Local History and the final home runs of the 500 home run club

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Earlier this week, we posted a breakdown of the final home runs by members of the 500 home run club.
Well, we can report two local ties to those events.
The No. 755 is an important one to baseball fans. For more than three decades it was the home run record, belonging to Hank Aaron.
He hit his final blast off Dick Drago in a July 20, 1976 game against the California Angles.
The catcher who was behind the plate when Aaron launched that final blast? Andy Etchebarren. If you’re not from York, you probably know Etch as guy who caught the Orioles when they won the 1970 World Series.
If you’re from York, you know him as the manager of the York Revolution. Want to read more about the Revolution? check out Jim Seip’s Rev’s First Pitch.

If Hank Aaron’s final home run isn’t the most memorable final home run in baseball history, that designation belongs to Ted Williams who hit a home run in his last at-bat. That clout led to, in The Southpaw’s humble opinion, the greatest piece of sports writing in history, John Updike’s “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”
The piece appeared in the New Yorker and made only a passing reference to a quick conversation between the kid and Baltimore’s unimportant third baseman.

“Fiddling with his cap, swapping small talk with the Oriole third baseman (who seemed delighted to have him drop in), swinging his arms with a sort of prancing nervousness, he looked fine—flexible, hard, and not unbecomingly substantial through the middle.”

In fact, the only thing that might be wrong with Updike’s tale is that the reader isn’t told the third baseman is future Hall of Famer and legend Brooks Robinson, who played in York.

For more local history, click here

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