WTF?!? Hank Aaron Reunites With Two Idiots From 36 Years Ago

[Brian Damage]

ATLANTA -- The moment is still frozen in time: Hank Aaron rounding the bases after hitting his record 715th home run when, suddenly, two young fans ran up from behind to pat him on the shoulder.

On Friday, Aaron got a rare chance to reminisce with those who briefly shared his moment on glory on April 8, 1974.

"It's wonderful to see them," Aaron said before the Atlanta Braves opened a series against the Florida Marlins. "I often get asked, 'Whatever happened to those two guys?' It's nice to see them once again and know they're doing fine, doing well."

Britt Gaston and Cliff Courtenay were only 17 when Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home run record at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, now the site of a parking lot across the street from Turner Field.

Jumping onto the field along the first-base line, the teens caught up with a startled Aaron as he rounded second base, each giving him a quick pat before they peeled off and tried to make their getaway down the third-base line. They didn't get far -- Courtenay was caught by officers before he even got over the railing, while Gaston got about 10 rows up when he realized there was no escape.

"They were at each end of the aisle, in force," Gaston recalled. "I just put my hands up and said, 'OK, let's go.'"

They were bailed out of jail at about 3:30 a.m. by Gaston's father, and the charges were dropped when they appeared in court the next morning.

Aaron said he's glad they didn't get in too much trouble. This was the first time he had seen the two since 1994, when they reunited for the 20th anniversary of the landmark homer.

"The older you get, the more you think about it," Aaron said. "I'm just glad things worked out the way they did. It could have been a lot worse. They were having fun with it as kids. They didn't get beat up and all that. I think they spent two or three hours in jail. Other than that, it was a happy moment."

Aaron finished his career with 755 homers, a record since broken by Barry Bonds. Of course, many fans still consider Hammerin' Hank the legitimate home run king, given that Bonds and plenty of others from his era have been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs to bolster their numbers.

Just this week, six-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens was indicted on charges he lied to Congress when he vehemently denied using anything illegal.

"I've tried to stay out of all that," Aaron said. "Let the law fall wherever it may. I just tried to play the game the way it was supposed to be played."

These days, Courtenay is an optometrist in the south Georgia town of Valdosta, while Gaston works in the real estate business in Charleston, S.C. After some initial second thoughts about what they had done, they now realize it's just a fondly remembered sidelight from one of baseball's most historic nights.

"It was more a celebration of the moment. That was such a big deal. It was nothing malicious at all," Courtenay said. "Fortunately, Hank saw it that way, too."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5504664

[Tweety]

Times sure have changed in a lot of ways since 1974.

I normally want fans who go on the field during a game to be shot on sight, but I actually don't mind this particular "reunion" so much, probably because Aaron himself didn't mind.

With the death threats he'd received over the 1973-74 winter, I don't know what his thoughts would have been if he saw two white guys running onto the field... in this case, they came up behind him and he never saw them coming. He was probably relieved that they just wanted to pat him on the back. I'd love to see an account of the game to see what Aaron's immediate reaction was after the game.

In 1974, fans weren't trying to constantly make themselves a part of the game... I don't know what these two guys thoughts were, or how much was planned in advance, or whether it was just an impulse on their part to run out onto the field. There was no ESPN in those days, Aaron's homer would be shown on the news for a couple of days maybe, but that was it.

As a bit of background to this homer (for those who weren't around at the time), Aaron had finished the 1973 season with 713 homers, one shy of Ruth's all time record.

The Braves would open the 1974 season in Cincinnati. At that time, the Reds had the honor of opening at home every year, and usually played their first game one day before the rest of the NL played their first games. They were given this honor for being the first professional team (this is no longer done).

The Braves had announced the intention of having Aaron sit out the Cincinnati series because after those three games, the Braves would go home to Atlanta for a ten game homestand (4 vs the Dodgers, 2 vs the Reds and 4 vs the Padres), and this gave Aaron a good chance to both tie and break the record at home.

Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in and literally ORDERED the Braves to play Aaron in at least 2 of the 3 games that were played in Cincinnati (his reasoning was that Aaron had played in 120 games in 1973, or about 3/4 of the Braves games, therefore he needs to play in the majority of the games in Cincinnati, which meant 2 out of 3). Kuhn said that it wasn't fair to fans in Cincinnati who bought tickets for those games knowing that the Braves (and Aaron) would be in town.

Aaron played in the 1st and 3rd games of the Cincinnati series, hitting a HR on Opening Day and going 1-for-3 with a walk. In the 3rd game of the 3 game series, Aaron went 0-for-3 and struck out twice.

Aaron was taken out of both Cincinnati games in the 7th inning.

In the home opener (4th game of the season for the Braves), Aaron walked his first time up and scored on a double by Dusty Baker. In the 4th inning, Darrell Evans (probably THE most underrated player in MLB history) reached on an error and scored when Aaron followed that with his record-breaking HR.

The rest is history.

[catlover79]

My question is...why???

[TVFactFan]

Those two guys sure look old now-lol They are supposed to be early 50's and look 65

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by catlover79

My question is...why???

Like I said, times were a lot different then. That was a one-in-a-million thing, and these guys (as far as I know) never tried to "cash in" on having done what they did.

And while sportswriters from that period might try to try to tell us today that they were rooting for Aaron, the fact is, not many of them were. As Aaron approached and then passed the record, there were all kinds of articles in every sports publication talking about how it was AARON'S record that wasn't legitimate, mostly by citing the number of career at-bats it took Aaron to pass Ruth. Aaron had nearly 11,300 at bats by the time he hit his 715th, compared to 8,399 at bats that Babe Ruth had during his entire career. Articles were written stating that not only was Babe Ruth a "better" HR hitter than Aaron, but Jimmie Foxx was as well (based on career at bats per HR).

So there were PLENTY of people lined up against Aaron in the sports writers world who were dead set against acknowledging what Aaron accomplished.

But times were SO different back then. Today, a fan who makes a good catch on a foul ball (or, who lets his girlfriend get hit with a foul ball) are whisked to New York so that they can appear on all of the morning squawk shows. It wasn't that way back then.

btw, it took 2 hours and 27 minutes to play the game in which Aaron broke the record. That was including a delay of several minutes for a celebration after the HR (I think Hank's parents were there and they came on the field with him). And it was a high scoring game (7-4). The one biggest thing I hate about baseball now is that they can't play a game in less than 3 hours.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Those two guys sure look old now-lol They are supposed to be early 50's and look 65

lol, as a 14 year old watching the game at the time (it was a Monday night baseball broadcast), I thought the two guys might be in their early 20s when I saw them.

That was 36 years ago, so I guess they're about 53 now.

[lalauver]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Those two guys sure look old now-lol They are supposed to be early 50's and look 65

I was also a teenager when i watched this game and those guys dont look old to me!
of course being a dodger fan has not helped my aging process