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Mr. Ed -> RE: MLB General Information PT 4 (4/8/2014 9:35:37 AM)
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Forty years ago today, Braves’ outfielder Henry Aaron passed Babe Ruth as baseball’s all-time home run leader when he hit his 715th off Dodger hurler Al Downing. Ron Fimrite described the scene in the 4.15.74 issue of SI:
“Downing’s momentous mistake was a high fastball into Aaron’s considerable strike zone. Aaron’s whip of a bat lashed out at it and snapped it in a high arc toward the 385-foot sign in left center field. Dodger centerfielder Jimmy Wynn and leftfielder Bill Buckner gave futile chase, Buckner going all the way to the six-foot fence for it. But the ball dropped over the fence in the midst of a clutch of Braves’ relief pitchers who scrambled out of the bullpen in pursuit. Buckner started to go over the fence after the ball himself, but gave up after he realized he was outnumbered. It was finally retrieved by reliever Tom House, who, even as Aaron triumphantly rounded the bases, ran hysterically toward home plate holding the ball aloft. It was, after all, one more ball than Babe Ruth ever hit over a fence, and House is a man with a sense of history.
House arrived in time to join a riotous spectacle at the plate. Aaron, his normally placid features exploding in a smile, was hoisted by his teammates as Downing and the Dodger infielders moved politely to one side. Aaron shook hands with his father, Herbert, and embraced his mother, Estella. He graciously accepted encomiums from his boss, Braves Board Chairman Bill Bartholomay, and Monte Irvin, representing Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who was unaccountably in Cleveland this eventful night. Kuhn is no favorite of Atlanta fans, and when his name was mentioned by Irvin, the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Atlanta booed lustily.”
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