Voting Station

Harry Frazee

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Sports Executive

The Resume

    (June 29, 1881-June 4, 1929)
    Born in Peoria, Illinois
    Baseball team owner/theatrical producer
    Owned the Boston Red Sox (1916-23)
    Owned the Longacre, Lyric and Harris theaters in New York City, the Cort in Chicago and the Arlington in Boston
    Produced the Broadway plays 'Ready Money' (1912), 'The Madcap Duchess' (1913), 'A Pair of Sixes' (1914), 'A Full House' (1915), 'Nothing But The Truth' (1916), 'Ladies First' (1918), 'My Lady Friends' (1919), 'Dulcy' (1921), 'Her Temporary Husband' (1922), 'No, No Nanette' (1925) and 'Yes, Yes Yvette' (1926)

Why he might be annoying:

    He sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 (1920), incurring the Curse of the Bambino.
    He traded a number of other Red Sox players to the Yankees (such as future Hall of Fame pitchers Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt), further running the team into the ground.
    After the Ruth trade, the Red Sox would not finish above .500 for the rest of Frazee's tenure as owner.
    The Associated Press noted, 'Boston fans still shudder when the name of the late Harry Frazee is mentioned, [and] will never forget how he ruined a championship club to make the Yankees a winner.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    Due to a feud with American League President Ban Johnson, five teams refused to deal with Frazee, leaving the Yankees and Chicago White Sox the only teams he could make trades with.
    He initially considered trading Ruth to the White Sox for Shoeless Joe Jackson, but the breaking Black Sox scandal scuttled the deal.
    Most of his other trades with the Yankees looked even on paper; the Red Sox just had the bad luck that the players they got tended to suffer injuries after the trade.
    The syndicate that bought the Red Sox from him led the team to even worse records.
    He was the first Broadway producer to use a song by George Gershwin and to stage a work by a black playwright.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 24 Votes: 95.83% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying