Randy Smith: 50 Years Since "The Hammer" Made History

50 years ago this week, the great Henry Aaron stepped to the plate at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium to face Dodgers' pitcher Al Downing. There was more on the line than just a time at bat in a big-league ball game.  "He's sitting on 714," said Braves' announcer Milo Hamilton. He was referring to Aaron's career home run total of 714....tied with Babe Ruth who had held the all-time record for thirty-nine years. "Here's the pitch by Downing....there's a drive to left-center field....that ball is gonna be....outa here. It's gone....it's 715. There's a new home run king of all time and it's Henry Aaron!"

I was listening to the game on radio as my wife and I were driving home from the store in Murfreesboro. We rushed into the house and watched the replay on television. Let me make one thing clear....I loved Hank Aaron. He was one of my favorite players ever. But being a huge Yankee fan, I didn't want him to break the record. It had been held by a Yankee for many years and I always felt records like that, held by a Yankee, should remain that way. I got over that feeling very quickly.

Little did we know at the time what Aaron had to go through before he hit that home run. Death threats....letters from deranged racists who couldn't stand the fact that a black man was going to replace one of sports greatest milestones held by a white man. There were snipers on the roof at the stadium. There were plain-clothes police officers stationed all around the stadium just in case one of those cowards tried to make good on their threats.

Aaron's family was worried all week leading up to the game.  Deep down, he was concerned but he appeared to be calm....as he was in most all other situations, 20-plus years before he had witnessed some of that racism and hate as he started his career. He was a member of the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League and after having breakfast at a restaurant in Washington, he heard workers in the back breaking the plates he and his teammates had eaten out of. " If dogs had eaten out of those plates, they would have washed them," said Aaron.

When he finally signed a big-league contract, he wasn't allowed to stay in the same hotels with the white players and most of the time, he couldn't eat in the same restaurants with them.  We all know the story as the same things happened to every black ball player in the 1940s and 50s. With the Civil Rights Act of 1965, you would have thought that almost a decade later things would be different. But they weren't and even though some things have changed for the better, fifty years after he broke Ruth's record there are still too many incidents of racism and hatred out there and in some ways, things have digressed.  

Hammerin' Hank passed away at the age of 86 in 2021. He had been active in civil rights up until his death and he told those stories of dealing with racism and hate time and again. All of us could learn a lesson or two from baseball's true home run king....and those lessons have nothing to do with baseball.