King Kong and Godzilla

Today is a mother of a day in Yankee lore, a day in history when two of the giants of the franchise joined the team.

On January 3, 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee completed a deal with the Yanks to send his star pitcher and slugger Babe Ruth to the Bronx in exchange for $125,000 cash and a $300,000 loan. Ruth paid Frazee back by becoming arguably the greatest baseball player who ever lived with the Yankees, leading them to four World Series titles, and, oh yeah, putting a curse on the Red Sox that would last for 86 years. In short, the deal was tremendously one-sided.

On January 3, 1973, another epoch-making deal was finalized, as a group of investors led by Cleveland shipbuilder George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees from the CBS corporation for ten million dollars. At the time of the sale, Steinbrenner was adamant that neither he nor any of his partners had any interest in managing the day-to-day affairs of the club. "We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned," he said. "We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't. I'll stick to building ships."

Of course, within a year, Big Stein had bought out most of his partners and become the team's principal owner. Evidently shipbuilding was beginning to lose its allure.