The Yankees Offered to Trade Lou Gehrig to the Red Sox

[Chuck9788]

In 1925 the Yankees offered Lou Gehrig to the Red Sox in return for first baseman Phil Todt.

The Yankees wanted to repay the Red Sox for allowing them to acquire Babe Ruth, a fact that makes one wonder how much of a rivalry existed between the teams 85 years ago.

However, Red Sox owner Bob Quinn decided that the Red Sox would be better off with Phil Todt at first base instead of Lou Gehrig. Everyone knows how that turned out. So Boston team rejected the offer.

Todt's obituary in The Sporting News also claims that the Yankees had offered Gehrig straight up to Boston. The reason seems unbelievable today.

Todt played for Boston from 1924 until 1930. On Feb. 3, 1931, he was sent to the Philadelphia A's for cash. In his eight seasons, Phil batted .258, averaging 10 home runs and 77 RBIs over a 162 game season.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Chuck9788

In 1925 the Yankees offered Lou Gehrig to the Red Sox in return for first baseman Phil Todt.

The Yankees wanted to repay the Red Sox for allowing them to acquire Babe Ruth, a fact that makes one wonder how much of a rivalry existed between the teams 85 years ago.

However, Red Sox owner Bob Quinn decided that the Red Sox would be better off with Phil Todt at first base instead of Lou Gehrig. Everyone knows how that turned out. So Boston team rejected the offer.

Todt's obituary in The Sporting News also claims that the Yankees had offered Gehrig straight up to Boston. The reason seems unbelievable today.

Todt played for Boston from 1924 until 1930. On Feb. 3, 1931, he was sent to the Philadelphia A's for cash. In his eight seasons, Phil batted .258, averaging 10 home runs and 77 RBIs over a 162 game season.

How did Todt play 162 games, when the rest of the team only played 154?

[steve B]

Back then there was essentially no rivalry as we know it now. If I remember it correctly, at one time the Yankees held some portion of the loan to build Fenway Park.

[SAllen2556]

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading something about how Ruth was likely to be sold to the Yankees because the owners wanted the New York franchise to be more successful. Up through 1920 they were not very successful at all. Everyone knew the Babe would help New York, which would in turn help every franchise overall. Maybe trading Gehrig was, indeed, payback.

[Jim65]

This reminds me of the the story told by Jody McDonald (son of former Mets GM Joe McDonald) The Yankees tried to get Joe Torre from the Mets and offered a young minor league Pitcher named Ron Guidry but backed out at the last minute.

[Volod]

The traditional tale has it that Ruth was handed to the Yankees by the Sox because Boston owner Harry Frazee was deeply in debt in 1919 and decided to break up his team to fix his finances. Who knows how accurate that account actually is, but Boston's manager that year, Ed Barrow, did resign and subsequently join the Yankees the next year as GM. He then worked several more deals with Frazee, bringing additional star players to New York. As sharp a judge of talent as Barrow was, I find it hard to believe that he would have considered trading Gehrig to Boston just to help out his old boss, Frazee.

[ullmandds]

it seems, like many minor leaguers today, there were numerous inquiries about gehrig!

This is a copy(telex) of a telegram my neighbor...sportswriter harold rosenthal, gave to me when I was a kid. Wonder where the original is???