It was almost 41 years ago and I wasn’t even 10 but my grandmother surprised my brother and me, taking us to Atlanta-Fulton Stadium on April 8, 1974. The significance was obvious, even at my age, and along with my Pop Pop (grandfather), we arrived there early and settled into seats on the third-base dugout side.
Hank Aaron’s magical run to pass babe Ruth and hit his 715th home run was only two hours or so away but what I always remember most is the big American flag shaped like the USA that was etched on the grass behind second base, evident in this photo.
This was the opening game of the Braves’ first homestand of the season and said long-time Atlanta publicist Bob Hope, then a 26-year-old executive of the team, “We decided to do a ‘Hank Aaron, this is your life’ ceremony. We invited back all the people who were important in Hank’s life. There were friends, former teammates, managers and so on and when they were announced, they went to the part of the map where they were when they were with Aaron. It was really great’’ The ceremony lasted 30 minutes and also included such celebrities as Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr. and then-governor Jimmy Carter. The stadium was packed with 53,775, then a team record, NBC was on hand to handle the national broadcast and said Hope, “We could have sold 200,000 tickets to that game and sold a lot for the whole homestand because I don’t think we thought Aaron would hit it that night.’’
But on his second at-bat, Aaron sent an Al Downing fastball into the night sky and the record was his. And for this 9-year-old who would eventually become the team’s beat writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 17 years later, I still have the certificate given to everyone leaving the ballpark: “I was there when Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run to pass Babe Ruth as the top home run hitter in the history of baseball.’’
— I.J. ROSENBERG
