Quote:
Originally Posted by JimStinson
...In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less, making 75 hitting-only appearances. Ruth himself wanted to hit more and pitch less"
So with the above in mind , why would Ruth sign an agreement to the contrary ?? basically stating that he would "pitch more" ?? which would obviously be required to win 30 games. It was not an "on the spot" decision either as the idea was floated throughout 1917 of converting him to a full time player with Babe Ruth himself pushing hardest for the transition ...Just my two cents but like "Casey" used to say "You can look it up"
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1) Why does it matter what Ruth wanted to do or not do? Didn't the club make those decisions?
2) How does the incentives agreement state that Ruth would "pitch more"? The way I read it is IF he pitches more, he'll get MORE compensation.
Why couldn't Ruth have signed his standard contract, then mentioned that he expected to play mostly in the outfield in the coming season, then be told that the team will use him however they see fit? The team tells Babe it has every intention to get him a lot of at bats, but they can't make any guarantees; however, since they want him to be happy, they say IF, IF, IF, they decide they need to use him mostly as a pitcher, they'll give him extra compensation. Then they write up a hasty side agreement in an effort to pacify him.
If the letter is bogus, then is multimillionaire Pardell part of the scheme, and is his acquisition story a lie? All for $50K (or whatever he got for it 8 years ago), when he was already rich? Or was Pardell duped back in 1982, and the forger at that time mixed this one fake letter in with a number of other authentic contracts and documents for which he got a whopping $5K? And have Guernsey’s, Steve Geppi, Clean Sweep, JSA, two subsequent owners of the letter and a dozen or more high stakes bidders all been fooled?