The following story, by correspondent Wayne Minshew, first appeared in The Sporting News cover-dated April 27, 1974, after Hank Aaron's historic 715th home run, hit April 8, 1974.
ATLANTA — It was a night marked for history, and umpire Lee Weyer was early for his assignment. He had this feeling that something big was about to happen. "I'm glad I'm here," he said, looking around at the record crowd of 53,775 still gathering in Atlanta Stadium. "History might be made tonight."
On the field, Hank Aaron was being honored. Weyer and late-arriving fans got there just in time to hear the Braves' star say, "I just hope I can get this thing over with tonight."
Al Downing of the Dodgers warmed up in the right field bullpen. If he heard Aaron's statement, it didn't show. But about an hour later, he was to become the serving end of what was to touch off the wildest spontaneous celebration sports fans here ever have seen.
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IT CAME WHEN Henry Louis Aaron hit the 715th home run of his career. The date was April 8, the time 9:07 p.m. The fabled Braves star flicked his famous wrists and propelled a Downing fast ball over the left field fence and into the Braves' bullpen, where relief pitcher Tom House made the catch.
Well, sir, Atlanta Stadium turned into instant pandemonium. They danced in the stands and stood and cheered. Dusty Baker jumped up and down and embraced Ralph Garr. Two unidentified teen-agers bolted from the stands and gave Aaron an escort from second base to third.
Almost as soon as Aaron touched home plate, guided by Garr, a black lady threw a strong embrace on the grinning Braves' star and would not let go.
Later, Aaron said, "I didn't know how strong my mother was."
CHAMPAGNE FLOWED in the Braves' clubhouse before Aaron met the press. He faced the newspapermen who had followed his every move since the season began and asked to say something before questions came.
"I've read stories that I wasn't trying my last game in Cincinnati," he said, a serious look on his face. "I'd just like to say now that I have never stepped on a field but what I did not do my level best. I'm not directing this at anyone in particular, but when it is said you're a disgrace on the field, something has to be said."
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Aaron, after much controversy, had played the final game in Cincinnati. He took two third strikes and grounded out. There had been things written, innuendoes that maybe Aaron had saved his big one for Atlanta. He could not let that get by unchallenged.
That said, his mood changed abruptly.
"IT WASN'T ONE of my better ones," Aaron said of his milestone homer. "I hit it fairly good, though, and the wind helped to carry it. I was guessing. He threw me fastballs the first time up, and I thought he'd start me that way. next time and then go to breaking balls.
"But he threw the fastball again. He got it up a little bit," Hank said, "and I was fortunate enough to hit it."
Aaron confessed to no emotional trip around the bases, saying, "I just wanted to make sure I touched them."
He admitted the impact of the historic blow did not hit him at first, saying that probably would come later. What the Braves’ star felt more than anything was relief.
“I’m happy it’s over,” he said. “I feel now I can relax, my teammates can relax and that I can go on and have a great year. This is something I wanted. For years I feel I was slighted by awards and things like that. I worked very hard to get where I am, although I never thought five years ago I would ever be in this position.
“NOW I CAN consider myself one of the best. Maybe not the best because a lot of great ones have played this game — DiMaggio, Mays, Jackie Robinson — but I think I can fit in there somewhere."
Downing, the man who threw the pitch, shrugged it off. He said that in the end, the man who throws Aaron's last homer will be remembered, not Al Downing.
When the shouting had died down, the congratulatory wires began to arrive. They came from all over and more than 2,000 had been counted after the first couple of days. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn sent one as did Ted Williams, Joe Louis, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Roy Campanella.
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A candy company offered Aaron 715 pounds of its product to give to his favorite charity. And on it went.
PRESIDENT Nixon telephoned and invited Aaron to the White House.
"Maybe," cracked a newsman, "he wants to float a loan."
Aaron asked for a day to forget it all, to rest and recuperate from the chase of Babe Ruth. "The average person doesn't know what a nightmare this has been," he said. "All the same old questions, the controversy. I'll enjoy it all a little later."
In the meantime, Aaron said he only wanted to help his club win games.
"I think," he said, "we are about to jell.”
TSN Archives: As usual, Henry Delivers
The following unsigned editorial first appeared in the April 27, 1974, issue of The Sporting News.
The Henry Aaron show wasn't stage-managed, but it couldn't have produced a rosier result if the proceedings had been contrived by a TV script writer. Henry took everyone off the hook in Atlanta the instant he saw a pitch he could hit. That wasn't too surprising, considering that this is what he's been doing for the Braves for 20 years.
This time, however, he did it in the face of a prolonged buildup which could have shattered the concentration of the coolest of athletes. If he'd gone a month without getting the ball out of the infield, it would have been understandable. Instead, he walloped the two homers he needed to surpass Babe Ruth's total in just three 1974 appearances.
Furthermore, he whacked No. 715 in a carnival setting and before a capacity crowd in Atlanta, which delighted his employer. And he delivered before a network TV audience, which we can assume brought great rejoicing in the halls of NBC-TV.
Acclaim, it must be admitted, was slow in coming to Aaron. He has excelled so consistently and in such seemingly effortless fashion that his skills long were taken for granted. But now he needs a personal secretary to screen visitors and handle his mail. He has financial advisers, of course, to sift through the many promotional deals. "If it isn't a major campaign, we're not interested," said one of Henry's aids. Another estimated that "with the record being broken, it's worth at least $4 million to $5 million of additional income, payable over the next five years."
As for the attention so long missing, Aaron himself admits he's had more than enough in recent weeks. In Florida, he lived in an apartment under an assumed name. As protection against kooks who plague celebrities, the Braves hired a bodyguard to accompany their star wherever he went. Little wonder that after Aaron belted No. 715, he exclaimed: "Man, you don't know what a weight that was off my shoulders!"
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It also had to be a relief to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who'd been cast, in some quarters, as the villain of the piece for demanding that the Braves play Aaron in at least two games of their three-game opening series in Cincinnati. Kuhn's stance may have displeased many Aaron admirers, but nobody can accuse the commissioner of sidestepping the issue. Many observers felt he was correct in his decision. Unfortunately, TV viewers were exposed.only to the boos of dissenters the night of April 8 in Atlanta.
How far has Aaron come? Hubert Mizell's story in our April 20 issue gives a pretty good indication. In 1953, Henry's last year in the minors, he was paid $2,900 at Jacksonville in the Sally League. Aaron and the two other blacks on the team lived in a rooming house run by a tavern operator, and they were "counseled on how to act among whites, how to dress and even given a lesson in personal hygiene. It all seems a bit disgraceful now. ..."
Yes, Aaron has come a long way, further than baseball ability alone could have carried him. He has, as Wayne Minshew wrote, "a touch of class," a view buttressed by the Reds' great performer, Pete Rose: "When you're playing against Hank Aaron, you're in the big leagues."