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.