The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend

The complete story surrounding the most famous and significant player transaction in professional sports.

The sale of Babe Ruth by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1919 is one of the pivotal moments in baseball history, changing the fortunes of two of baseball's most storied franchises, changing the game forever and helping to create the legend of the greatest player the game has ever known.

More than a simple transaction, the sale resulted in a deal that created the Yankee dynasty, turned Boston into an also-ran, sold the American people on the modern home run era after the Black Sox scandal and led the public to fall in love with Ruth. Award-winning baseball historian Glenn Stout reveals brand-new information about Babe and the unique political situation surrounding his sale, including:

- The political battle among baseball's elite that inspired the sale.

- How Prohibition and the lifting of Blue Laws in New York affected Yankees owner and beer baron Jacob Ruppert.

- Reveals how a shortage of quality wool due to World War One led to changes in the way baseballs were made that resulted in the inadvertent creation of the "lively" ball.  

- Uncovers Ruth's disruptive influence on the Red Sox in 1918 and 1919, and uses  sabermetrics to showing his negative impact on the team as he transitioned from pitcher to outfielder.

The Selling of Babe is the first book to focus on the ramifications of the sale and captures the central moment of Ruth's evolution from player to icon, and will appeal to fans of The Kid and Pinstripe Empire. Babe's sale to New York and the subsequent selling of Ruth to America led baseball from the Deadball Era and sparked a new era in the game, one revolved around the long ball and one man, The Babe.

GLENN STOUT is the series editor for The Best American Sports Writing and author of many  books, including Red Sox Century, Yankees Century, Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912, the only title to win both SABR's Seymour Medal as the best baseball book of history or biography and the Ritter Award, as the best book of the Deadball Era, in the same year. Stout has also served as Editor for  award-winning Longform narrative journalism. His biography of Gertrude Ederle, Young Woman and the Sea, is under development at Paramount Pictures.