Next
up in my running “Turn Back the Clock” series is Hall of Fame slugger
Eddie Mathews and his 500th career home run, hit while he was a member
of the Houston Astros on July 14th 1967:
At the time Mathews became only the seventh 500-HR hitter in Major
League history, on his way to 512 homers in his 17-year career, spent
mainly with the Braves organization from Boston, to Milwaukee, on to
Atlanta.
A beast of a hitter immediately upon reaching the Majors, in 1953 he hit
47 homers along with 135 runs batted in at the age of 21!
It would be the first of three straight 40-HR seasons, as well as nine straight 30+ homer campaigns, 10 overall.
By the time he retired after the 1968 season he easily wrote his way
into Cooperstown, elected in 1978 with just under 80% of the vote.