Ruth's 'cursed' contract sold for $1 million US

Less than a year after the "Curse of the Bambino" was broken, the famed contract that sent baseball legend Babe Ruth to the New Yankees from Boston fetched nearly $1 million US at a Sotheby's auction on Friday.

The 1919 contract that shipped Ruth from the Red Sox to the Big Apple sold for a hefty $996,000 at the New York auction, much to the delight of Pete Siegel, a die-hard Yankees fan and owner of a Manhattan-based collectibles shop.

The price was nearly double the presale estimate for the Dec. 26, 1919, contract, signed by owners Harry Frazee of the Red Sox and Jacob Ruppert of the Yankees, and much more than the $100,000 cost of purchasing Ruth.

The crowd at Sotheby's erupted into cheers when the final gavel came down after 15 minutes of intense bidding.

Red Sox fans largely blame the five-page typed contract as the reason the Major League Baseball club hadn't won a World Series title for 85 years.

"The Curse of the Bambino" (Bambino was Ruth's nickname) was finally broken last fall when Boston captured the championship with a win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Before 2004's triumph, the Red Sox hadn't won a World Series since 1918, when Ruth was with the club.

After the Ruth trade, the Yankees' fortunes took off while the Red Sox's faltered. The Bronx Bombers won 26 titles, while Boston lost several heart-breaking championship series.

"This, to me, is the most important sports document," said Siegel, who said he planned to keep the contract in a safe place.

"Besides sports, it crosses over into American history. It has a lot going for it."

Proceeds from the sale were donated to an American domestic hunger-relief agency.

Ruth's contract is the second piece of Bambino baseball nostalgia to pick up big bucks at an auction in the past year.

Ruth's 46-ounce Louisville Slugger, used to smack the first home run in Yankee Stadium history, sold in December 2004 for a whopping $1.26 million, the most ever paid for a baseball bat.

with files from Associated Press