By Mike Patton
(Source: NABJ Black News & Views)
Major League Baseball outfielder Hank Aaron never hit more than 50 home runs in a season, a mark that some of the top sluggers in baseball history have often surpassed. But Aaron didn’t need to have an eye-popping number of single-season home runs to become the game’s all-time home run leader in 1974.
Aaron, a Mobile, Alabama, native known as “Hammerin’ Hank,” was one of the most consistent home run hitters in MLB history. He often hit between 20 and 40 home runs per season throughout his 23-year career. In 1974, Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth’s Aaron’s record of 714 career home runs and two years later, his 755 career home runs held for 31 years until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007.
Aaron played for the Atlanta Braves for the majority of his time in the big leagues. On Oct. 2, 1974, the future Baseball Hall of Famer hit his 736th home run, his final hit in a Braves uniform. The Braves would also go on to win the game 13-0 against the Cincinnati Reds.
