By BILL SANDERSON
June 23, 2008
For decades, Broadway star Tessa Kosta's friends guarded an amazing artifact: the bat Babe Ruth used to help forge baseball's fabled Curse of the Bambino.
Now one of the few pieces of physical evidence of the hex that brought 86 years of futility to Boston Red Sox fans is up for sale.
"To me, the curse is what made it really special - that there was this bizarre story behind it," said Lon Clark, 42, the bat's current owner, who hopes it will fetch up to $200,000 when it's sold at a two-day auction July 14-15 at the Javits Center.
The story of the curse began in January 1920 - more than a year after the Sox had won their last championship, in 1918 - when owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth's contract to the Yankees for $125,000 in cash and a $300,000 loan. He invested the money in the Broadway musical "No, No, Nanette," a move long since lamented by Sox fans.
Ruth's acquisition by the Yankees, of course, was the beginning of the Bronx Bombers' greatness and their astonishing run of 26 World Series wins.
But the deal also began decades of misery for the Red Sox, who didn't win another world championship until 2004.
Ruth quickly became one of New York's top celebrities and late-night revelers, and he knew Kosta from around town.
On April 27, 1924 - months after the Yankees' first World Series win - he signed over a game-used bat to her, with these words: "To Tessa Kosta, From Babe Ruth."
Kosta, who liked to call herself "Tessa Kosta, the diva," was married to Richard Madden, a theater agent who represented Eugene O'Neill and was one of the producers of "No, No, Nanette."
"No, No, Nanette" was a hit, and it also had a successful Broadway revival in 1971. After Madden's death, Kosta collected royalties from the show.
She kept the bat for decades and eventually gave it to Lon Clark's grandfather.
The Javits Center auction also will feature a baseball cap Ruth wore in the 1920s and '30s. It's expected to fetch $150,000 to $250,000.
