The Pecan Park Eagle

Young Hank Aarom

Hank Aaron broke into the big leagues as a right fielder for the Milwaukee Braves on April 13, 1954 in a road game against the Cincinnati Reds. Ten days later, playing in his ?th major league game at St. Louis, Aaron hit his first of 755 career home runs against right-handed Cardinals starter Vic Raschi. It was a solo shot by Aaron, but it  allowed the Braves to finish the 9th in a 4-4 tie with a chance to play for victory in extra innings. Milwaukee would go on from there to take a 7-5 win over the Cards at Busch Stadium I, the place that was better known as Sportsman’s Park prior to 1953, in 14 innings..

Like a lot of major events that find their start in the low light of public expectation and attention. the first mile in Hank Aaron’s assault on the 714 career home runs record of Babe Ruth began well below the level of public attention. In fact, by the time that writers and fans awakened to the steady, undramatic, but certain-as-sunshine pattern in which Aaron hit home runs, Hammerin’ Hank was well on Ruth’s heels and catching up with him in big bite seasonal gulps..

This Associated Press coverage story of Aaron’s first home run is typical of his whole camouflaged career. It was one which actually began with the thin, athletic Henry Aaron starting out with a physical build that hardly promoted any idea of him as the second coming of the Sultan of Swat. In fact another rookie named Charley White also got his first MLB homer in this same game, a stroke that was doubly celebrated as his first big league hit. Watch the difference in coverage here  for White over Aaron in their shared debut as big league home run hitters.

Here’s how The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune quietly reported Aaron’s first big league homer:

________________________________________

BRAVES DEFEAT CARDINALS IN 14-INNING GAME, 7-5

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Milwaukee Braves did it the hard way Friday night in their first  invasion of Busch Stadium this year.

They defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5, in 14 innings – the longest game of the infant major league baseball season. The contest wound up well past midnight, four hours and two minutes after it started.

Jim Pendleton settled the marathon outing when he slammed a pinch hit single with the bases loaded in the 14th.Solly Hemus kicked what easily would have been a double play grounder, setting up a pair of runs.

Andy Pafko had opened up the inning with a single and Hank Aaron did likewise. Johnny Logan reached base on Hemus’ error.

Tie Game in Ninth

The Braves tied the score in the ninth against Vic Raschi on Jack Dittmer’s two-out run-scoring single.

They moved momentarily ahead in the 13th on Charley White’s homer – his first major league hit – and then watched St. Louis tie in its half when (left fielder) Eddie Mathews fell down in left field and Wally Moon’s hit skipped past him for a triple.

Moon, a rookie and successor to Enos Slaughter in the Cardinals outfield, collected five of Cardinals nine hits off Gene Conley, Ernie Johnson, winner Dave Jolly, and Ray Crone.

Braves who slammed homers were Aaron, Logan, and White. Altogether the Braves hit 16 blows off Raschi, Al Brazle, loser Ellis Deal, Joe Presko, and Royce Lint.

Cardinals Move Ahead

Solid singles by Danny O’Connell and (Eddie) Mathews got the game underway. After (Joe) Adcock went out, (Andy) Pafko singled to deep short, filling the bases and (Hank) Aaron’s hit to almost the same place sent O’Connell home.

The Cardinals scored two runs in their half of the first inning and stayed ahead of the Braves until the ninth inning when the Milwaukeeans worked the game (into) the tie that sent it into extra innings.

Meanwhile, (Milwaukee) manager Charlie Grimm announced that when Billy Bruton recovers sufficiently from a virus infection and returns to the lineup, Aaron will go back to the bench..

Grimm said Mathews will stay in left field, with Bruto in center and Pafko in right.

Dittmer will contiune playing at second with O’Connell staying at third. The Braves remain in St. Louis tonight, again playing the Cards under the lights.

~ Associated Press, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Saturday, April 24, 1954, Page 6.

________________________________________

Baseball Almanac Box ScoresMilwaukee Braves 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5
Game played on Friday, April 23, 1954 at Busch Stadium I
Milwaukee Braves ab   r   h rbi Dittmer 2b 8 0 1 1 O’Connell 3b 7 1 4 0 Mathews lf 5 0 1 0 Adcock 1b 4 0 0 0 Pafko cf 6 1 2 0 Aaron rf 7 2 3 2 Logan ss 7 1 1 1 Crandall c 4 0 1 0   Sisti pr 0 1 0 0   Jolly p 2 0 0 0   Pendleton ph 1 0 1 2   Crone p 0 0 0 0 Conley p 2 0 1 0   Metkovich ph 1 0 0 0   Johnson p 0 0 0 0   White ph,c 4 1 1 1 Totals 58 7 16 7	St. Louis Cardinals ab   r   h rbi Repulski lf 6 0 0 0 Moon cf 5 2 5 0 Schoendienst 2b 5 1 0 1 Musial rf 4 1 1 1 Jablonski 3b 5 1 1 2 Alston 1b 5 0 1 0 Yvars c 3 0 0 0   Frazier ph 1 0 0 0   Rice c 2 0 1 0   Haddix pr 0 0 0 0 Grammas ss 3 0 0 0   Hemus ph,ss 1 0 0 0 Raschi p 3 0 0 0   Burgess ph 1 0 0 0   Brazle p 0 0 0 0   Bilko ph 1 0 0 0   Deal p 0 0 0 0   Presko p 0 0 0 0   Lint p 0 0 0 0   Schofield ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 46 5 9 4
Milwaukee 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 – 7 16 1 St. Louis 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 – 5 9 2   Milwaukee Braves IP H R ER BB SO Conley 6.0 4 4 3 5 3   Johnson 2.0 1 0 0 0 0   Jolly  W(1-0) 5.0 3 1 1 2 1   Crone  SV(1) 1.0 1 0 0 1 3 Totals 14.0 9 5 4 8 7   St. Louis Cardinals IP H R ER BB SO Raschi 9.0 10 4 4 1 4   Brazle 3.0 1 0 0 3 2   Deal  L(0-1) 1.1 4 3 3 0 0   Presko 0.0 1 0 0 0 0   Lint 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 14.0 16 7 7 4 7 E–Aaron (1), Hemus 2 (2).  DP–Milwaukee 3. Adcock-Logan, Conley-Logan-Adcock, O’Connell-Dittmer-Adcock.  2B–Milwaukee Crandall (1).  3B–St. Louis Moon (2,off Jolly).  HR–Milwaukee Aaron (1,6th inning off Raschi 0 on); Logan (3,4th inning off Raschi 0 on); White (1,13th inning off Deal 0 on)., St. Louis Jablonski (2,3rd inning off Conley 1 on 2 out).  SH–Mathews (1); Adcock (1)..  Team LOB–14.  SF–Schoendienst (2,off Jolly).  IBB–Alston (1,by Conley); Musial (1,by Conley); Hemus (1,by Jolly).  Team–8.  SB–Moon (1); Alston (2); Moon (1,2nd base off Johnson/Crandall); Alston (2,2nd base off Jolly/White).  U-HP–Al Barlick, 1B–Lon Warneke, 2B–Augie Donatelli, 3B–Lee Ballanfant.  T–4:02.  A–14,577.
Game played on Friday, April 23, 1954 at Busch Stadium I
Baseball Almanac Box Score |

Tags: Hank Aaron's 1st MLB HR

This entry was posted on April 18, 2014 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.