1974 Atlanta Braves season
| 1974 Atlanta Braves | |
|---|---|
| Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's all-time home run record | |
| Major League affiliations | |
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| Location | |
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| Results | |
| Record | 88–74 (.543) |
| Divisional place | 3rd |
| Other information | |
| Owner(s) | William Bartholomay |
| General manager(s) | Eddie Robinson |
| Manager(s) | Eddie Mathews, Clyde King |
| Local television | WTCG |
| Local radio |
WSB (Ernie Johnson, Milo Hamilton) |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 1974 Atlanta Braves season was a season in American baseball. The team finished third in the National League West with a record of 88–74, 14 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. During the season, Braves outfielder Hank Aaron became the all-time career leader in home runs, surpassing Babe Ruth.
At the end of the 1973 season, Aaron had finished one home run short of the record. He hit home run number 713 on September 29, 1973, and with one day remaining in the season, many expected him to tie the record. But in his final game that year, playing against the Houston Astros (led by manager Leo Durocher, who had once roomed with Babe Ruth), he was unable to hit one out of the park.
Over the winter, Aaron received many death threats and a large assortment of hate mail. Many did not want to see a black man break Ruth's nearly home run record.Lewis Grizzard, then editor of the Atlanta Journal, prepared for the massive coverage of the home run record. Secretly though, he quietly had an obituary written, scared that Aaron might be murdered.
Sports Illustrated pointedly summarized the racist vitriol that Aaron was forced to endure:
"Is this to be the year in which Aaron, at the age of thirty-nine, takes a moon walk above one of the most hallowed individual records in American sport...? Or will it be remembered as the season in which Aaron, the most dignified of athletes, was besieged with hate mail and trapped by the cobwebs and goblins that lurk in baseball's attic?"
Babe Ruth's widow, Claire Hodgson, even denounced the racism and declared that her husband would have enthusiastically cheered Aaron's attempt at the record.
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Wikipedia