May 21, 1967: Henry Aaron outshines Roberto Clemente, Pirates with two homers and assist

In the 1960s Pittsburgh Pirates trailblazer Roberto Clemente challenged Henry Aaron’s reign as the National League’s top right fielder. Their amicable rivalry seized the spotlight during a May 1967 Braves-Pirates series in Atlanta. At the end of a weekend in which Braves broadcaster Milo Hamilton jested about Clemente overtaking Aaron as the NL All-Star right fielder, and Clemente had the edge in play in the series’ first three games, Aaron showed off his superstar qualities in the series finale, belting two homers and throwing out Clemente at third in a 7-2 Braves win on May 21 at Atlanta Stadium.

Aaron, born in Mobile, Alabama, in February 1934, reached the majors with the then-Milwaukee Braves in April 1954. He won his first of two career batting titles in 1956. A year later, he was named NL Most Valuable Player while leading the Braves to the World Series championship. His first of three consecutive Gold Gloves came in 1958.

Clemente was born six months after Aaron in Puerto Rico, and he debuted with the Pirates in 1955. Clemente’s career was slower-blooming than Aaron’s, but he was instrumental to Pittsburgh’s World Series championship in 1960. A year later he won his first of four career batting titles and the first of 12 consecutive Gold Gloves. In 1966 he was named National League MVP.

Aaron’s string of 25 consecutive All-Star appearances began in 1955. Clemente became a perennial All-Star in 1960. But it was not until 1966, the first season after the Braves’ move to Atlanta, when both superstar right fielders were selected as All-Star starters in the same season. After a vote of NL players picked Aaron, Clemente, and San Francisco Giants center fielder Willie Mays as the league’s All-Star starting outfield,1 manager Walter Alston of the Los Angeles Dodgers put Clemente in right and Aaron in left.

Alston’s alignment passed by without a ripple of public controversy in July 1966. Ten months later, however, Clemente was the guest of honor at a Friday luncheon in Atlanta, hours before the second game of a four-game series between the Pirates and Braves.

“We know how great Henry Aaron is,” declared luncheon emcee Hamilton, in his second season of Braves’ play-by-play at age 39. “But when it comes to making the All-Star selection, right there’s the right fielder.” He pointed at Clemente.2

Aaron was not present at the luncheon, but he had a stern, defensive response when informed of Hamilton’s remarks later that day.

“If he’s gonna bring me into it, he’d better get his facts straight,” Aaron said. “I played left field in the All-Star Game because Alston asked me if I’d mind playing there. I could have played right field if I wanted to. I got more votes than anybody out there.”

“Who does he think he’s working for anyway, the Pirates? And has he ever been the All-Star Game announcer? I don’t think so?”3

Aaron’s showdown with Clemente was not the only source of intrigue between the home-run king and the Pirates. Pittsburgh manager Harry Walker had deployed a shift against the right-handed-batting Aaron since the 1966 season, positioning three infielders on the third-base side.4 Walker and pitcher Bob Veale had heckled Aaron from the dugout in a September ’66 game in Pittsburgh – but Aaron responded with two home runs.5

When the Pirates visited Atlanta Stadium in May 1967, with both clubs in the middle of the NL’s pack, Clemente initially had the upper hand. Pittsburgh won two of the series’ first three games, and Clemente was 5-for-9 with three doubles, a home run, three runs scored, and three RBIs, setting his batting average at a league-leading .402 and pushing him past Aaron for the NL’s RBI lead. Aaron went 3-for-10 with two doubles and a run scored.

Juan Pizarro, Pittsburgh’s Sunday afternoon starter, had spent the first four seasons of his major-league career, 1957-1960, with the Braves. He retired the first two batters in the bottom of the first, but the .312-hitting Aaron singled to center. Joe Torre also singled to center, and Aaron dashed for third. Matty Alou’s throw was late, and Torre moved up to second.6

An intentional walk to Rico Carty loaded the bases for Gene Oliver, who worked the count full. Pizarro missed with the next pitch to force Aaron home, then threw four straight balls to Clete Boyer to make it 2-0.7 Walker replaced Pizarro with Steve Blass, and Denis Menke popped up to end the inning.

Braves knuckleballer Ken Johnson, sidelined since May 5 because of a virus,8 had set Pittsburgh down in order in the first. Willie Stargell led off the second with a .185 batting average; he had been benched for the previous two games with lefties Denny Lemaster and Dick Kelley starting for Atlanta. But Stargell had adjusted – “shorten[ing] his stride and wait[ing] on the pitch longer,” as he told the Pittsburgh Press a few days after the game.9 He drove a high-and-outside Johnson pitch an estimated 373 feet over the left-field fence for an opposite-field home run, his fifth homer of the season.10

Blass seemed headed for a clean second inning when he picked up two outs and induced Felipe Alou to ground to reigning NL Gold Glove shortstop Gene Alley.11 Alley, however, threw wide of first baseman Donn Clendenon, and Alou was safe on the error.

The next pitch was an inside fastball to Aaron, who pulled it into the left-field foul-pole screen for his majors-leading 10th homer of the season. The Braves had a 4-1 lead.

Atlanta threatened to increase its advantage when Carty followed Torre’s single with a liner to right-center, but Clemente made a backhanded catch to end the inning.12

The game was not yet out of reach for Pittsburgh, and the Pirates began to make their move in the fourth. Maury Wills led off by popping a single into shallow center,13 and Clemente hit a one-hopper back to Johnson. Even with two swift runners in motion, a double play seemed imminent, but Johnson’s throw to second was off-target. Pittsburgh had two men on with no outs.14

Stargell pulled a solid single into right. Wills scored Pittsburgh’s second run, and Clemente attempted to take third.15 Aaron had thrown Clemente out five times on the basepaths in his career, including on back-to-back days in July 1961.16 His heave made it on the fly to Boyer, who tagged out Clemente.17 Two batters after Aaron’s momentum-changing throw, the Braves were back in their dugout, still ahead by two runs.

As Aaron continued to reach base with a fourth-inning walk and a sixth-inning single – described by the Pittsburgh Press as “a shot that [Pirates’ Gold Glove second baseman] Bill Mazeroski found hard to handle” – Atlanta added to its lead in the fifth against Al McBean.18 Oliver led off with a double into the left-field corner.19 One out later, Menke singled him home.

Clemente’s groundout ended Pittsburgh’s one-two-three eighth and concluded his hitless day, and Aaron punctuated his 4-for-4 game in the bottom of the inning. Felipe Alou drew a two-out walk from Pete Mikkelsen. As in the second inning, Aaron ripped a fastball down the left-field line.20 The ball hit the top of the fence and bounced over.21 Aaron had his second homer of the game, 11th of the season, and 453rd of his career. Atlanta’s lead was 7-2.

Johnson needed just three minutes, per the Columbus (Georgia) Ledger’s stopwatch, to retire the Pirates in order in the ninth.22 Clendenon struck out to wrap up Johnson’s seven-hit, no-walk, 101-pitch complete game.23

“I was glad I was pitching because I knew that [Aaron] was getting hot about this who’s-the-best stuff and that he was really going to have a great day,” Johnson said.

Weeks later, NL players voted Aaron, Clemente, and St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Lou Brock as their starting All-Star outfield.24 Alston sent Clemente to right and Aaron to center.25 Nobody seemed alarmed by the arrangement. Walker was fired as Pittsburgh’s manager in July, and the Pirates stopped shifting their infield against Aaron.26 Aaron went on to win his fourth career home-run crown for the seventh-place Braves. Clemente took home his fourth batting title for the sixth-place Pirates.

Clemente died in a tragic plane accident on New Year’s Eve 1972. Shortly over a year later, Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home-run record, with Hamilton’s narration of the milestone living on in video clips.

But at Atlanta Stadium in 1967, Aaron – with an assist from a popular advertising campaign of the day – had the final word on the clash of Hall of Fame-bound right fielders.

“Just wanted to let some people know that when you’re second best, you have to try a little harder, don’t you?” he said, grinning.27

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SABR members Gary Belleville and Kurt Blumenau provided insightful comments on an earlier version of the article.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL196705210.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1967/B05210ATL1967.htm

NOTES

1  Associated Press, “Aaron Heads NL in All-Star Voting,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, June 30, 1966: 38.

2  Wilt Browning, “Aaron ‘Stands Up’ for Aaron,” Atlanta Journal, May 20, 1967: 9.

3  Browning, “Aaron ‘Stands Up’ for Aaron.”

4  Wilt Browning, “Aaron Pins Needling Bucs: All Is Quiet Under the Hat, Hank Hits Two, Braves Win,” Atlanta Journal, September 26, 1966: 55.

5  Charlie Roberts, “Aaron Blasts Veale, Walker and 2 Homers,” Atlanta Constitution, September 26, 1966: 2.

6  Charley Feeney, “Aaron’s Booming Bat Whips Pirates, 7 to 2: Braves’ Ace Hits Two Home Runs; Pizarro’s Try Poor,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 22, 1967: 26.

7  Feeney, “Aaron’s Booming Bat Whips Pirates, 7 to 2.”

8  Feeney, “Aaron’s Booming Bat Whips Pirates, 7 to 2

9  Lester J. Biederman, “Stargell Passes One ‘Goal’ in Pirates’ Victory,” Pittsburgh Press, May 23, 1967: 38.

10  Cecil Darby, “Hank’s HRs Took Pressure off Joe,” Columbus (Georgia) Ledger, May 22, 1967: 16.

11  Alley repeated his Gold Glove in 1967.

12  Feeney, “Aaron’s Booming Bat Whips Pirates, 7 to 2.”

13  The Pirates had acquired Wills – at that time the major-league single-season stolen-base record-holder with 104 in 1962 – in a December 1966 trade that sent Bob Bailey and Gene Michael to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

14  Les Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates: Braves Belt Bucs by 7-2 Behind Hank,” Pittsburgh Press, May 22, 1967: 30.

15  Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates.”

16  Aaron had thrown Clemente out on May 30, 1960 (at first base); September 6, 1960 (home); July 21, 1961 (second); July 22, 1961 (third); and April 10, 1963 (third).

17  Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates.”

18  Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates.”

19  Charley Feeney, “Aaron’s Booming Bat Whips Pirates.”

20  Darby, “Hank’s HRs Took Pressure off Joe.”

21  Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates.”

22  The Columbus (Georgia) Ledger determined that all of Johnson’s nine innings pitched lasted a total of just 47 minutes. Cecil Darby, “Johnson Wastes No Time on Bucs,” Columbus (Georgia) Ledger, May 22, 1967: 16.

23  Darby, “Johnson Wastes No Time on Bucs.”

24  Associated Press, “Joe, Hank Cited,” Atlanta Constitution, June 29, 1967: 55.

25  United Press International, “Marichal Faces Dean Chance: Clemente in Right in All-Star Tilt,” Pittsburgh Press, July 10, 1967: 28.

26  Lester J. Biederman, “Braves’ Aaron Among Best of Bargains,” Pittsburgh Press, August 30, 1967: 60.

27  Biederman, “‘Second Best’ Aaron Rips Pirates.” Avis Rental Car had implemented its popular “We Try Harder” advertising campaign, referencing its second-place industry standing beside Hertz, five years earlier in 1962.