Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League

Most baseball fans know Red Sox owner Harry Frazee as "the man who sold Babe Ruth," initiating a championship drought that plagued the Red Sox from 1919 through 2003. There is, however, much more to Frazee's story. Earning the enmity of American League president Ban Johnson with his 1916 purchase of the Red Sox, Frazee found himself the object of an intense smear campaign designed to force him out of baseball. Over the next seven years, Frazee, Johnson and their respective allies waged war over several issues, including Frazee's controversial trade of Carl Mays, the Black Sox, the National Commission, and the establishment of a trade deadline. The feud eventually led to Frazee's sale of the Red Sox in 1923 and cost Johnson his ironclad hold on the American League.