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Monday, April 8, 1974.

Fifty years ago, today – by date and day-of-the-week – the crown bestowed to baseball’s all-time home run king was transferred from one former Braves player to another when Henry Louis Aaron broke his four-day tie with George Herman Ruth by lofting a ball over the outfield fence for his 715^th career home run and in doing so became a baseball immortal.

Fifty years ago today, “Hammerin’ Hank” passed “the Babe”.

Although it has been almost nine decades since Babe Ruth last stepped on a baseball field as a player, he is arguably still its most famous player in baseball history. Still the sport’s all-time leader in slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+, Ruth was 40 years old when he left the New York Yankees to sign with the Boston Braves for the 1935 season.

Ruth’s tenure with the Braves lasted only 28 games – he struggled to a career-worst .181/.359/.431 slash line – but he did manage to hit six home runs for the team.

In what would be the last great performance by the Babe, Ruth took the field with the Braves on May 25, 1935 – batting third – for a Boston team scuffling with an 8-19 record as they took on the 18-17 Pittsburgh Pirates. In front of 10,000 at Forbes Field, the Braves would lose 11-7 but Ruth would go 4 for 4 with three home runs – one off Red Lucas and two against Guy Bush.

Ruth’s solo-shot in the top of the seventh inning off Bush would be his last of the game and the last of his career. A week later, his time as a player ended.

Fast forward 19 years, and a 20-year-old Henry Aarron would hit his first career home run for the Milwaukee Braves on April 23, 1954, in the sixth inning of a contest in St. Louis against the Cardinals on a pitch from Vic Raschi. It was Aaron’s seventh career game of his big-league career.

Twenty years later, Aaron’s legendary career had been exclusively with the Braves franchise. During that time, he hit 40-or-more home runs in a season eight times and 30-or-more a whopping 15 times. That’s to say nothing of his more than 3,500 career hits, 2,202 RBI, his streak of All-Star game selections that started in 1955, his 1957 MVP season, his eight career Top 3 finishes in the MVP vote or his dozens of other accolades.

Aaron ended the 1973 season with 713 career home runs – one shy of Ruth’s career record.

Aaron – who turned 40 two months prior to the start of the 1974 season – was coming off another incredible offensive campaign, slashing .301/.402/.642 good for a 177 OPS+ with 40 home runs, 96 RBI, 84 Runs in only 120 games – but one that saw tensions rise as he approached Ruth’s records.

Off-the-field, Aaron had been besieged by vitriol and death threats as he neared Ruth’s record during the 1973 season. That continued during the off-season with Aaron and his family having to have full-time security protection with the FBI being involved due to the severity of the threats against them. Racial tensions in American were high and despite public support for him, the concern for his safety – and those around him – were paramount.

With the Braves franchise having moved to Atlanta in 1966, Aaron became the South’s first superstar professional athlete. In a region that was growing rapidly – and one that had been the epicenter of the racial equality movement – the strain of being the most recognizable athlete in Atlanta brought with it challenges that extended beyond the field. With it too was the opportunity to shift opinions and assumptions of what was possible in the Deep South.

As was tradition at the time, MLB’s Opening Day began with the Cincinnati Reds playing the season’s first game at their home ballpark. In 1974, the Atlanta Braves were slated to opened their season in Cincinnati with its aging star one home run away from tying the sport’s most iconic record.

During the 1972 season, the Braves made a change at manager, with Aaron’s long-time teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews taking over as the team’s manager. Mathews was at the helm for the 1973 season and for the start of the 1974 season.

With the significance of the home run record boiling all off-season, Mathews and the Braves looked to sit Aaron during the 1974 season’s opening three-game series against the Reds so he could tie and break the record in Atlanta, where the team would head after leaving Cincinnati for a 10-game homestand.

Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, interjected to stop the plan to keep Aaron out of the lineup at Riverfront Stadium, setting the stage for history to be made on the banks of the Ohio River – and not adjacent to the downtown connector in Atlanta.

On Opening Day in Cincinnati – on April 4, 1974 – Aaron would waste no time tying Ruth’s home run record. Batting forth for the visiting Braves, Aaron would come to bat with Ralph Garr and Mike Lum on base with one out in the top of the first inning. He’d launch a Jack Billingham pitch for a three-run home run, tying the record in front of President Gerald Ford, who had thrown out the ceremonial first pitch, and setting the stage for the historical milestone to take place in Ohio.

Aaron would go hitless in the rest of his at bats on Opening Day. The Braves would sit Aaron in game two of the series, but he would return to the line-up in game three, going 0-for-3, clearing the way for history to be made in Atlanta.

In front of a then-record 53,775 attendees at Atlanta Stadium on April 8, 1974 – and a national television audience on NBC – Aaron would take the field for the Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers, batting fourth and playing left field.

After a 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning, Aaron would lead off the bottom of the second with a walk, scoring on a Dusty Baker double to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.

Aaron’s next at bat would come in the bottom of the fourth inning with the Braves trailing the Dodgers 3-1. Darrell Evans would lead off the inning by reaching on an error, bringing Aaron to the plate to face Dodgers’ starting pitcher Al Downing for a second time in the game.

After taking the first pitch for a ball, Aaron would break his tie with Ruth with a blast over the left field fence into the Braves bullpen – and the glove of Braves reliever and long-time pitching guru Tom House – for his second home run of the season and the 715^th of his career.

Aaron’s home run – and minutes that followed – can be seen in the video from the NBC broadcast embedded above. On the call was legendary Dodgers’ broadcaster Vin Scully, who commentated the moment following Aaron’s achievement in a way that only the poet laureate of baseball could.

Aaron’s trip around the bases is one of the most iconic videos in Braves history, with two fans running on the field and the tension of their intent increasing until they veered off Aaron’s path before he around third base.

With celebration and relief – the nation watched as Aaron touch home plate, embraced by the welcoming arms of his teammates and his family with the title of ‘home run king” now his and his alone.

Aaron would go on to hit 14 more home runs for Atlanta in 1974, in what would be his final season with the Braves. He would spend the 1975 and 1976 seasons back in Milwaukee, playing for the Brewers, hitting 22 more career home runs to bring his career total to 755 – 733 of which came with the Braves.

Ruth’s home run record stood for 39 years before Aaron broke it. For Aaron, his record would last for 33 years, before it was broken* by Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. The asterisk that some place on Bonds record means a number of baseball fans still view Aaron as the rightful holder of the home run record. Regardless, it does nothing to diminish the on-the-field impact of Aaron who is still the all-time leader in both total bases and RBI; and first-or-second in career home runs.

Aaron, who passed in 2021 at age 86, has a legacy with the Braves that in unmatched on-and-off the field. As a player and executive, his influence on the organization spans generations. It is arguable that Henry Aaron may be the most impactful figure in baseball history when accounting for legacy he created both as a player and as an executive.

Today, 50 years after Aaron’s milestone achievement, the Braves will honor the legacy of Aaron on the anniversary of what may have been the most historic of his illustrious career.

For many in attendance at Truist Park – or watching on their media option of choice – they have no direct memory of Aaron’s legendary on-field career and the moment being celebrated today. This only increases the significance of the celebration of Aaron and his impact on the Braves, the game and country – one that was as culturally significant off-the-field as his 715th home run was on it.