Jacob Ruppert

January 11, 1915. A lawyer's office in Manhattan. Jacob Ruppert, a brewer who'd never much cared for baseball, and Tillinghast Huston, an army engineer who did, signed the papers on a team that didn't belong to anyone worth envying. The New York Yankees had no ballpark of their own -- they rented the Polo Grounds from the Giants, who tolerated them the way a landlord tolerates a bad tenant. They'd never won a pennant. They carried $20,000 in debt. Ruppert and Huston paid $460,000 for the whole operation anyway.

"For $450,000, we got an orphan ballclub," Ruppert said later, recalling the price a little differently than the closing documents did. Either way, he'd just bought something nobody else wanted.

The Brewer's Son

Jacob Ruppert Jr. was born August 5, 1867, in New York City, the son of a brewer who'd built Jacob Ruppert Brewing Company into one of the largest beer operations on the East Side. The son started at the bottom -- washing barrels for $10 a week in 1887 -- and worked his way to vice president and general manager before his father died in 1915 and left him the whole business, an estate worth more than $6 million. That same year, almost as an afterthought, Ruppert bought the Yankees.

He wasn't a baseball man by background. He was a colonel -- an actual rank, earned in the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard, where he'd enlisted at 19 and where "the Colonel" became the name every reporter in New York used for the rest of his life. He'd also served four terms in Congress, from 1899 to 1907, representing a Manhattan district that had nothing to do with the Bronx he'd eventually build a ballpark in. None of it explained why a beer baron and ex-congressman would want a losing baseball team. But Ruppert ran the brewery like a business, and he decided to run the Yankees the same way: spend what it takes, hire people who know more than you do, and don't apologize for wanting to win.

Buying the Best Player Alive

Ruppert didn't do it alone -- Huston was an equal partner until Ruppert bought him out in 1922 -- but the move that changed everything happened in the winter of 1919. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed cash, and he had the best player in baseball sitting on his roster. On December 26, 1919, Ruppert and Frazee signed the paperwork: $25,000 cash, plus three more promissory notes of $25,000 apiece at 6 percent interest, due each November for the next three years. The total price, principal and interest together, came to $108,375.

That's $100,000 in principal, not the $125,000 the New York Times reported the next morning and that's been repeated ever since. The paper got it wrong within a day of the story breaking, and the wrong number outlived the right one. Ruppert got Babe Ruth for a hundred grand. Five months later, he also loaned Frazee $300,000 against Fenway Park's own mortgage -- a separate transaction entirely, though it's been folded into the Ruth story so many times the two have practically merged into one legend.

I said when I bought this team that I would spare no expense to make New York the greatest city for baseball in the world. Today I am satisfied we have accomplished what we set out to do.

The House He Built to Prove a Point

The Giants had seen enough. Ruth's Yankees were outdrawing the Giants in the Giants' own building, and after the 1920 season, the landlord evicted the tenant. Ruppert didn't beg for a new lease. He bought land across the Harlem River in the South Bronx, hired the Osborn Engineering Company, and built the largest ballpark in the country in barely a year. Yankee Stadium opened April 18, 1923, with roughly 74,200 fans packed into a building designed for fewer. Ruth hit a home run that afternoon. A sportswriter called it "The House That Ruth Built" within days, and the name never left.

Six months later, the Yankees beat the Giants for their first championship -- the 1923 title -- after two straight World Series losses to that same club. It was validation for a plan Ruppert had been running for eight years: buy the team, buy Ruth, build the stadium, hire the right men, and wait.

He didn't just buy players. He hired Miller Huggins as manager in October 1917, small enough that Ruth once threatened to throw him off a moving train and stubborn enough to win anyway. He hired Ed Barrow away from Boston in October 1920 to run the front office, a decision that mattered as much as any player transaction Ruppert ever signed off on. And when Huggins died suddenly in September 1929, Ruppert and Barrow waited a year, let Bob Shawkey take a turn, and then hired Joe McCarthy for 1931 -- a manager who'd go on to win four more titles before Ruppert's death and three after it.

Seven Titles and a Long Wait for Cooperstown

The championships came in waves: 1923 first, then back-to-back in 1927 and 1928 with the Murderers' Row roster, then 1932, then three straight from 1936 through 1938 behind DiMaggio and McCarthy. Seven titles in 24 years of ownership, built on a brewery fortune, a $460,000 gamble, and a hundred-thousand-dollar bet on one outfielder from Boston.

Ruppert died January 13, 1939, in his Manhattan home, before that year's season started. He never saw the Yankees win an eighth title in 1939 under his estate's ownership, and he never made the Hall of Fame in his lifetime -- the honor came 74 years after his death, when the Pre-Integration Era Committee elected him on December 3, 2012, by a 15-of-16 vote, and Cooperstown inducted him the following July. It's a strange gap for a man who built the sport's most successful franchise almost from scratch. Nobody in that room in 2012 needed convincing about why he belonged. They just took their time getting there.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did Jacob Ruppert pay for the Yankees?

Ruppert and partner Tillinghast Huston paid $460,000 for the Yankees on January 11, 1915, buying a tenant club with no pennants and $20,000 in existing debt from previous owners Frank Farrell and Bill Devery. Ruppert bought out Huston's half of the partnership in 1922 and ran the club alone from there.

How much did the Yankees pay for Babe Ruth?

$100,000 -- $25,000 in cash plus three $25,000 promissory notes at 6 percent interest, signed with Red Sox owner Harry Frazee on December 26, 1919. The New York Times reported the price as $125,000 the next morning, an error that's been repeated for over a century, but the actual contract terms put the total cost, with interest, at $108,375.

How many championships did the Yankees win under Jacob Ruppert?

Seven World Series titles came during Ruppert's 24 years of ownership: 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, and 1938. He died in January 1939, before that year's season, so the Yankees' eighth title in 1939 belongs to his estate's ownership rather than his own tenure.

When did Jacob Ruppert get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

The Pre-Integration Era Committee elected Ruppert to the Hall of Fame on December 3, 2012, by a 15-of-16 vote, and he was formally inducted on July 28, 2013 -- 74 years after his death in January 1939. He'd been a long-discussed Hall of Fame omission before that vote finally happened.

Who did Jacob Ruppert hire to run the Yankees?

Ruppert hired Miller Huggins as manager in October 1917, Ed Barrow as business manager in October 1920, and Joe McCarthy as manager for the 1931 season after Huggins' 1929 death and a one-year stopgap under Bob Shawkey. All three are in the Hall of Fame, and all three built pieces of the dynasty Ruppert financed.

He never played the game, never managed a lineup, and spent the first fifty years of his life more invested in beer than baseball. Then he bought an orphan ballclub for less than half a million dollars, spent a hundred grand on the best player alive, and built a stadium to hold the crowds that player drew. The plaque didn't come until 2012. The dynasty came a lot faster than that.