The Colonel Buys the Yanks

Detailing the sale of the New York Yankees to Col. Jacob Ruppert in 1914.

The New York Yankees arrived in their current home from Baltimore in 1903 after being purchased by Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery. Farrell oversaw the day-to-day operations of the club while Devery was merely a stockholder in the team. The pair operated the club right up until the end of the 1914 season, where the story begins. It was reported in November that Devery, a former crooked police chief in New York, had tired of baseball and wanted to sell his share of the club. Between the Yankees and his other team, a minor league club in Jersey City, he had lost money and wanted out.

A week later, Devery broke his silence. He refuted the New York Times report that he was trying to sell the team – sort of. While he accused the paper of “selling his property”, he did say that he would sell his shares if he got his price. Farrell had not yet been reached for comment and it wasn’t known if he would put up his share of the stocks as well. However, all of the talk generated some noise around the league and caught the attention of one man: Jacob Ruppert.

Ruppert was a successful man. He had served in congress for four terms starting in 1898 and before that, achieved the rank of colonel in the National Guard. He had just inherited his family’s Manhattan brewery after his father’s death, which made him even more wealthy. One ambition he had yet to achieve in his life was to own a baseball club and when he heard the Yankees were possibly for sale, he decided to show an interest. He sent a close friend of his, Capt. Tillinghast Huston, to New York to chat with American League president Ban Johnson about the possibility of purchasing the Yankees. Johnson decided that in order for his league to succeed, he needed a strong team in New York. The rival National League already featured the powerhouse New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers and the NL had a stranglehold over baseball in New York.

So while Johnson arrived in New York to met with Huston, he also came to figure out ways to give the Yankees some firm footing, something they had not had in their existence. With the help of friend and Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, Johnson began to try and think of ways to help the Yankees. The first thing they tried to do was to lure Connie Mack away from Philadelphia to come and manage the Yankees. The Athletics were selling all of their major parts and were heading into a long rebuild mode. Still, Mack declined the offer the next day, saying he wouldn’t leave Philadelphia (where he stayed and managed until 1950.)

On December 9th, it was official: Ruppert had entered discussions about buying the team from Farrell and Devery. Farrell had agreed to sell his share along with Devery; putting the entire team up for sale. During a meeting at Hotel Belmont, with Johnson present, the two current owners put out an offer: a take-it-or-leave-it price of $500,000. If they didn’t sell for the price they wanted, they would remain the owners of the team for the 1915 season. That appeared to be too much in Huston’s eyes but Johnson was optimistic that something could be worked out within a week. It was believed that the highest offer Ruppert would take would be at the price of $450,000.

The sides met again in New York two days later. Ruppert was supposed to make his first appearance at the bargaining table but health issues left him at his home in French Lick, Indiana. Ruppert now had another stockholder wanting to buy minority shares alongside him; his representative at the table, Huston. Speaking for to the media for the first time since the sale sign was posted was Farrell, who admitted selling the team wasn’t something he wanted to do but if he got the price he wanted, he could part from the Yankees.

A week later, Johnson took a trip out to French Lick to meet Mr. Ruppert for the first time. At this point, it was widely believed a price, around $450,000, had been agreed upon for the sale but other things needed to be met in order for Ruppert to purchase the club. Two major things were wanted by Ruppert: a strong manager to lead his club and some players from other clubs to help strengthen the Yankees. Johnson, who’s mission was to put the Yankees near the top of the baseball map, had agreed to try and convince the other AL owners to agree to these terms. The president of the American League was also very confident that a deal was about to be closed, saying, “A final conference on the sale of the New York (Yankees) between Col. Jacob Ruppert and my parties probably will be held tomorrow.”

However, the next day was far from what Johnson hoped. He departed for Chicago without the deal closed and the transaction might have taken a few steps back. Ruppert told the president and the other AL owners gathered at the meeting that the price was still too high. The one thing thought to be a cinch in the deal, wasn’t. He would pay $420,000 at the maximum and only once a certain manager’s services had been obtained. The manager who was wanted by Ruppert and Huston was not named but the names had ranged from Mack to A’s bench coach Ira Thomas to Joe Kelley.

The parties negotiated in Chicago over the next week and on the 21st of December, Johnson again thought the deal had been closed. In a meeting with all parties, including most of the AL owners, it looked like all of the terms of the deal had been closed. Ruppert had submitted a list of players he wanted off of other AL teams and the owners okay’d the transfer of those individuals to the Yankees. The name of the manager whom the owners wanted during the meeting in French Lick was finally divulged: current Detroit Tiger skipper Hughie Jennings. However, Jennings declined the offer and so did Mack, again. Despite this, it was said Ruppert had found his man and was happy with the choice.

Just when the deal seemed official, Frank Farrell made his voice heard for the first time in almost a month. He seemed puzzled as what was going on, saying that Johnson, who had power of attorney for Farrell and the Yankees, was keeping him in the dark over the negotiations. He said that the only thing he knows about the proposed sale is what he reads in the paper and he said in a statement perhaps directed at many people involved in the process, “If anyone is seriously considering buying the Yankees they better come and see me. I haven’t seen any money yet.” He continued to say:

“I have named my price. I am willing to sell at that figure, but up to the present time I have heard nothing that would lead me to believe that my terms are satisfactory. If my club is to be sold, I will have to be consulted in the matter, and up to the present time, I have heard nothing…as far as I know, the situation today stands the same as it did several weeks ago. I have had no price offered nor seen any sign of a probable purchase figure. I still own the Yankees, and if they are sold it will be at my price.”

Farrell seemed very miffed as to why Johnson was keeping him out of the bargaining process and let it be known that he was still in control. Before the Christmas holidays, Ruppert decided to take a step towards Farrell, asking him various baseball questions over the phone and then inviting him to a face-to-face meeting. With everything squared away from the American League standpoint (transfer of players, manager found, etc.), Johnson allowed Farrell and Ruppert to hammer out the final few details. So on Boxing Day at the Automobile Club in New York, the current owner and future owner met face-to-face for the first time.

The meeting last all day and Farrell answered many questions from the prospective owners from things ranging from the cost to run a team over a season to some general baseball questions. Farrell and Ruppert declined to comment but Huston made this statement:

“We met Mr. Farrell and talked over the club’s affairs, but all that we can say at this time is that we made very good progress with the negotiations and will meet again on (the 28th). I don’t think it would be fair to Mr. Farrell to say anything more about the matter now, but it will be announced at the proper time. I must say this, however, that from the first we believe that Mr. Farrell has acted very fairly in this matter.”

Negotiations into purchasing the club had started at Hotel Belmont and the parties met there again in hopes of finally finishing the deal. But the deal hit a stumbling block somewhere, it was believed to be that Farrell still wasn’t happy with the price on the table and wanted a half-million dollars for the club. Ruppert wasn’t budging from his offer and was starting to get frustrated. He told everyone at the end of the night that if his terms weren’t met in 48 hours, he was walking away.

Then, Ban Johnson stepped up. He accepted Ruppert’s deal and told Farrell that the American League would pay the difference between Ruppert’s offer and his. On December 31st, the deal was officially announced. Col. Jacob Ruppert and Capt. Tillinghast Huston were the new owners of the New York Yankees. In all, they paid $412,000 for the Yankees while the American League fronted Farrell the rest of his half-a-million dollar wish. Ruppert was named president of the club while Huston was given the titles of secretary and treasurer. The mystery manager was formally announced as well: former Tigers pitcher ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, a successful major league hurler until an arm injury derailed his career in 1912.

Despite the additions of young slugger Wally Pipp and Hugh High (two of the players given to the Yankees when Ruppert bought the team), the 1915 Yankees really had zero improvement for the year’s previous team. The team finished fifth in the AL with a 69-83 record in the first of Donovan’s three seasons with the club. He would be replaced by Miller Huggins in 1918, the man who started the glory years for the Yankees as a manager.

As for Ruppert, he enjoyed a highly-successful stint as the club’s owner. After relations began to sour between the Yanks and Giants in the early-1920s, Ruppert and Huston decided to build a new stadium out in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium cost $2.5 million to construct and the 60,000 seat mega stadium opened in 1923. A year before that, Ruppert bought out Huston’s share of the team and the new ballpark for $1.5 million. He remained the owner until his death before the 1939 season. Until his death, Ruppert had constructed seven World Series champions, doing his part in making a winner in New York. In 1940, the Yankees commemorated Ruppert will the second monument in which would eventually become Monument Park. It reads:

To the memory of Jacob Ruppert 1867-1939

Gentleman · American · Sportsman

Through whose vision and courage this imposing edifice, destined to become the home of champions, was erected and dedicated to the American game of baseball.