John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The fact that the hype over it carried over the offseason in time for Topps to make a series of "Hank Aaron Specials" and for ABC to arrange a Monday Night Baseball broadcast and stuff helped to pump it up. Elements of it were very forward-y, as baseball marketing would go, but it seemed genuine. That it carried over--Aaron had ended the previous season with 713--also gave rise to a controversy about whether the Braves should be allowed to rig it so Hank broke the record at home. Atlanta made it clear that they had every intention of having the record broken in Fulton County but the Braves opened the season with 3 games in Cincinnati and the pre-announcement didn't sit well with Bowie Kuhn. After much back and forth, it was decided that Aaron would be in the starting lineup for at least 2 of the 3 games in Cincy. Hank HR'd for record-tying #714 not just on opening day but in his very first AB of the season making even Atlanta's compromise plan look kind of dicey. He then went 0-2 + a walk for the rest of game 1, sat out game 2, and then went 0-3 in game 3 as Braves execs let out a big sigh of relief -- remember that that franchise didn't draw flies in those days. #715 came in Game 4, the Atlanta home opener, in Hank's 2nd AB (4th inning).