Rant #1,648: It Was 42 Years Ago Today ...

This year, April 8 is the 99th day of the year.

Normally, it is the 98th day of the year, but this is a Leap Year, so we have an extra day.

To me, it is just another day of work, and puts me exactly 20 days away from my birthday, when I hit the big 5-9.

But 42 years ago, this was a day for the books.

Where were you on 1974?

I was 16 going on 17 years old, going to high school--and hating every minute of it--but still friendly with my buddies from my old neighborhood.

I slept over my friend Howie's house--he and his family had moved from Rochdale Village to nearby Rosedale by this time--and we watched TV that evening, waiting to see a momentous occasion happen before our eyes.

In 1974, 42 years ago. Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves came up to the plate against former Yankee Al Downing, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and hit a home run for the ages--

His 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's generations-old record for career four baggers.

I don't think people now can understand how important that one swing was the not only baseball history, but to our history as a country.

As we all know, blacks were banned from playing Major League baseball until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the mid-1940s, but by the 1970s, they collectively had become a force to be reckoned with not just in MLB, but in professional sports.

Aaron was one of the best players, black or white, that the game had ever seen, and while he never had the high profile of, let's say, a Willie Mays, he quietly and professionally put up spectacular offensive numbers every year throughout the mid 1950s through the 1960s.

He was entering what they say is the "twilight" of his career in 1974, and when he stepped up to the plate in this nationally televised game, he not only had his team on his back, he also had the world there too.

It was early in the season, and Aaron had received numerous death threats. How dare he break Babe Ruth's long-standing home run record, I mean, he was black. How can he dare challenge the Babe?

Personally, I wasn't too happy because he was going to break a Yankee's record, and a lot of people felt the same way I did, but let's be honest about it, it was inevitable.

So at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, extra security was in place for the possibility that Aaron would break the record, and happily, when he did, nothing happened, nothing at all, other than him rounding the bases and several fans coming onto the field to congratulate him--that is how lax security was at this point in time.

I watched the game with my friend, and we both knew what we felt was going to happen, and it did.

I don't remember much else about the game, other than the fact that as full as Fulton County Stadium was at the beginning of the game in anticipation of what was going to happen, the crowd petered out throughout the game, and at the end, there were probably a couple of thousand people in the stands versus the 50,000 or so who filled all the seats in the stadium at the beginning.

Ironically, a few years later, another milestone was reached this day, as Frank Robinson became MLB's first black manager, leading the Cleveland Indians.

So today, the 98th or 99th day on the calendar, isn't such an inconsequential day after all. Sure, Aaron has since been topped by Barry Bonds in the home run derby, but with one swing of the bat, Aaron spoke volumes.

One swing of the bat was all that it took.

And it didn't lessen the Babe's impact of the game one iota.

What it did was put the naysayers at bay, open some people's eyes, but those people, quite frankly, were blind anyway.

Speak to you again on Monday.