Aaron a legend at Municipal Stadium
Babe Ruth’s record on every mind during spring 1974
Fifty years ago, on one of the final days of spring training, Henry Aaron was struck in the head by a baseball at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium.
At the time, the Atlanta Braves slugger was the biggest story in sports — perhaps the biggest story, period, except for Watergate — and the focus of West Palm Beach’s most electrifying spring since the Braves started training there in 1963.
Aaron ended the 1973 season with 713 career home runs, one shy of Babe Ruth’s once-hallowed record. A new record would have to wait until 1974. And for Aaron and the rest of the baseball world, the anticipation made for a long winter.
When the Braves finally arrived in West Palm Beach for spring camp in February 1974, Aaron received a reception fit for a soon-to-be home run king. He was trailed by packs of reporters, dogged by throngs of fans and watched over by two personal security guards.
But now, on March 29, just days from the start of the regular season, Hammerin’ Hank was reaching for his forehead and stumbling backward. He’d been standing next to the batting cage when teammate Davey Johnson fouled a ball into the netting. The ball struck Aaron just above the left eye, stunning the slugger for a few anxious moments.
According to press reports that began “Hank Aaron narrowly escaped serious injury …,” a walnut-size knot appeared on his head. But that’s as bad as it got. Other than that nasty welt, the errant ball “did no serious damage,” according to reports.
The Braves broke camp a few days later, and on April 8, before a record crowd of 53,775 in Atlanta, Aaron connected off Dodgers lefty Al Downing for his record-breaking 715th home run.
“I’m glad it happened,” he said the next day, “but I’m glad it’s over.”
The errant foul ball merited only a brief mention in newspapers, but it sounded an anxious end to an exhilarating spring in West Palm Beach. The excitement would be repeated 24 years later, just up the road in Jupiter, when Mark McGwire arrived at Roger Dean Stadium in 1998, seven months before breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home run record.