In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier.
There were a lot of things that happened in baseball during the 1974 season. Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals set a season mark for stolen bases with 118, but with one swing Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves had the greatest career accomplishment of the year.
When this 1974 card was released, Aaron wasn’t the actual leader in career homers. He had hit his 713th at the end of 1973 off Jerry Reuss in a 7-0 Braves win over the Houston Astros on Sept. 29.
Fans didn’t have to wait very long for Aaron to make history as he tied Babe Ruth with 714 on opening day in Cincinnati. His three-run blast in the first inning off Jack Billingham wasn’t enough as the Reds won 7-6 in 11 innings.
It was such a special moment the game was stopped for a visiting player as Aaron was congratulated by United States Vice President Gerald Ford and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
After a day off, Aaron played in the series finale in Cincinnati and didn’t get a hit in three trips to the plate.
The next day a nationwide television audience was able to view the historic homer. After walking in his first at bat, Aaron sent an Al Downing pitch in the fourth inning into the Braves bullpen in left field where the ball was caught by teammate Tom House. The Braves would go on to win the game 7-4.
Perhaps his best game of the year was in San Diego on Aug. 6. Aaron hit a pair of homers off Bill Greif and also singled as he drove in four runs in a 5-2 win for the Braves.
The ironic thing about the 1974 season for Aaron was it was probably his worst in a Braves uniform. He finished with 20 homers, 69 RBI and a .268 batting average. His final homer in 1974 came against the Reds in Atlanta off Rawly Eastwick.
After the 1974 season, Aaron was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Dave May and minor leaguer Roger Alexander.
In his final two seasons with the Brewers, Aaron hit 22 homers with the last one coming against Dick Drago of the Boston Red Sox on July 20, 1976.
Aaron was an all-star in every season from 1955 to 1975. He was the National League Most Valuable Player in 1957 when the Milwaukee Braves defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series.
He won home run titles in 1957, 1963, 1966 and 1967. His career high for homers was 47 in 1971. He led the league in RBI four times and won a pair of batting titles. He also won Gold Gloves from 1958 to 1960.
The most telling stat of Aaron’s career is that he has 3,016 hits without including his 755 homers. He still holds the major league record with 2,297 RBI.
Aaron was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.