On June 2, 1935, Babe (George Herman) Ruth, one of the greatest
players in the history of baseball, ended his Major League playing
career after 22 seasons, 10 World Series and 714 home runs.
The following year, Ruth, a larger-than-life figure whose name
became synonymous with baseball, was one of the first five
players inducted into the sport’s hall of fame.
Babe Ruth on being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
in Cooperstown.
SANDY KOZEL
DiMaggio’s major-league debut came on May 3,
1936, in a game at Yankee Stadium against the
St. Louis Browns.
DiMaggio played 64 games in left field, 54 in
center field, and 20 in right field in 1936 before
taking over as the full-time center fielder in 1937.
DiMaggio struck out 39 times in 1936, the highest
season total of his career, during which he struck
out only 369 times in 6,821 at-bats.
SANDY KOZEL
HANK AARON HIT HIS FIRST CAREER HOME RUN 
On April 23, 1954, Hank Aaron knocked out the first home
run of his Major League Baseball career. Twenty years
later, Aaron become baseball’s new home run king when
he broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing record of 714 career
homers.
SANDY KOZEL
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, at age 28, became the first
African American player in Major League Baseball’s modern
era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete
for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier
in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.
Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Jackie Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number,
42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner
Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New
York City’s Shea Stadium.
Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired by all teams in
the league.
1972
On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th
career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714
homers. A crowd of 53,775 people, the largest in the history of
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, was with Aaron that night to
cheer when he hit a 4th inning pitch off the Los Angeles Dodgers’
Al Downing.
However, as Aaron was an African American who had received
death threats and racist hate mail during his pursuit of one of
baseball’s most distinguished records, the achievement was
bittersweet.
Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin’ Hank."
