If you have any spare change lying around that you’re not sure what to do with, I have an idea for you. The 1912 World Series Championship trophy is, as we speak, being auctioned off.

It is a pretty spiffy looking piece and I think it would look great in one of my Red Sox memorabilia cases and as you might suspect, it has a history.

It’s current owner Mr. Robert Fraser, bought it in 2007 from a family friend of the family of this man.

 Jake Stahl

Stahl was the manager of the 1912 World Champion Boston Red Sox and in that capacity he got to keep the trophy. Oh and Mr. Fraser paid $74,000.00 for the coveted silver cup.

Now apparently, Mr. Fraser wanted to auction the trophy off the following year, ya know, turn a quick buck. However, he and his wifes dearest of friends, Mr. and Mrs Nash, said wait a minute, we own part of that trophy. A bit perplexed by it all, the Frasers said but wait mon ami, did we not already pay you for the role you played in assisting us in acquiring this lovely piece? Uh uh, said the Nash duo and well, the battle of the roses, I mean the trophy was on.

 The 1912 World Champs pose with their hardware at Fenway Park.

I know this will shock all of you, but believe it or not, the Frasers and the Nashs ended up in court in what became an ugly custody dispute over who had care and custody of this wonderful artifact of Fenway Park history. This delayed the auction and the opportunity for Mr. Fraser to turn a quick buck.

Not only that, but I bet it cost Mr. Fraser a few sheckles to procure the services of some pretty high-powered lawyer type folks to fight on his behalf for his right to turn that quick buck on the trophy.

It took several years and finally a New Jersey judge agreed with Mr. Fraser and he said that Mr. Nash “intentionally, willfully, maliciously, unlawfully and recklessly” disregarded the Frasers’ rights and interfered with their ability to sell the trophy! Yikes that sounds pretty emphatic to me.

Well, as you might suspect, the Frasers and the Nashs are not best of friends anymore, however, the trophy is now up for auction. It is currently sitting at $120,000 and they are saying that it might sell for as much as $300,000! Not bad eh?

http://sports.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7057&lotNo=&lotIdNo=84001&ts=on

Now I know some of you might be thinking that you have seen this trophy on display at Fenway Park. Not so fast, that’s a replica. So I think that Mr. John Henry ought to dig into his billions and cough up the dough and purchase this thing don’t you? After all a few hundred K is nothing but chump change for him.

I know that Mr. Fraser would love to see Mr. Henry get involved but irregardless things seemed to have worked out pretty well for Mr. Fraser as that not so quick buck will turn into a bit of a bigger buck. But golly gee Wally, he lost his best buddy Mr. Nash in the process.

As I learned of this I was struck by a conversation I had with a buddy of mine a few weeks back. It was one of those heavy conversation type topics, you know about what’s really important in life. How fragile it all is, you know the ones I mean. He said to me, and I paraphrase, “when you’re on your death-bed what will you want around you? Will you want your program from the 1967 World Series, or your 1954 Ted Williams card? How about your Yaz rookie card or your JFK autograph”? Of course not, you’ll want your loved ones around you!”

Hmmmm, and I’m thinking once again, it’s all about relationships, it’s always about relationships!

Funny what that money thing can do ain’t it?

And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, July 30, 2012.