It has been fifty years now since April 9, 1974 when Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth’s home run record with his 715th home run. The stadium in Atlanta where it occurred is long gone, but the portion of the outfield wall the ball flew over remains as a fitting tribute to Aaron’s accomplishment.
As an Atlantan and as someone who appreciates baseball history, Aaron stood out for me in the quiet way he went about his career and his pursuit of one of the great records in the sport. He helped make at least partly true Atlanta’s motto, “the city too busy to hate,” but he did experience plenty of hate and abuse. In the years running up to his record, he had to hire a secretary to sort through the hate and fan mail he received, the worst of which was forwarded to the FBI. He kept both the good and bad in his attic as a reminder of it all.
Any mention of 715 or of his ultimate 755 career home runs, deserves at least a footnote mentioning Barry Bonds’ 762 total home runs that were tainted by his use of performance enhancing drugs. Aaron is rightfully in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bonds, for now, is on the outside, though Aaron did gracefully honor Bonds’ accomplishment.
Hank Aaron lived to age 86 and died in 2021. His baseball records remain on the books and many are still unsurpassed. One notable statistic was that even without his home runs, he still surpassed 3000 career hits. Baseball has a way of raising up greats within the sport who are also gentlemen, individuals of personal substance as well as sports prowess. Hank Aaron stood tall among those greats.
