Braves to Honor Hank Aaron for Breaking the Babe’s Record

For those of us who watched him do it on television, it doesn't seem possible that it was 40 years ago tonight that Atlanta's Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home run record. The number 714 was magical as it reflected the number of home runs Ruth had hit in his amazing career. For decades it was widely believed nobody would ever break the mark.

Then came the low-key Aaron who in 1974 broke the record he shared with Ruth when he slammed his 715th career homer against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 8. Tonight the Braves will celebrate the accomplishment as they open up the home-portion of their season against the New York Mets.

There are three day games being played this afternoon with the Yankees and Orioles getting things started. This is the second game of a three-game set in New York. In Philadelphia, the Phillies open up the home portion of their schedule as they entertain the Brewers. The game was scheduled to be played yesterday but was postponed because of bad weather. The only other day game is in San Francisco as the Giants open up their home schedule as well.

The final team to open up its home schedule is Seattle, and tonight the Mariners are playing host to the Angels. The rest of the evening schedule has the Red Sox at home to Texas, Miami at Washington, Cleveland hosting San Diego in interleague play, the Astros at Toronto, Chicago's Cubs at home to the Pirates, Tampa Bay at Kansas City, the Cardinals and Reds in St. Louis and, in two more interleague games, Chicago's White Sox are at Coloradoand the Dodgers are home to the Tigers.