September 17, 1965: Henry Aaron’s two home runs boost Braves to their final win in Milwaukee

Henry Aaron reached the 100-RBI milestone in 11 seasons and retired with the all-time mark of 2,297. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

It was fitting that Henry Aaron played a leading role in what would prove to be the Milwaukee Braves’ final win in Wisconsin.

On September 17, 1965, the Braves welcomed the San Francisco Giants to County Stadium for the opening of a three-game series. The Giants (87-59) came into the Friday-night affair riding a 14-game winning streak,1 and had surged from two games out of first place in the National League on September 3 to a 4½-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves (80-66), who would move to Atlanta for the 1966 season,2 had lost four of their last five and were in fourth place, seven games out.

The starting pitching matchup featured two similarly aged future Hall of Famers at dissimilar stages of their careers: Juan Marichal of the Giants and Phil Niekro of the Braves. While the 27-year-old Marichal (22-10) was regarded as one of the game’s greatest – having reached the 20-win plateau for the third consecutive season – the 26-year-old Niekro (1-3) was making the first start of his major-league career after 47 relief appearances.

During the Giants’ current burst, Marichal earned three complete-game victories – allowing 3 earned runs and 20 hits with 3 walks and 18 strikeouts in 27 innings3 – tying him with the Braves’ Tony Cloninger and the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax for the season’s most pitching wins and lowering his ERA to a major-league stingiest 1.79.

Six others who would wind up enshrined in Cooperstown played in the game: Aaron and Eddie Mathews for the Braves; Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Gaylord Perry for the Giants. Two more did not appear: Milwaukee catcher Joe Torre, who was sidelined with a torn ring finger on his right hand, and San Francisco pitcher Warren Spahn, who previously played for the Braves in Boston (1942, 1946-52) and Milwaukee (1953-64).

Aaron occupied his customary spots of batting third and playing right field for manager Bobby Bragan. The 31-year-old superstar, in his 12th season, thumped two early home runs to boost the Braves to a 9-1 victory in front of 6,924 fans. The two-homer game was the third of the season for the right-handed slugger, all at home,4 and his season tally of 31 round-trippers tied him for fourth in the NL with Mathews. Mays (48) and McCovey (36) were ranked one-two respectively, followed by Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs (32). Aaron’s career home-run count stood at 397, which ranked 12th in baseball history, and he and Mathews (404) now had 801 as Braves teammates.5

In the bottom of the first inning, with two outs, Aaron hit a homer to deep center field to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.

The Giants tied the game in the second. Jim Ray Hart drew a leadoff walk from the knuckleball-throwing Niekro and, with one out, advanced to second base on the second passed ball in two innings charged to Braves backup catcher Gene Oliver. Hart moved to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Hal Lanier.

In the bottom of the second, Frank Thomas hit a one-out double and scored on a two-out double by Woody Woodward, a .193 batter, to put the Braves back in front, 2-1. Aaron extended the advantage to 4-1 with his second homer of the game in the third, a two-run shot to deep left that plated Mathews, who had singled.

Aaron had one other hit – a single – in 13 at-bats against Marichal in 1965. For his career, Hammerin’ Hank batted .288 (42-for-146) against the Dominican Dandy with eight homers and 20 RBIs.

Milwaukee knocked out Marichal in the fourth when Woodward singled to score Frank Bolling, who had doubled with one out, to make it 5-1. In 3⅓ innings,6 Marichal gave up five runs on seven hits. It was the second time the Braves roughed up Marichal in 1965. On May 26 Milwaukee blitzed him for nine runs and 11 hits, including three homers, in 3⅔ innings at Candlestick Park.7

Meanwhile, Niekro pitched five-plus innings,8 allowing five hits and one unearned run with three walks and two strikeouts. In the sixth Mays, who blasted his 500th career home run on September 13 against the Houston Astros, singled, and McCovey and Hart walked to load the bases with no outs. Billy O’Dell, a member of the Giants from 1960 to 1964,9 came in to pitch with the tying run at the plate. The left-hander deftly worked out of the jam by striking out pinch-hitter Jack Hiatt, retiring pinch-hitter Cepeda on a popout to second, and striking out Lanier. Both strikeouts came on 3-and-2 pitches.

Perry replaced Marichal10 and retired the first six batters he faced, including a strikeout of Aaron in the fifth. But in the sixth, after one out, four straight Braves reached base: Thomas doubled, Bolling was walked intentionally, Woodward walked, and O’Dell had an RBI single.11 Bob Priddy entered from the bullpen, and Felipe Alou greeted him with a two-run single, followed by a sacrifice fly from Mathews for a 9-1 Braves chasm that capped the scoring. Aaron then flied out to left to finish the game 2-for-4.

“They beat the hell out of us,” said Giants manager Herman Franks, whose team was outhit, 10-8 and left nine runners on base. He added, “It’s not the end of the world.”12

O’Dell closed out the game, which lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes, scattering three hits over four innings with four strikeouts, earning his 19th save (tied for second in the NL) to go with a 10-6 record.

“It’s far from over,” said O’Dell, who pitched for the 1962 pennant-winning Giants. “We’ve just got to win them all. Whoever gets in the way is going to get beat. I remember getting my plane reservations for home three days before the season was over in 1962 while I was with San Francisco. But we turned around and won it.”13

Bragan said: “The Giants are still in the driver’s seat, but after what happened to the Phillies last year, you can’t be sure of anything.14 We’re in good position because we play these guys five more times, but we’ve got to win.”15

The Braves dropped their remaining five home games – two to the Giants, one to the Philadelphia Phillies,16 and two to the Dodgers – before concluding the season with 10 road games (5-5 record, including 2-1 at San Francisco and 1-3 at Los Angeles). They wound up with an 86-76 record and fifth in the NL, 11 games behind Los Angeles.

Season attendance at County Stadium was 555,584 – the worst in the NL – for an average of 6,859 fans per game.17 Only the Kansas City Athletics drew fewer: 528,344 (6,523 per game).

San Francisco, which led the Dodgers and Reds by 3½ games with 15 to play, went 8-7 thereafter. Beginning September 16, though, Los Angeles won 13 in a row and 15 of its last 16, overtaking the Giants – capturing the pennant by two games – and going on to win the World Series.

Aaron concluded the season with 32 home runs, tied for sixth in the NL. He led the league with 40 doubles and was runner-up with a .318 batting average. Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates was tops at .329. Aaron placed seventh in the NL Most Valuable Player balloting – the 11th of 19 straight seasons he garnered votes.18

Aaron, who was born in Mobile, Alabama, played for the Braves in Atlanta from 1966 to 1974 before being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers on November 2, 1974, for outfielder Dave May and a player to be named later.19 Aaron played two seasons in Milwaukee, almost exclusively as a designated hitter, and then retired. He hit the 755th and final home run of his 23-year career on July 20, 1976, off Dick Drago of the California Angels at County Stadium to tally 195 round-trippers at the venerable ballpark.

Over the course of his career, Aaron logged 61 two-home-run games,20 tied for fifth on baseball’s all-time list with Albert Pujols. The top four: Babe Ruth (70), Barry Bonds (67), Sammy Sosa (63), and Mark McGwire (62).21 Aaron was the all-time homer king until Bonds passed him in 2007, finishing with 762. Aaron remains atop the RBI (2,297) and total bases (6,856) lists, and he had a lifetime .305 batting average. He was selected to a record 25 All-Star Games22 and was a first-ballot inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.23

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank fellow SABR members and Wisconsin natives Tom Alesia, Dennis Degenhardt, and Rick Schabowski for their research assistance.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MLN/MLN196509170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B09170MLN1965.htm

NOTES

1  The winning streak was the longest by a National League team since 1951, when the Giants, then in New York, won 16 in a row.

2  On November 16, 1962, Braves owner Lou Perini, who had relocated the franchise from Boston to Milwaukee after the 1952 season, sold the franchise for $6.2 million to the Chicago-based Lasalle Corporation, led by William Bartholomay. The move to Atlanta was announced in November 1964, but legal technicalities delayed the relocation until 1966. Bartholomay sold the franchise to Ted Turner in 1975 but continued as a team executive until his death in 2020.

3  Marichal defeated the Chicago Cubs, 4-2, on September 5 at Wrigley Field; the Houston Astros, 4-0, on September 9 at Candlestick Park; and Houston, 5-1, on September 13 at the Astrodome.

4  Aaron also hit two home runs against the Houston Astros on May 4 and against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 11.

5  Aaron (442) and Mathews (421) finished with a major-league-record 863 home runs as teammates from 1954 to 1966.

6  It was the third-shortest start of the season for Marichal, who pitched three innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 26 and the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 22.

7  Milwaukee won that game, 10-4.

8  The five innings equaled Niekro’s career high to that point. He also pitched five in relief against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field on May 13, earning his first major-league win.

9  O’Dell was acquired by the Braves for catcher Ed Bailey on February 1, 1965.

10  Perry began the season in the starting rotation but lost his spot in August, and all but one of his last 17 appearances came in relief.

11  O’Dell and Perry were roommates with the Giants. The hit made O’Dell 4-for-21 (.190 average) with two RBIs for the season. He struck out in the eighth inning.

12  Harry Jupiter, “Franks: ‘It’s Not the End,’” San Francisco Examiner, September 18, 1965: 21.

13  Red Thisted, “Aaron’s Homers End Giant Streak at 14,” Milwaukee Sentinel, September 18, 1965: 20.

14  Philadelphia held a 6½-game lead in the National League with 12 games to play but wound up tied for second as the St. Louis Cardinals won the pennant.

15  Bob Wolfe, “Braves Rout Marichal, 9-1, and End Giants’ Winning Streak at 14 Games,” Milwaukee Journal, September 18, 1965: 13.

16  On September 20, the Braves and Phillies made up their September 9 game that was rained out.

17  The Braves, who won the 1957 World Series and 1958 National League pennant, led the major leagues in attendance each of their first six seasons in Milwaukee (1953-58).

18  Aaron was the 1957 National League MVP. He placed third in the voting on six occasions.

19  The Brewers sent minor-league pitcher Roger Alexander to the Braves on December 2, 1974, to complete the deal.

20  Aaron hit a career-high three homers in a game once: June 21, 1959, against the San Francisco Giants at Seals Stadium. Each was a two-run shot.

21  Aaron’s total of 62 multihomer games is ranked tied for seventh all-time with Álex Rodríguez, behind Ruth (72), Bonds (71), Sosa (69), McGwire (67), Pujols (65), and Willie Mays (63).

22  Two All-Star Games were played annually from 1959 to 1962. In his 23 seasons, the only times Aaron was not selected were 1954 (his rookie season) and 1976 (his final season). He was the leading vote-getter in the first two years of fan balloting (1970 and 1971).

23  Aaron was named on 97.8 percent of the Hall of Fame ballots (406 of 421).