After being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers from the Milwaukee Braves(now known as the Atlanta Braves), Hank Aaron made his return to the town of Milwaukee, this time as a Brewer.
Aaron had a very successful career during his time with the Braves, winning a World Series with them in 1957. The Braves had 13 consecutive winning seasons from 1953-65 before relocating to Atlanta. When the Seattle Pilots were founded, baseball came back to Milwaukee when they eventually re-branded as the Milwaukee Brewers. Prior to trading for Hank Aaron, the Brewers had very little success. Following the 1974 season, Aaron’s future with the Braves was unlikely. Even though he had a highly successful career up until that point, breaking Babe Ruth’s historic home run record, Aaron dealt with knee issues and had played a career low in games with 112 and hit 20 home runs, his lowest total since his rookie season. He was showing his age and seemed to be heading towards retirement. When Aaron returned to County stadium, it was packed with 48,160 fans in attendance, a Brewers record and the second biggest crowd in County Stadium’s history. Aaron batted third and walked in his first at-bat. He entered the game 0/6 with more walks than strikeouts on the season. In his second at-bat, he hit a sharp grounder, forcing a throw to first base, but drove in his first run as a Brewer to the excitement of the crowd.
In his prime, Aaron was a major threat when on-base, becoming the third player in history to have a 30 home run-30 stolen base season in 1963. However, he had only 3 stolen bases in his last 2 seasons. In an attempt to steal second, he was easily thrown out but made up for it in his third at-bat of the game, hitting a single for his first hit as a Brewer. He later scored his first run of the season to extend the Brewers lead to 3-1. The Brewers eventually won the game 6-2 in Aaron’s return.
