The 1974 season was a landmark year for Henry Aaron and Major League Baseball. “Hammerin” Hank surpassed Babe Ruth as the all-time home run leader when he took Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Al Downing deep to left center field at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium on April 8th. 1974 was also the final season for Aaron with the Braves organization as he would return to the city of Milwaukee where his career began with Braves in 1954 and join the newer franchise Brewers to close out his Hall of Fame career in the 1975 and 1976 seasons.

Aaron played his final game with the Braves on October 2nd of 1974 and fittingly, he hit a home run in that game – a solo shot off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Rawly Eastwick in the bottom of the 7th inning for his 733rd and continued record-breaking home run. This offered home Braves’ pullover jersey is the very jersey worn by Hank Aaron during his final game with Atlanta and has been photo matched by Sports Investors. Sports Investors matched this jersey to a photograph of Aaron’s jersey hanging in the Braves locker room prior to the October 2nd, 1974 game. Sports Investors, in their LOA also stated that they were “able to conclusively photo match this jersey having been worn by Hank Aaron throughout the 1974 season” and “have photo evidence that Aaron wore this jersey the game after hit his 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record. In addition this was the jersey Aaron wore in the 1974 All-Star Game on July 23, 1974 and on October 2, 1974, which was his final game played with the Braves organization.” Due to licensing restrictions, Sports Investors was not able to include images from the 1974 All-Star Game in which this jersey was matched to. Additionally, with a lack of images from his final game with the Braves, Sports Investors determined that the locker picture prior to the October 2nd game and that no other jersey would have been available to Aaron, photo matched this jersey to that game.

Aaron’s jersey was made by Wilson and is a size 42. The torso of this V-neck jersey is white with “Braves” wordmark sewn on in an angle across the chest in blue, white and red tackle twill with Aaron’s number “44” sewn on in the same material and pattern below. The back has Aaron’s number “44” sewn on in blue, white and red tackle twill with white border stitching. The sleeves and shoulders are white with a blue, white and red layered twill ornate “feather” design stitch on with the sleeve ends having a stretchy white trim. The Wilson size 42 tag, along with a white team patch with “74 42” embroidered in blue are sewn on the inside back collar indicating the year and size of the jersey. This jersey displays heavy game use and appears to have been worn and washed dozens of times with the numbers on the front and back showing heavy puckering from uneven fabric shrinking from hot water wash. All of the letters and numbers are original to the jersey with no alterations visible.

A truly historic Hank Aaron game-used jersey! This comes with a LOA from MEARS (316432) for the game use and has been given the highest possible grade of A10, plus a LOA from Sports Investors Authentication (200110F1), who have both photo matched this jersey to a photo of this jersey hanging in front of Aaron’s locker prior to his final game with the Braves on October 2nd, 1974.

Additionally, there are two graded ticket stubs, a graded 1974 All-Star Game ballot and three ungraded full tickets from the 1974 season. The first graded ticket stub was from the April 9th game at Atlanta Stadium. This ticket stub has been encapsulated and authenticated by PSA (18603357) and grade as AUTHENTIC. The 1974 All-Star Game Official Ballot is encapsulated by PSA. The All-Star Game ticket stub was encapsulated and graded by PSA (25635272) and graded a VG 3. The three ungraded tickets are full tickets with two of them from the July 28th game in Atlanta. They were field level tickets colored powder blue. The last ticket is a pink ticket from Aaron’s final game with the Braves’ organization played on October 2nd. This is also a full ticket with three punch holes.

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