“I’m Going Back Home;” Milwaukee Brewers Legend Hank Aaron Returned to City 50 Years Ago

The Milwaukee Brewers have retired just four numbers in addition to Jackie Robinson’s number 42. Number 1 was retired in honor of Bud Selig, who brought professional baseball back to Milwaukee and founded the Brewers organization. 4 is retired in honor of Paul Molitor, 19 for Robin Yount, and 34 for Rollie Fingers.

But it is a different number, 44, that hangs on the facade and draws images and memories of a man who was bigger than legend. Hank Aaron may have only donned a Brewers uniform for two seasons, but there are precious few who mean more to baseball in the city of Milwaukee than arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport.

And the city was fortunate enough to be labeled as “home” by him.

The Milwaukee Brewers Traded for Hank Aaron 50 Years Ago Today

50 years ago, the Brewers consummated a trade that brought Aaron back to the city in which he started his Major League career. In November of 1974, after the season in which he hit his legendary 715th home run to become baseball’s all-time home run leader, Aaron was not happy with the Atlanta Braves.

While he wanted to keep playing, the organization wanted to give him a public relations role. Since he did not want to do that, they gave him permission to seek a trade as he was technically still under contract with them.

And there was only one team for which Aaron wanted to play: the Brewers. He wanted to come home to Milwaukee.

The Brewers sent Dave May and a player to be named later (Roger Alexander) to Atlanta in exchange for the iconic slugger.

Per JR Radcliffe of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aaron was ecstatic to return to the city of Milwaukee. “This is the first time I’ve ever been traded,” Aaron said. “If I was being traded to a city like Chicago or Philadelphia, I’d frown on it. But I’m going back to Milwaukee, the city where I started my career. I’m going back home.”

Radcliffe also mentions that Aaron called Milwaukee, “perhaps the greatest baseball city in the country.”

Of his 23 seasons in the Majors, the 25-time All-Star (baseball used to have multiple All-Star games in a season) played 14 of them in the city of Milwaukee. He spent the first 12 years of his career with the Milwaukee Braves before the franchise headed south to Atlanta. After nine years, though, he was ready to come home and end his career where it began.

Indeed, the name Hank Aaron is revered in Milwaukee, holding a similar status to those of Yount and Bob Uecker. He was a legend in his own time, and he will forever be one of the best parts of baseball history, especially in the city that he called home.