Today In Brewer History: The Hammer's last steal

On this day in 1974 the Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 at Wrigley Field. The Braves had just four hits in the game and their only run came from Hank Aaron, who reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and scored on Darrell Evans' single in the fourth inning.

The steal was the 240th of Aaron's career, and his last as a big leaguer. He was 40 years old at the time so the fact that he was slowing down is hardly surprising. This was his only stolen base in 1974, and one of just seven swipes over his final six major league seasons.

Aaron was actually a pretty good base stealer in the 1960's, posting 15 or more steals in each of nine straight seasons. He set a career high with 31 in 1963, a season where he also hit 44 homers. To this day his 240 steals are the most in Braves franchise history.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• 2005-11 Brewer Prince Fielder, who turns 29. We covered his birthday in this space last year.
• 1984-85 Brewer Doug Loman, who turns 55.
• 1976-77 Brewer Dan Thomas, the #6 overall pick in the 1972 draft. He would have turned 62.
• Milwaukee native Gus Krock, who would have turned 147. Krock played three major league seasons between 1888-90 as a member of the Chicago White Stockings and three other teams.