Atlanta Braves memories: Hank Aaron’s record-breaking homer
Forty-six years ago this week. The entire baseball world was focused on this single event. Thanks to a national broadcast, the Atlanta Braves were brought into the living rooms of the entire country.
There are still a few memories I have about this event – the night that Hank Aaron put himself and his Atlanta Braves into the headlines with home run 715.
It was a week in which there was speculation, watching, and waiting. The season opened on April 4, 1974, with the Braves in Cincinnati for the traditional Reds home opener – the first game of all. That’s no longer ‘a thing’ these days, an unfortunate passage of tradition.
In that game, Aaron wasted no time whatsoever in matching Babe Ruth’s record after the long Winter at 713. First inning with two runners on… 3-1 pitch… boom. One swing. 3-0 Atlanta and the record was tied.
Aaron was mobbed at home plate by his team. Vice President Gerald Ford shook his hand… a mere 4 months before Ford would before the President.
The Braves went on to lose that game in 11 innings, the result of a bullpen blowout than began in the 8th inning.
The drama had come earlier when it was learned that the Atlanta Braves brass wanted Aaron held out of the lineup so that he wouldn’t have any chance of breaking the record away from Fulton County Stadium.
Once MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn got wind of this, he quickly nixed the ploy; and thus Aaron was in that game.
He didn’t play in the second game of the series on April 6th, but was in the cleanup spot for the series finale. In that game, Aaron uncharacteristically struck out twice during an 0-3 night. No hits, no homers. But the Braves did manage to salvage one win in Ohio behind Phil Niekro’s complete game.
That was April 7. Monday night’s game was set for Atlanta.
Information Underload
It was a school night, but staying up for special events had a precedent in my parents’ household. I vaguely remember that this happened somewhere around 11pm local time the night that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969.
But that came in July and school was out for the Summer. This was April, though it wasn’t that late yet.
We were watching the NBC broadcast. The TBS Superstation years had not yet begun, but for this… their Game-of-the-Week crew was in Atlanta.
I liked baseball then. I played in Little League. I followed stats in the local newspaper, but the degree of information available then vs. now is a difference beyond comprehension.
At that age, I wasn’t aware of the racism that Aaron had to endure – and by that, I don’t mean merely the threats he had to put up with during the runup to this event: I mean the incredible sacrifices he had to make over his entire life to get to this point. Such things should never have been.
I was only superficially aware of Ruth’s record then, and not at all about how unreal that feat had been in that era: that Ruth actually held the home run record starting from the day he hit his 139th swat (besting Roger Connor)… way back in 1921.
Ruth’s home tally accelerated once the dead-ball era — and his pitching career — both ended. He played another 14 seasons and amassed nearly another 600 homers over that time.
Aaron’s homer totals were accumulated more consistently. He never hit 50 in a season, but he hit 40+ on eight occasions (and 39 twice).
So by the time April 8, 1974 rolled around, the question was certainly not “if” the record would be broken, but “when”.
Tying the Game; untying from Ruth
Hank Aaron didn’t allow this moment to linger much longer.
Aaron was walked to open the second inning, scoring from first base on a double by Dusty Baker. 1-0 Braves.
The Dodgers took the lead against Ron Reed in the 3rd thanks to the bottom of their order. Pitcher Al Downing singles in Steve Garvey and put Bill Russell on third. Russell was later thrown out at home, but two other runners scored in the inning. 3-1 Dodgers.
The next two half-innings were relatively uneventful, other than circling the Braves lineup back around toward Aaron.
The bottom of inning four arrived. Darrell Evans reached thanks to an error on Russell at shortstop.
As Aaron came to the plate, the NBC feed showed his homer splits: only 206 against southpaws… and Al Downing was a lefty.
I didn’t remember how many pitches Aaron saw in this AB ( it was two; a 1-0 count). I do remember thinking that it looked like he had gotten a good swing on the ball – a fastball that was ‘up’.
I remember that there was somebody in the stands with a long-handled net in the LF seats… but that he wasn’t that close. I remember something of a scrum in the bullpen as the pitchers went for the honor of catching the ultimate souvenir.
Tom House was the Braves’ pitcher who made the grab. There was later word that the pitchers had assigned themselves areas to cover based on choices made by seniority.
Buzz Capra claims to have been in House’s spot, but had asked to switch spots with House just before the fateful swing. This thanks to getting items – perhaps food and drink? – dumped on him. Oops. At least Capra ended up saving the game.
I vividly remember the college-kid idiots who ‘escorted’ Aaron around the second half of his home run trot whilst the rest of the world was paying attention to everything but stadium security issues.
There was a mob scene around home plate. Everyone wanted to slap Hank on the back, shake his hand, kiss him (his wife and mother were both there), interview him… the whole gambit.
I remember the pandemonium in the stadium. I remember the happiness of the moment.
I don’t remember anything else, as it was time to go off to bed.
What happened thereafter was probably a bit predictable: an apparently shaken Al Downing walked the next two hitters and the Braves cashed in both. He was replaced by Mike Marshall after that.
Aaron had tied the game, and by the time the inning was done, Atlanta was on top 5-3 en route to a 7-4 victory.
The Dodgers were tough that year: 102-60. Atlanta finished 1974 with 88 wins, which might have won the other division… but not the NL West.
Next. The State of the Braves in April. dark
But that night — April 8, 1974 — belonged to the Atlanta Braves and their favorite son: Hank Aaron.