From the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
In a sport obsessed with statistics (Some would argue more than any other), Babe Ruth retired in 1935 with the greatest baseballing statistic of them all - 714 career home runs, a career record he originally claimed from Roger Connor in 1921, and 'The Bambino' would hold one of the greatest records in American sports until April 8 of 1974, when Hammering Henry 'Hank' Aaron smashed his 715th home run into the bullpen of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium:
How it got to that night was another story, because Aaron finished the '73 season on 713 home runs (He failed to tie the record in the last game against the Astros), and there was a genuine fear that Aaron would simply give the game away or be murdered over the offseason thanks to the numerous death threats and hate mail he received from people who didn't want to see Ruth's record broken, to the point that Aaron received some 930,000 pieces of mail in 1973 alone.
Thankfully, Henry Aaron played on at the age of 40, and come the start of the season the Braves wanted Aaron to break the home run record in Atlanta, so they organised to have him sit the opening series against the Reds in Cincinnati, but Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ruled Aaron had to play 2 out of the 3 games of the series, so on April 4 Aaron tied The Babe on 714 home runs by blasting a 3-run homer off Jack Billingham with his first at bat of 1974:
Which would be his only home run of the series, and after that it was on to Atlanta for the home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 8...
Then, in front of 53,775 fans (Which is still the Braves' single-game attendance record), 'The Hammer' hammered Al Downing over the outstretched arm of Bill Buckner in left centre field, breaking one of the most cherished records in American sporting history:
As Vin Scully noted on NBC, it was historic for another reason - an African American man had broken one of the greatest records in American sports in the heart of Dixie.
"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 a record of an all-time baseball idol.
And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron, who is met at home plate not only by every member of the Braves, but by his father and mother.
For the record, the Braves wound up winning the game 7-4, and during the game Aaron was phoned by President Richard Nixon, inviting Aaron to be his guest at the White House, although Aaron later joked to David Letterman (In 1982) that "Hell, I didn't get there quick enough!", as Nixon resigned amidst the carnage of Watergate on August 9, 1974.
"I was happy that I got it over with for two reasons... One, for my teammates. And the other was because I wanted to go back and start playing baseball the way I knew how to play it." - Hank Aaron.
1974 would be Aaron's 21st and final season with the Braves, signing with the Milwaukee Brewers (Owned by future MLB Commissioner Bud Selig) for 1975, marking Aaron's return to Milwaukee (Where the Braves were based until 1965), and the last two seasons of his career would mark the only years that Aaron played in the American League.
Aaron finished on 755 career home runs (733 with the Braves, 23 with the Brewers) a record which lasted until August 7, 2007, when Barry Bonds broke the record for the San Francisco Giants, although Aaron wasn't in San Francisco that night, instead appearing on AT&T Park's jumbotron, which had nothing to do with Bonds' alleged PED use, but moreso the fact that Aaron didn't want his presence to shift attention from Bonds' historic achievement.
Still, Aaron remains the career leader in RBIs (2,297, having passed Ruth in 1975), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477), plus the all-time record for All-Star Game appearances at 25 (Including the years with 2 All-Star Games), and is still 3rd all-time for career hits (3,771), only behind Ty Cobb and Pete Rose, plus equal-fourth for runs scored (2,174)... fittingly, Aaron will forever be tied with Ruth in that statistic.
Aaron passed away aged 86 in January of 2021, and the Braves would later pull off the ultimate tribute by winning that year's World Series for the first time since 1995, with the championship ring containing a total of 44 emerald-cut diamonds (referring to Aaron's No.44), and a total 755 diamonds, referring to Aaron's career home run total.
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