Sunday, April 13, 2014

It has been 40 years

April, 1974.

"He's sitting on 714"

I can remember the moment on Monday Night Night Baseball, an anticipation of history.   LA Dodgers pitcher, left hander Al Downing tossed another hard inside pitch to Henry Aaron.

This pitch would not get tossed back by Joe Ferguson.

This pitch would leave the field and be a record.

Lest we forget Babe Ruth, but 715 had been reached, a home run milestone. He finished his career off with his 755th home run.  No drugs, no scandals, no issues.

This week we celebrate a 40 year reminder that a black baseball player passed the legendary Babe Ruth.  Somehow, I never felt Aaron got his due, there was always something missing.

The reason was easy, Aaron was black, and the USA was not quite as race tolerant as they feel they have become.  Ruth, still a hero of many generations was white and a cultural icon.  Forget the fact he drank heavily, cheated on his fight, and had an ego the size of his gut, he is remembered fondly for changing the game. 


Aaron was the victim of horrible racism, hate letters and death threats. White racism was very prevalent in 1974.

Aaron soldiered on, we all thought that before the end of the 1973 season, Aaron would have caught and passed Ruth, but pitchers seemed to be pitching very carefully.  Some reporters stated openly that white pitchers were avoiding being the one to give up a home run to Henry.

Al Downing of the LA Dodgers, a black pitcher, never worried about that. The LA Dodgers were very good team in 74, and would challenge for the World Series against the Oakland A's.  Al did not care what record was at stake, he just wanted the out.

I watched that game, anticipating an event, and was not disappointed. It went high, deep and long and not come back. 

40 years from now, there might another record set, and I hope my son will see it. By then, I hope society has dropped all feelings of racism, or at least most criticism of others. Celebrate the event !