash. Dunn.”
Jack Dunn was the Orioles owner who signed Ruth out of St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys.
Before the discovery of Mills’ scrapbook, it was known the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Athletics passed on the opportunity to buy Ruth from Dunn.
The Reds would up signing the Orioles’ George Twombly and Claud Derrick.
Connie Mack's Athletics nearly closed a $10,000 deal for Ruth, Ernie Shore and Ben Egan but got cold feet. That allowed the Boston Red Sox to pick up the three for $25,000, the equivalent of almost $625,000 in 2018 cash, a couple of days later.
And, of course, the Red Sox and Ruth were together happily ever after.
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