40 Years Ago

I meant to post this yesterday but utterly forgot in the morass of watching following the Brewers as they dropped their third straight game to start the season...

One of my favorite items of baseball memorabilia that I own is my Milwaukee Braves pennant from the mid-1950s.  It was my mom's pennant when she was a kid, and it became mine as the one who loves baseball far more than either of my two brothers.

When you talk about the Milwaukee Braves, the three guys whose names come up most are Ed Mathews, Warren Spahn, and, of course, Henry Aaron.  Personally, I don't collect Aaron as a PC for two reasons.  First, I have enough to chase with Yount, Molitor, Mathews, Spahn, etc. Second -- and more to the point -- I really associate Hank Aaron with the Atlanta Braves and not the Milwaukee Braves.  

Nearly 10 years ago, in the office building where I worked at the time, they allowed a sports memorabilia guy to set up during the week prior to Father's Day.  He had a ton of different items -- college and pro football, basketball, and baseball mainly.  Two items caught my eye. One of them was a Brett Favre autographed photo with mocked-up ticket stubs from the two mid-1990s Super Bowls, and then, this other one:

In case you can't tell, that is a Hank Aaron-autographed timelapse photo from his 715th home run -- taken forty years ago yesterday.

Here's the description on the bottom:

Aaron is a major figure here in Atlanta. He owns a BMW dealership on the south side of town, and he still serves in an ambassadorial role for the Braves.  He will be honored tomorrow night at the Braves game for the 40th anniversary of the Ruth-breaker.

In my eyes, he is still the Home Run King:

And that call by Milo Hamilton is still the best. Even if Vin Scully called it (below), Milo owned it.

The cards will return another day.