April 4, 1974: Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth’s home run record as Braves lose to Reds

The 1974 baseball season had arrived and all eyes were focused on Hank Aaron. Hammerin’ Hank had finished 1973 with 713 career home runs, one behind Babe Ruth’s total. Aaron’s Atlanta Braves were scheduled to open on the road with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds before returning to Atlanta for an 11-game homestand.

As Opening Day approached, Atlanta announced that Aaron would sit out the series against the Reds so that he would have an opportunity to reach the home-run milestones in Atlanta. Immediate reaction was negative, with many columnists writing that the Braves’ decision would “harm the game’s integrity.” Commissioner Bowie Kuhn got involved and told the team, “[F]or the good of the game Aaron should play in Cincinnati.”1

The Braves eventually agreed to let the 40-year-old Aaron play on Opening Day – but not without some public grumbling. “We’ve conceded that he’s going to play in the series. I’m a little indignant and upset about this,” said Atlanta manager Eddie Mathews.2 Aaron said it didn’t matter whether he played or not because the Braves were not going anywhere this year, wrote Red Smith in the New York Times.3

The day of the game, Thursday, April 4, brought another disagreement. Aaron asked the Reds to have a moment of silence before the game to honor Martin Luther King Jr. The civil-rights leader had been shot on April 4 six years earlier. The Reds refused his request. Aaron told reporters he was disappointed, saying, “I don’t know who made the decision. I do know that for some reason they found the schedule didn’t permit it.”4

A warm, sunny day greeted the 52,154 fans who showed up to see the game. Vice President Gerald Ford threw out the first ball.5 Ford, who had been sworn in four months earlier after Spiro Agnew resigned under a cloud, was in town to review the wreckage left behind after tornadoes came through the area the previous  day.6 Aaron’s wife, Billye, along with his father, Herbert, and brother, Herbert Jr., had seats beside the Braves dugout.

Jack Billingham started for the Reds. The right-hander had led the 1973 National League West Division champions in wins with a 19-10 record. Billingham, when asked about facing Aaron, said, “I’m not worrying about Henry and his record. But there’s no way I’m going to groove the ball to him. I’m primarily a sinkerball pitcher and if I’m throwing my good stuff and put it where I want, he won’t get it up in the air.”7

Billingham walked leadoff batter Ralph Garr to start the game. Mike Lum’s single moved Garr to second. After Darrell Evans flied out, Aaron stepped to the plate. Reds catcher Johnny Bench told Aaron as he stepped into the batter’s box, “Good luck and congratulations if you get it.”8

Billingham threw three balls and then a called strike. On the fifth pitch Aaron took his first swing of the 1974 season. “Aaron flashed out with those incredibly quick wrists and history was airborne,” reported the Dayton Daily News.9 The ball sailed over the left-field fence.

As the scoreboard flashed a large “714,” Aaron rounded the bases with his head up and showing little emotion on his face. With his first swing of the 1974 season, Aaron tied Ruth’s record and put the Braves in the lead, 3-0.

“I got behind him [3-and-1] and I knew I had to come in with a good pitch. Sadly, Aaron knew it too,” said Billingham afterward. “That’s just Henry Aaron. You make a mistake on Hank Aaron and you turn around and watch it go over the fence. If you challenge him, he’ll challenge you right out of the park.”10

The Braves dugout was filled with cheers and shouts of joy. A member of the grounds crew came out of a door in right field holding a bag with the home-run ball. It had been recovered by a police officer. The bag was given to umpire John McSherry, who ran to the Braves dugout to present the ball to Aaron.11

The game was stopped for six minutes to honor Aaron. He walked over to the stands to kiss his wife and shake his father’s and brother’s hands. “I knew Henry would hit one today. The weather was so warm,” said Aaron’s father, Herbert, after the game. “This is so nerve wracking,” said his wife when asked about the focus on Aaron’s accomplishment. “He’ll be damned if he breaks Ruth’s record and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t.”12

President Ford told Aaron that it “was a great day for you and a great day for baseball.” Then Kuhn offered his congratulation and presented Aaron with a trophy followed by Braves President Bill Bartholomay, who presented Aaron with a plaque. Aaron told the crowd, “Tying the record is great but breaking it is another thing. Thank you very much and I’m just glad it is almost over with.”13

In the midst of the celebration, the “streaking” fad of spring 1974 became part of the moment.14 “A young man on the top row of the massive Riverfront Stadium undressed and clamored for attention,” the Atlanta Constitution reported. The streaker was booed by the crowd and was quickly escorted off by police.15

As Billingham threw some pitches while waiting for the celebration to end, second baseman Joe Morgan walked over to the mound and told him, “Jack, bear down. That’s only three runs and with Carl Morton pitching for them, we can come back.”16 Billingham finished the frame by getting the next two Braves to ground out.

Morton, a right-hander, had led the Braves in wins (15) in 1973 but had gone just 1-3 against Cincinnati. In the bottom of the first, Pete Rose singled and moved to third on Morgan’s single. Rose came home on Tony Peréz’s one-out groundout, making the score 3-1.

The Braves added another run in the fourth. Dusty Baker led off with a single and moved to third on a passed ball and a sacrifice. Baker scored when Craig Robinson hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Atlanta scored two more runs in the fifth on third baseman Dan Driessen’s two-run error. Aaron scored all the way from first, to make the score 6-1.

The Reds’ second run came on Dave Concepcion’s home run in the bottom of the fifth inning Concepcion joked with reporters after the game, “Don’t forget to write about my homer, too. That gives me 13.”17

After Billingham was removed for a pinch-hitter in the fifth, Roger Nelson and Pedro Borbón shut out the Braves for the next four innings.

When Driessen doubled to left field in the sixth, Aaron made a leaping attempt to catch the ball against the wall.

Morton walked Rose to start the eighth, and Phil Niekro took over in relief. After Morgan popped out, Driessen singled Rose to third. Then Niekro surrendered a three-run homer to Pérez. The Braves led by just one run, 6-5.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, pinch-hitter George Foster singled.18 Rose doubled to right field and Foster was waved home. Baker fielded the ball and threw to first baseman Lum, who hesitated briefly before making his throw to the plate. Foster was initially called out by home-plate umpire Ed Vargo. The Reds asked Vargo to consult with first-base umpire Bruce Froemming. Froemming called Foster safe, saying that catcher Johnny Oates didn’t have control of the ball. The game was tied at six runs apiece.

Niekro walked Morgan intentionally and then was replaced by Tom House, who walked Phil Gagliano to load the bases. Pérez then popped out to send the game into extra innings.

Neither team scored in the 10th. After Clay Carroll retired the Braves in order in the 11th, Atlanta sent right-hander Buzz Capra to the mound.19

With two outs, Rose doubled. Capra walked Morgan intentionally. César Gerónimo pinch-hit for Carroll. The left-handed Gérónimo swung and missed at Capra’s first pitch. The ball bounced away from Oates, rolling to the Atlanta dugout. An alert Rose ran home before Oates could recover the ball, giving the Reds a 7-6 win.

Asked how he felt about tying Ruth’s record, Aaron said, “I thought that tying the record would mean a lot to me but it was only another home run. When I hit the next one, I’ll probably run around the bases backward.”20

Mathews, with a big smile on his face, said, “I’m happy I put him in there. It was pretty well certain when it left the bat it was gone. Can you imagine that? His first time at bat, his first swing at the ball and he hits it out. I said to myself, ‘You gotta be kidding me.’”21

Si Burick wrote in the Dayton Daily News, “On one of the great occasions of his baseball life, Henry Aaron had to temper his joy by suggesting sadly: ‘Some of the edge was rubbed off because we didn’t win the game.’”22

Aaron did not play in the second game of the series, then went hitless in the April 7 finale. The Braves returned to Atlanta, where Aaron ended the suspense on April 8. His home run in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers gave him sole possession of the home-run crown.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other pertinent material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197404040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1974/B04040CIN1974.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCxe_NeNZFI  

Notes

1 Wayne Minshew, “Aaron’s Blast Spells End to Kuhn Feud,” Atlanta Constitution, April 5, 1974: 95.

2 Joseph Durso, “Aaron Is Expected to Start in Season Opener Tomorrow,” New York Times, April 4, 1974: 42.

3 Smith criticized Aaron for supporting the Braves’ desire to maximize their box-office receipts. He also said that Aaron told reporters that “it didn’t matter whether he played or not since the Braves were not going anywhere this year.” Smith also wrote that Aaron “guessed that the commissioner would have to make out Cincinnati’s batting order, too.” Red Smith, “Henry’s Finest Hour, And Bowie’s,” New York Times, April 5, 1974: 43.

4 Bob Hertzel, “No King Tribute Mars Moment for Aaron,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 5, 1974: 41. Hertzel quoted Reds vice president Dick Wagner, who issued a statement from the team saying: “As a policy, our club has never gotten into religious things. We don’t get into politics. We don’t get into race. We believe our fans come to the ballpark to be entertained. We don’t do [tributes] for Kennedy, for Lincoln, for anyone else. And it’s not because of the men or what they stand for. We just don’t think our fans want that at the ballpark.” Aaron’s wife, Billye, was outspoken about the decision, saying, “It should not have been necessary to request a moment of silence. The stature of the man demanded it.”

5 Major-league baseball used cowhide instead of horsehide on the cover of the baseballs for the first time in 1974. Horsehide had become difficult to obtain. Several of the new cowhide balls had come apart in spring training but the Spalding Company said it was running new tests on the ball to ensure that there would be no problems when the season started. Both ball coverings were used early in the season, but by the end of the season, only cowhide was used. Zachary Rymer, “The Evolution of the Baseball from the Dead-Ball Era Through Today,” Bleacher Report.com, June 13, 2013, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1676509-the-evolution-of-the-baseball-from-the-dead-ball-era-through-today.

6 High winds from a tornado had damaged the left-field fence at Riverfront Stadium, which was hastily repaired in time for the game.

7 Durso.

8 Bill McCoy, “Aaron Has 714 Day, Reds a 7-6 Ballgame,” Dayton Daily News, April 5, 1974: 13.

9 McCoy.

10 McCoy.

11 The ball was retrieved by Clarence Williams, a Cincinnati police officer. Williams was later given a monetary reward by the Braves and the Reds for returning the ball.

12 Associated Press, “Hank’s Pop – I Knew He Would Hit It Today,” New York Daily News, April 5, 1974: 102.

13 Bob Hertzel, “Aaron Ties Ruth’s Record, Reds Win,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 5, 1974: 1.

14 Streaking, or running nude in public, was a fad taking place regularly in the fall and spring of 1974. Although it was mostly taking places on college campuses, streaker also used other public venues such as sporting events and the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony.

15 Al Thomy, “Madness Reigned Supreme,” Atlanta Constitution, April 5, 1974: 94.

16 McCoy, “Aaron Has 714 Day, Reds a 7-6 Ballgame.”

17 McCoy.

18 Foster was traded to the Reds from the San Franciso Giants in 1971 and was still several years away from being the power hitter of the mid-1970s. In the previous two years with the Reds, he hit just 6 home runs with 21 RBIs in 76 games.

19 This was Capra’s first game with the Braves after he was purchased from the New York Mets on March 26.

20 Dave Anderson, “Aaron Ties Babe Ruth with 714th Home Run,” New York Times, April 5, 1974: 1.

21 Wayne Minshew, “Pandemonium Reigned in Braves Dugout,” Atlanta Constitution, April 5, 1974: 94.

22 Si Burick, “Aaron’s 714 Suspense Ended on First 1974 Swing,” Dayton Daily News, April 5, 1974: 13.