Trivia
 

Came across this little piece of information. Babe Ruth was sold th the Yankees for $125,000. What player was the second highest sold. This occured prior to May 1922.

May 29, 1922

Chicago White Sox traded Doug McWeeny, $100000 and 2 players to be named later to San Francisco (PCL) in exchange for Willie Kamm;

San Francisco (PCL) received Shovel Hodge (September 7, 1922) and Eddie Mulligan (October 24, 1922).

OK. I will give it to you but that's not the answer I have. I have a list of all the big player sales in the last ten years. Mcweeny is not mentioned. Upon further investigation I found the Mcweeny trade was on 5/22/22, My information comes from a baseball magazine published in May, 1922. That means the trade did not occur at the time of their list. I am going to correct my timeline.

Thankful
 

Every name can be a source of mockery but I would have to say McWeeny is up there at the top!!

I don't know the answer but my understanding was that Ruth was sold for $100K (not $125K), which is why Grove was later sold for $100,600 (in order for it to be the highest sale price).

McWeeny, wow, what a name.

Here's Shovel Hodge. A name like that, you would think a great fielder, as in human vacuum cleaner. But not so, a pitcher, and not a great one.

History.com says 125K
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-...SV&OCID=MY01SV

Wikipedia and Baseball Reference say $100K (of which $25K was in cash, which may account for the disparity?).

McDonalds is selling hot dogs now?

I have seen "reliable" sites use the $100K number and "reliable" sites use the $125K number. It's hard to know who is getting their information second-hand from whom, but here is a link to an auction of the contract promissory note in relation to the sale https://goldinauctions.com/LotDetail...entoryid=10213.

It appears that the $100K number is based on the fact that "The $100,000 payment was to be distributed with $25,000 in cash at the signing, plus three promissory notes each for $25,000, payable over the next several years at a rate of 6% per annum."

Again, I can't say which is correct but it wasn't a straightforward cash deal, which may have resulted in the confusion of the actual number.

Well, they are offering onion rings as of now, or they are here in Fort Myers.

Kamm was the one with the big price tag
 

Isn't everyone reading the post below wrong? - McWeeny was one of the players (plus 100K) swapped for Willie Kamm, who turned out to be an excellent player, but no Babe Ruth...


From the excellent SABR article on Kamm at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/willie-kamm/

"By the time the 1921 season was over, his stock had risen. The Seals were fielding offers from several teams. Pittsburgh was one of them. Although the Pirates were seemingly set at the hot corner with future Hall of Famer Pie Traynor, they were considering acquiring Kamm and moving Traynor to shortstop. The Pirates thought they had a “handshake deal” with the Seals for first refusal on Kamm. But Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey blew everyone away with a record offer of $100,000, pitcher Doug McWeeny, and two players to be named later (pitcher Shovel Hodge and infielder Eddie Mulligan). Pittsburgh scout Chick Fraser said later, “Kamm would have been bought by us no matter what the cost."

"At the White Sox’ spring-training camp in Seguin, Texas, in 1923, manager Kid Gleason gave his approval of the rookie third baseman. “There is the best third-base prospect since the days of the old Orioles; and I’m saying it whatever it cost our club,” he told a sportswriter."

Kamm provided all-Star-level defense and solid offense to the White Sox for a decade. In many of those seasons he was their best (only good) player.

Bill James rates Kamm as one of the best definsive 3B of all time. i can see why: he led the league in Assists 4 times, Putouts 7 times, DPs 3 times, and FA 8 times!

I'd guess the $100,000 had them close to the deal, but it didn't actually happen until Comiskey dangled McWeeny......

I laughed.

That is my understanding also
But amazing how history can be so different with the same result and so well “documented “

I think $100K was the number known at the time...it was the reason Grove was sold for $600 more (although if you count interest, it actually was not more than Ruth).

But I still have no idea of the answer to the original question.

So much for the answer

I still think it would be interesting to know the highest amount paid for a player before Ruth. The only information I could find was that Ruth's sale was the highest up to that point. Maybe I misunderstood but I thought that's what the original question was asking.

Prior to the Ruth trade , The Philadelphia Athletic s sold Eddie Collins to White Sox for $50,000 in 1914.

Would never have guessed that Eddie Collins sold for that much.

I never followed the sales/trade of players before

But this is an interesting part of baseball history

What is interesting to me is that Comiskey, known as being super cheap, laid out $50k for Collins, and pulled out $100,000 and McWeeny for Kamm.

Collins was a spectacular player. Great hitter, drew lots of walks, and a brilliant fielder. He was also a supremely talented baserunner and base stealer. Much of this was due to his very high intelligence, which he is famous for. He thought through the game perhaps more than any contemporary. He was a natural leader who was respected by all, and his teams won, again and again.

Also, Collins was the first reigning MVP to be traded.

I will post the answer tomorrow

answer
 

Leftly Grove

In 1922, prior to the Groh trade, a minor leaguer named Jimmy O'Connell was purchased by the NY Giants fron the San Francisco Seals for $75,000 . In May of the same year, the Groh trade surpassed that one. At the end of the 1924 season and the Giants battling the Dodgers for the pennant, O'Connell offered Heinie Sand a $500 bribe to throw the game. Sand refused and reported the incident to his manager who in turn notified the league. O'Connell was subsequently suspended from baseball for life.