Looking Back at 714

Hugh Atkins

Fifty years ago this Thursday, Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit the 714th home run of his career, tying the Big Bambino for the most home runs in the history of Major League Baseball. It happened back in the days when there was only one game on Opening Day, and it was always in Cincinnati. Aaron took care of business early, hitting the record-tying round-tripper in the top of the first inning with his first swing of the season.

© T.C.G.

I vividly remember watching Aaron hit his homer off Jack Billingham, even though it was an afternoon game on a school day. I was a sophomore in high school back in ‘74, and in the almost ten years I had been in school, I had missed only a handful of days. My best guess of how I was at home at 1:40 p.m. CDT is that my mother, a lifelong baseball fan herself, must have signed me out of school early for such a momentous occasion.

I remembered that Aaron’s home run gave the Braves a 3-0 lead, and they eventually lost the game. But while reviewing the play-by-play account of the game on Retrosheet, I noticed some details from the game that we would not see in today’s version of MLB.

The Braves led 6-2 going into the bottom of the eighth when Phil Niekro came in to relieve starter Carl Morton after Morton walked Pete Rose leading off the inning. I don’t remember why, if Niekro was healthy enough to pitch, Morton got the Opening Day start. In any event, the relief appearance did not go well for Niekro. After Joe Morgan popped out, Niekro gave up a single to Dan Driessen and then a three-run homer to Tony Perez. Niekro yielded the tying run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the Reds won the game on a wild pitch by Buzz Capra in the 11th inning.

Niekro made his first start of the season three days later and got the win, pitching a complete game. He went on to win 20 games with 18 complete games and six shutouts. Other than a pitcher winning 20 games, none of this would happen today.

© T.C.G.

The managerial wheels were turning in the top of the 10th inning. After Mike Lum led off with a single, Darrell Evans bunted him to second. Evans was coming off a 1973 season in which he hit 41 home runs, which makes it odd that Braves manager Ed Mathews called on him to bunt. What are the chances of that happening today?

The strategy did not pay off. Rowland Office, a left-handed hitter who had entered the game for Aaron in the seventh inning, was due up against the lefty-tossing Tom Hall. But Mathews called on right-handed hitter Ivan Murrell to pinch-hit for Office. Sparky Anderson went to his bullpen and brought in Clay Carroll, a right-hander. Mathews then sent Frank Tepedino, a left-handed hitter, up for Murrell, and the Reds issued Tepedino an intentional walk. After all this maneuvering, Dusty Baker flied out to center, and Dave Johnson grounded out to end the inning.

Even with all the ceremony around Aaron’s home run, the managers trying to out-maneuver each other, and the game going 11 innings, the game still lasted only three hours, nine minutes.

Remembering Henry Aaron’s 714th took me back to the days before the NL had the designated hitter, before there was a three-batter minimum for relief pitchers, and before they started extra innings with a runner at second base.

Man, I loved the game back then.