For the luminous Hank Aaron, the year 1974 was notably mostly because on April 8 he broke Babe Ruth's all-time record by clouting his 715th career home run. Some seven months later, 1974 would become notable for a different reason.
On Nov. 2 of that year, the Braves traded Aaron to the Brewers in exchange for outfielder Dave May and minor-league right-hander Roger Alexander. The trade, of course, sent Aaron back to the city of Milwaukee, where he spent the first 12 seasons of his big-league career (the Braves moved to Atlanta before the 1966 season). Here's a look at his new threads ...
(Image: Popular Sports)
Aaron in '75 was entering into his age-41 season, but as it turned out he could still get by at the plate. Installed as the Brewers' regular DH, he put up a 98 OPS+ over his final two seasons and hit 22 home runs in 222 games for the Brewers, including, of course, number 755.
Here's number 745 ...
Along the way -- May 1975, to be exact -- he became the game's all-time RBI leader on the Brewers' watch. Aaron was of course a no-doubt Hall of Famer long before he ever returned to Milwaukee, but that made for a fitting capstone.
As for the Braves' side of things, May had a highly productive half season in 1975 before slipping back in '76, and Alexander never made the majors.
In conclusion, Hank Aaron was good at baseball!
