Aaron's 3,000th hit a glorious sight to see

Jun. 25—The beautifully brilliant weather in Owensboro the past few days prompted a memory that I will forever hold near and dear to my heart as a sports fan — the day in Cincinnati that I got to see Atlanta Braves superstar Hank Aaron get his 3,000th base hit.

Looking back, there were a lot of peculiarities about the event, which took place on May 17, 1970, in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader. For starters, it was at ancient Crosley Field, which would give way to a spanking new Riverfront Stadium less than six weeks later.

The anticipation of Aaron's milestone played a role in the fact that there was a standing-room-only crowd of 33,217 — the largest home crowd for the Reds since 1947 — but the truth is that the Reds had something to do with the turnout, as well. They were the hottest team in baseball and, indeed, on the precipice of becoming the greatly-lauded "Big Red Machine."

A bespectacled 10-year-old Little Leaguer, I had traveled to Cincinnati with my father, Jim Pickens Sr., then the baseball coach at Western Kentucky University, and Bobby Rascoe, the former Daviess County High School and WKU basketball star who had recently completed his third and final season with the ABA's Kentucky Colonels.

And, we had prime seats, on the first row near home plate adjacent to the Reds' third base dugout — how sweet that was.

The Braves themselves had been surprise champions of the National League West division the previous season (1969), but the Reds came into this twin-bill 25-10 and were on their way to a full decade of success, which included five World Series appearances and two world championships behind the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez.

The spotlight on this day, however, was clearly on Aaron, who was attempting to become only the third player since 1925 to join the 3,000-hit club — and the day didn't start well for him. In the opener, Aaron went 0-for-4, grounding out meekly twice, striking out and hitting a lazy fly ball to center field. The Reds, getting homers from Perez and Rose, won 5-1.

In the second game, Aaron faced a right-handed hurler who was all the rage at the time, hard-throwing rookie Wayne Simpson, who would go 14-3 in that 1970 season before hurting his arm and never coming close to returning to peak form. On this day, though, Simpson was 5-1 with a 2.05 ERA, and throwing absolute darts.

Nonetheless, Aaron took care of business quickly. In the top of the first inning, after Felix Millan reached safely on Dave Conception's error with one out, Aaron bounced a ground ball up the middle. Reds second baseman Woody Woodward leaped to backhand the ball in the outfield grass but had no play as Aaron legged out the hit.

Even in Cincinnati, the noise was thunderous for a full two minutes as Aaron became the first player in Major League Baseball history to accumulate both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. The quiet Brave, considered by many the most underrated superstar in the game, certainly got his due on this day.

St. Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial — seven years retired by then — hopped over a fence near Atlanta's first-base dugout to feverishly congratulate Aaron and pose for photos, which also included Braves president Bill Batholomay. Musial, in fact, had been the most recent player to reach 3,000 hits with a double off the Chicago Cubs in 1958.

Two innings later, Aaron — as if to atone for an infield single being his milestone hit — blasted a two-run homer far over the left-field fence to give the Braves a 3-0 lead. But, while this was unmistakably Aaron's day, it would prove to be Cincinnati's season, and the Reds would wind up winning a wild, back-and-forth battle 7-6 in 15 innings, to complete the sweep.

We stayed until the end, and I remember my father looking down at me with his hand on my shoulder as we made our way out of Crosley Field. He said, "Jimbo, you just witnessed history today — don't ever forget it."

Over 51 years later I still remember — and I always will.