Braves History: Remembering 715 and What it Meant for the South

On this date in baseball history, Atlanta Braves icon Hank Aaron broke the home run record by smashing his 715th career home run.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron did more than break a home run record on this day in 1974, he united the state of Georgia and a lot of white people in the South who still struggled with black players in the game.

Even though it had been 27 years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there were still people who hated the idea of a black man playing in Major League Baseball. And they especially hated seeing a black man break one of the biggest records in the sport, which was obviously held by one of the most famous players in the game’s history, Babe Ruth.

You can read about some of the racist letters that Aaron received leading up to this moment in a great article from Larry Schwartz on ESPN (back when they had good writers … oops).

And below is the home run call from the legendary Vin Scully as the Braves were playing the Dodgers that day.

I had never seen this full-length clip until today and there are several things I’d like to point out.

The first of which I knew before watching this clip, but seeing the two white guys run onto the field to give their support for Aaron chokes me up every time.

With what Aaron was going through, you had no idea what the intentions of those two gentlemen might have been. But to see them run out there and pat Hank Aaron on the back, for whatever reason, that always brings tears to my eyes. It’s like the uniting of the races.

And then there was this from Scully:

“What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the deep South for breaking the record of an all-time baseball idol.”

Of course, no one can sum up a moment in its entirety like Vin Scully, and I thought this quote break it down perfectly.

This was bigger than a home run. It was bigger than baseball and even bigger than the state of Georgia. This was a huge moment for the entire country.

Aaron, a black man born in the state of Alabama, which is my home state that I love dearly, but a state that has been known for its hate of black people in the past, playing in the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., breaks the record of one of the most iconic baseball players to ever play who happens to be a white a person in Babe Ruth.

And here is the home crowd is giving him a standing ovation.

The South gets a lot of undue criticism — some of it rightfully so, at times — but this is one moment where everyone came together to celebrate the historic achievement of a great baseball player regardless of the color of his skin. This was the long-overdue Jackie Robinson moment for the South.

Moving on from race a little bit, there was something else Scully said that caught my attention. When comparing Ruth to Aaron, one thing he mentions is the fact that Aaron looked pretty much the same that day than when he broke into the league 20 years earlier.

Obviously Scully had no idea steroids would overrun the sport in the 90s and early 2000s, but it was almost like a foreshadowing of what was to come.

Not to make this an article about smashing Barry Bonds for allegedly taking steroids, but take a look at some of his photos from early in his career and then look at him late in his career. You certainly can’t say he looks the same.

And I get it, players work out and get bigger. But not that big and strong.

Anyways, that’s an argument we can debate all day. In my mind, Aaron is still the true “Home Run King” and always will be unless Mike Trout breaks it one day.

The point I really wanted to get across today is that Hank Aaron did a lot more than just break a home run record on this date in history. He united an entire segment of the country. From Braves country and those here at Tomahawk Take, we thank you, Hank.