Tonight is the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron hitting his 715th career home run to set a new record for long balls. Babe Ruth hit his 714th home run in 1935, having long held the career mark.

Fourteen years old at the time, I remember it also being a Monday night, and in this case memory serves me correctly. NBC, which owned the national rights to baseball broadcasts at the time, interrupted their programing with Aaron plate appearances as he approached the record. I don’t remember if the Monday game was broadcast nationally on NBC, or if they were cutting in, but I was watching. I remember not being sure if the ball was going out. Aaron got a little underneath it. Bill Buckner climbed the fence to no avail, and the record was set.

The other memory that stayed with me came from the two fans running on the field. It was rather unexpected, and the two of them were patting Aaron on the back. I don’t remember being aware that this might have been a dangerous situation, just a surprising one.

I started paying attention to the game in 1969, and during those five years there was plenty of talk about Willie Mays or Aaron breaking the record. Mays was three years older, however. Mays started to decline, while Aaron hit 203 home runs from 1969 to 1973. That’s a great five year stretch for any player, but Aaron did that in his age 35-39 seasons.

It should be a big night in Atlanta.