Atlanta Braves memories: Hank Aaron’s record-breaking homer

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”.