In 1918 the Boston Red Sox won their fifth World Series title, the most by any club at that time. One of the stars of the Boston championship franchise was a young pitcher by the name of George Herman Ruth, also known as "The Babe" or "The Bambino." In 1920, however, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed money to finance his girlfriend's play "No, No, Nannette.", another story was that Babe Ruth was a serious problem (and continued to be one in New York) and because it was not then apparent that he would become the player he did. The contract was a straight sale, the Boston Red Sox got no players in return. Babe Ruth's contract was sold to Colonel Jacob Ruppert's New York Yankees for $100,000 (plus a loan collateralized by Fenway Park). Since then, the Yankees, who had never won a World Championship before acquiring Ruth, have gone on to win 26 world Series titles, and are arguably one of the greatest success stories in the history of sport. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox have appeared in only four World Series since 1918, losing each one in game seven. Many consider Boston's performance after the departure of Babe Ruth to be attributable to "The Curse of the Bambino." The phrase ("Curse of the Bambino") already had a long history when in 1990 Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy used it as the title of his team history. The phrase was also used as the title of a musical play in 2001, directed by Spiro Veloudos. As the title drought stretched on and on, national sports media often made reference to the curse when the Red Sox were doing notably well—or notably poorly. Many serious fans considered the "curse" just a bit of media created fluff that was good for book sales, television networks, and witty T-shirt slogans, but without basis in history. Over the years, the Red Sox have compiled one of the most infamous stories of defeat, near miss, and utter collapse that the world of sports has ever known. At any rate, the Red Sox seem to have exposed the so-called curse to be nothing but a piece of speculative fiction by triumphing over the Yankees in improbable fashion and then winning the 2004 World Series. The Yankees' success rate since the sale of Ruth is stunning. They have won 17 more World Series than the second most successful teams, the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, who both won 9 championships. Ruth, by then more known for his batting than for his pitching, was a high profile part of the 1923, 1927, 1928 and 1932 titles. And even when not winning American League pennants and/or World Series championships, the Yankees have been a model of consistency, finishing in the first division for a record 39 consecutive years from 1926 through 1964, all inclusive and suffering only two last place finishes since the sale (in 1966 and again in 1990). References to the "curse" do not usually cite any specific event in which Ruth himself invoked retribution; they rather look back to his departure and the beginning of the title drought as a coincidence. Skeptics sometimes suggest that the curse was merely a poor excuse for the team's long-term underperformance. Whatever their opinion on the issue, until 2004 the eternal refrain of disappointed Red Sox fans had been "wait 'til next year." The "curse" did not always wait for the Series, however. In 1949, the Red Sox needed to win just one of the last two games of the season to win the pennant, but lost both games to the Yankees. Ironically, the Red Sox were managed by Joe McCarthy, who had previously steered the Yankees to 7 World Series titles. The most dramatic defeat for the Red Sox, the one which seemed to have "confirmed" that there truly was a "curse", came in 1986, when Boston squandered three leads in what would have been the deciding sixth game before losing in the 10th inning to the New York Mets after a fielding error by first baseman Bill Buckner. The Red Sox faced the St. Louis Cardinals, the team to whom they lost the 1946 World Series and 1967 World Series. In the 2004 World Series with a four game sweep, they successfully ended the eighty six year title drought, and with it, the "curse."