INTRODUCTION From The Sports Time Traveler™
NOTE: This is a follow-up article to my previous article titled, “714,” which you can read or listen to at this link:
I know exactly where I was 50 years ago last night.
I was in the den of my house in New Jersey.
Our family was gathered around our 12 inch Sony Trinitron color TV.
I was sitting on the brown shag carpet behind the tiny coffee table that was next to our couch where my parents sat.
My dog, Fluffy, was also sitting near me in his favorite spot at the end of the couch.
We were watching Monday Night Baseball on NBC - The Los Angeles Dodgers at the Atlanta Braves.
So were at least 15 million households across America.
We didn’t really care about the outcome of the game however.
We were watching so that we might witness American history.
We hoped to see Hank Aaron hit home run number 715.
NBC Monday Night Baseball went on the air at 8pm ET. The game started about 8:20pm.
And I had a conundrum. I had perhaps until 9:30pm, 10pm at the very latest, before I would be ordered to go up to bed on this school night, 715 or not.
In his first at bat, in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Hank walked without having a pitch to swing at. The tension rose for me. I might get to see just one more at bat.
A few minutes after 9pm, in the bottom of the 4th inning, Aaron came up for his 2nd at bat.
It was as though it was all made for TV. The opportunity for Hank Aaron to hit what I would consider the most important home run ever was perfectly set up for nearly everyone to see, including all of us kids.
I was just 10 years old, and I desperately wanted to see Hank Aaron hit number 715.
Over the past several years I had become a big Hank Aaron fan. I identified with Aaron’s humble demeanor so much more than the Babe’s oversized personality.
Aaron wasn’t flamboyant like Ruth. He just got the job quietly done.
Aaron didn’t crush the ball with a wild swing and watch his shots sail over the fence. He just reached out and flicked his wrists.
He wasn’t very prolific. He didn’t hit his home runs in bunches. He didn’t any of the records for most homers in a game, a month or a season. In fact, he’d never even put up 50 in one year - Ruth had done that 4 times, including the Babe’s celebrated 60 in 1927.
Aaron had just been consistent in his home run hitting with a least 24 in every season since 1955 - 19 consecutive years.
And now Hank Aaron had a chance to become the all-time leader.
Given a choice, I would have rather been Hank Aaron than Babe Ruth.
And that’s why I wanted to see Aaron break the career home run record.
But for me to see him get it, he had to do it in this 2nd at bat of the game. Otherwise, I was going to have to go to bed before he came up again, perhaps not until the 6th or 7th inning.
And if Aaron did not hit the home run on this night, the next several Braves games were not going to be on national TV. I would not get to see it.
If I was going to see 715, it had to be NOW.
So let’s go back in time virtually to Atlanta 50 years ago to experience what happened.
ATLANTA, GA - April 9, 1974
I’m here in Atlanta, virtually, where yesterday Hank Aaron had another chance at history.
Ever since Thursday, April 4th, when he hit career home run number 714, on his first swing of the 1974 season, the watch has been on for the historic number 715 to be hit.
NBC aired the game in Cincinnati on Saturday live on national TV in the afternoon.
But Braves manager Eddie Mathews didn’t play Aaron on Saturday.
Mathews honored the request of both Aaron and Braves management to hold Aaron out of the remaining 2 games in Cincinnati on the weekend to enable Hank to hit number 715 before his home crowd in Atlanta, where the Braves would start a 10 game homestand on Monday.
Even Reds’ manager Sparky Anderson thought the Braves and Aaron were doing the right thing holding Hank out of the weekend games in Cincinnati. On Sunday, Sparky was quoted in the Atlanta Constitution saying, “Here’s a man doing the greatest thing that’s ever been done in baseball. I hate to see him even questioned about this, and come Monday night there are going to be about 100 million people who will be thankful he didn’t play the last 2 games here.”
But the decision to hold Hank out of the Saturday game was met with the wrath of the baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
“You would have thought I had started World War III,” Mathews told the Atlanta Constitution about the response from the commissioner.
Kuhn ordered Mathews to put Aaron in the lineup on Sunday in Cincinnati.
And Kuhn further threatened “severe consequences” if Mathews didn’t comply.
So Aaron started the game on Sunday, April 7th. This game was not on national TV. If Aaron hit 715 relatively few people would have seen it.
The Atlanta Constitution wrote, “Kuhn became the first commissioner in the history of baseball to make out a lineup card.”
40 year old Hank Aaron didn’t have his best day on Sunday. He struck out twice and grounded out to 3rd base before being removed after the 6th inning on a chilly day in which the temperatures only reached the low 50s.
So Hank would have the opportunity to hit number 715 at home after all - the home run that America had been waiting for all winter after Aaron finished the 1973 season 1 home run shy of the Babe’s mark of 714.
The New York Times reported that Eddie Mathews was asked whether all the controversy about playing Aaron bothered him. He replied, “It doesn’t bother me because of Hank’s attitude. If there’s a 12 o’clock curfew, he’s in by 12; if he’s supposed to be at the ballpark at 5, he’s there at 4:30. He’s just a super, super guy. He talks to all the writers every day. I’ve got to chase the writers out of the dugout for the National Anthem.”
THE GAME ON APRIL 8, 1974
Last night a capacity crowd of over 52,000 fans were on hand in Atlanta Stadium, and tens of millions were watching the game on NBC.
It was the first time in the young season that a Braves game was broadcast nationally in prime time.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Aaron came to bat for the 1st time. He walked without ever swinging at a pitch.
A few moments later he scored when Dusty Baker doubled to left field.
When Hank Aaron crossed the plate he broke Willie Mays’ National League career record of 2,062 runs scored.
The Braves led 1 - 0 after 2 innings.
In the 3rd, the Dodgers scored 3 runs, 2 of them on a Jim Wynn double.
Wynn, an off season acquisition to replace the popular Willie Davis in centerfield, is off to a sensational start to the 1974 season for the Dodgers with 8 hits in his first 16 at bats and 9 RBIs in just his 4th game.
In the bottom of the 3rd, 5 Braves players came to the plate, but no runs scored. Aaron was still in the dugout when the 3rd out was made.
And thus, Aaron would be the 2nd batter of the 4th inning for the Braves.
The Dodgers went down 1-2-3- in the top of the 4th and shortly they were back on the field for the bottom of the 4th.
9pm on April 8, 1974
Darrell Evans was the 1st batter in the Braves’ 4th inning. He reached base on an error.
Now Hank Aaron came to the plate.
It was a few minutes after 9pm ET.
You can watch the action as I did 50 years ago at this YouTube link.
The announcers’ call on this video comes from the radio broadcast of KABC in Los Angeles with Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully:
The first pitch from Al Downing was low.
With a 1 - 0 count, Downing threw a fastball. Aaron saw the ball all the way and slammed it. Scully on the call said, “It’s a high drive to deep left center. Buckner goes back to the fence. It is gone!”
And then as great announcers often do, Scully stayed silent to let the radio audience listen to the crowd.
It was number 715.
Just like home run 714, 715 was hit on Aaron’s first swing of the game, even though this time it was in his 2nd at bat.
In this YouTube link you can watch the home run again, in a brilliantly restored video. The home run takes place at the 16:40 mark on the tape. The start of the video has the NBC pre-game show.
Aaron’s 715th home run tied the game at 3.
The game was temporarily paused for a celebration.
Aaron told the crowd, “I just thank God it’s all over,” as the weight of the great chase had finally been lifted.
Fittingly, when play resumed, the Braves went on to win the game 7 - 4.
Today, the front pages of newspapers across the country carried the story of 715.
The New York Times ran a story on the front left side of the paper, the spot reserved for the most important news in the world from the prior day. The headline read, “Aaron Hits 715th, Passes Babe Ruth.”
Joseph Durso, of the Times, opened his article with this, “Henry Aaron ended the great chase tonight and passed Babe Ruth as the leading home-run hitter in baseball history.”
The Atlanta Constitution had an entire section of the paper for the historic blast.
I was most touched by an article written by Braves’ manager Eddie Mathews. Matthews has been by Aaron’s side for 18 of the past 20 seasons as a teammate, coach and now manager of the Braves.
Mathews wrote, “That’s just amazing to me, 715 home runs… the best part is it could not have happened to a better guy… he’s just good people on and off the field.”
Newsday in New York ran an article about the reaction by Mrs. Babe Ruth, who was interviewed by phone from her apartment on Riverside Drive just after the historic home run was hit. She said, “The Babe loved baseball so very much. I know he was pulling for Hank Aaron to break his record.”
I conclude with the newly updated all-time home run list following Monday night’s games:
715 Hank Aaron
714 Babe Ruth
660 Willie Mays
552 Frank Robinson
546 Harmon Killibrew
536 Mickey Mantle
534 Jimmie Foxx
521 Ted Williams
512 Eddie Mathews
512 Ernie Banks
511 Mel Ott
493 Lou Gehrig
POSTSCRIPT
At 9:30pm on Monday, April 8, 1974, I went upstairs to go to sleep, elated that I had seen history made.
I had gotten to see Hank Aaron hit number 715 and break Babe Ruth’s record. I had gotten to see all the post home run hoopla too.
It was one of those great moments that you never forget where you were when it happened.
It left such an indelible impression on those who saw it that it still feels like it happened recently.
When I told my wife Heather that we had reached the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, she facetiously said, “But that just happened!” She was so stunned that 50 years had passed.
Aaron went on to hit 20 home runs in 1974, the 20th consecutive season in which he hit at least 20 home runs.
That is a record that still stands today.
Although I’ve stated I was a Hank Aaron fan, I recognize that while Ruth’s record was technically surpassed on that evening 50 years ago, his impact on the game of baseball, and on America itself, will never be diminished.
I came to that realization after reading an amazing article, on one of my recent sports time travel excursions, that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, January 12, 1964, more than 10 years prior to Hank Aaron’s ascent to all-time HR leader. The article had a banner headline on the top of page 1 of the sports section which read, “Passage of Time Fails to Dim Legend of Babe Ruth.”
Just imagine that for a moment. A banner headline, in a major newspaper, on the top of the sports section was dedicated to an athlete who had left the game nearly 30 years prior.
The article was by Paul Gallico, a great writer who covered New York sports from 1923 - 1936. Gallico claimed to have coined the name for the 1920s as, “The Golden Decade.” Gallico, recalled his first hand accounts of Ruth and did a magnificent job capturing the essence of the Babe. Here’s one of my favorite parts, “No ball player to my knowledge or recollection, with the possible exception of Willie Mays, ever delivered the goods with such infectious gusto, or more greatly enjoyed his abilities and his successes.”
I will close with a reference to a more recent media item.
My friend, Jack Myers, the founder of MediaVillage, was one of the producers of a video that documents the life of Hank Aaron titled, “Hank Aaron - Chasing the Dream.”
The video won the Peabody Award and was nominated for an Oscar and Emmy.
I think it should be required watching for all kids to see what America was like in the 1950s - 1970s and how you can overcome any obstacle if you have a dream and pursue it.
You can watch the entire video here on YouTube:
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