MEMORABLE BRAVES MOMENTS OF THE 1970's

(1972)

"THE DAILY PAPER"

A WEIRD NIGHT IN PHILLY AS AARON MOVES TO NO. 2
(June 10. 1972)

June 11, 1972 Atlanta Journal

I still remember and have the headline for this game that Hank Aaron hit a grand slam to move into second on the all-time home run list ahead of Willie Mays. The Braves won the game 15-3. But I still remember the headline and the phrase "Weird Night in Philly." But I couldn't remember what was so weird about it, so I looked at the article by Ron Hudspeth.

Let's see: Paul Revere and the Raiders played before the game. A little weird, but not too weird.
$2000 were thrown onto the turf at Veteran's stadium and the sight of a nun scrambling for money caught Hudspeth as being a little weird. I admit that's a bit weird.

Earl Williams homers and doubles on the weird night in Philly.

Hank Aaron's home run struck Hudspeth as being weird because he had been in such a batting slump. It may have seemed weird at the time, but in retrospect, I would never call Aaron hitting a home run as weird. Tommie Aaron hitting a home run would be weird-not Hank.

Hudspeth also mentions that Phillie Don Money is not related to the money that the nun scrambled for.
He also says that the Phillies scored one of their runs when Mike Lum fell on the seat of this pants when trying to throw home to get Tim McCarver. He mentioned McCarver "could have scored in a covered wagon."

Note: I miss Ron Hudspeth.

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IT'S AN ALL-STAR YEAR AND 

HANK AARON SENDS ONE DOWNTOWN!
(July 25, 1972)

The first all-star game I remember watching was the 1971 game where the American League defeated the National League 6-4 at Tiger Stadium and included the participation of twenty-one (by my unofficial count) future hall of famers. The '71 game was also different in that the American League won for the first time in eight years.

The 1972 game was a big deal for a young Braves fan because it was at Atlanta-Fulton County stadium. The collection of talent for this game wasn't too bad either. The National League had bigger than life sluggers (Willie Mays, Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell) going against the American League larger than life sluggers (Reggie Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Dick Allen) and featured Bob Gibson starting for the National League against Jim Palmer for the National League. Rod Carew knocked in a run in the third to give the A. L a 1-0 lead.

But the big moment of the game for Braves fans happened in the bottom of the sixth when Hank Aaron blasted a two-run homer off Gaylord Perry (who Hank also hit his 600th career home run off of) to give the National League a 2-1 lead. The American League took a 3-2 lead when Cookie Rojas homered off of Bill Stoneman (a rather odd All-Star combination). The National League tied the game off of Wilbur Wood in the 9th and Joe Morgan hit a memorable game winning double to score Nate Colbert off of Dave McNally in the 10th to win the game. The National League didn't lose an all-star game for another ten years.

The only All-Star game ever played in Atlanta Stadium was a good one.

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More from 1972: Newspaper clippings

During 1971 and 1972, I kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution sports pages. Looking back at the yellowing clippings today, I find that some of the articles I still remember. Remember when the Braves thought about moving Hank Aaron to third base? (I can't either)

Remember the proposed Mike Lum for Ken Holtzman trade? How would that have affected the upcoming Oakland A's dynasty? Another article on this page has the Braves voting in favor of changing baseball's playoffs to have a wild-card team. And this was 1971!

How about the Rico Carty for Rick Wise trade? How about reports from the farm team where I didn't know what a farm team was until I read a particular article about it in 1972. I remember the articles about the Braves being "Jinxed." (I think he was just in a batting slump, but you know how superstitious these players are.

Jesse Outlar and Furman Bisher were the chief sports writers for the Sports pages those days as well as Ron Hudspeth and Baldy the cartoonist whose most memorable caricature below depicts Hank Aaron moving ahead of Willie Mays on the all-time home run list.

And then there were the pictures... 

(I always like this one of Ralph Garr running to first base while Pirate Bob Johnson writhes in agony.)

And the promos...

Channel 2 sporadically televised some road Braves game with announcers Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson.

(And hey! The Orioles traded Frank Robinson, but he'll always be an Oriole to me.)

 And the little newspaper box that promoted the games with the screaming Indian.

And if the Braves won the previous night, the next days Atlanta Constitution would have a smiling Indian. If they lost the night before, the Indian would be crying. I couldn't find a picture of this in my scrapbook or on the Internet, so I'll just finish this post with the most famous crying American Indian of the 70's.

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