Kiners Korner Chronicles, No. 7: Six Runs Batted In, One Man

Hank Aaron beats the Mets almost single-handedly at Shea — Shea Stadium, June 8, 1966

Welcome to the Kiners Korner Chronicles.

This site is dedicated to Ralph Kiner and the legacy of the greatest sports postgame show ever, Kiner's Korner.

While researching our book, Down on the Korner, my co-author Howie Karpin and I tracked down as many surviving episodes of Kiner's Korner as we could find. Now, you can watch those treasured broadcasts right here on this site and relive the conversations, the characters, and the unforgettable moments that made Ralph's show so special.

But our search also taught us something heartbreaking: for every conversation we recovered, dozens more were lost — taped over, thrown out, or gone forever.

So we're doing the next best thing. Through the power of AI and deep research into the old games, we hope to recreate a little bit of that magic. The game recaps are real, built from the box score. The interviews that follow are our best imagining of the conversations that were lost — what Ralph would have asked, and what his guest might have answered.

The Game

FLUSHING, N.Y. — Some nights one man is the whole ballgame. On Wednesday night, June 8, 1966, at Shea Stadium, Hank Aaron drove in six of the Atlanta Braves' seven runs — a solo home run, a grand slam, and a run-scoring double — and the Braves needed every one of them to hold off the Mets, 7-6, in three hours and two minutes before 16,901 fans. Aaron went 4-for-5. The rest of the Braves drove in one run between them.

Aaron started early and finished Fisher — Jack Fisher, that is, the Mets' starter, the man who threw the first official pitch in Shea Stadium history two years earlier. (The Braves' starter, in one of baseball's great scorecard traps, was Hank *Fischer* — with a "c.") With two out and nobody on in the first, Fisher had Aaron down 1-and-2 — and then made his mistake. Aaron drove it to left-center, roughly 400 feet, for his 19th home run of the season and a 1-0 lead. In the third, Félix Millán singled, Eddie Mathews legged out an infield single, and Woody Woodward walked on four pitches. One out, bases loaded. On Fisher's second pitch, Aaron hit the 10th grand slam of his career — and his 20th homer of the season. It was 5-0, and the night looked over.

The Mets, to their credit, kept coming. In the fourth, Cleon Jones and Ken Boyer singled, Al Luplow doubled home Jones, and Dick Stuart singled home Boyer and Luplow to make it 5-3. Aaron answered in the fifth: Woodward singled off reliever Larry Bearnarth, and Aaron doubled to left to score him — his sixth RBI of the night. But the Mets came again in the bottom of the fifth. Bearnarth doubled, Ron Hunt walked, Ed Kranepool singled home Bearnarth, and Cleon Jones singled home Hunt off new pitcher Clay Carroll. Suddenly it was 6-5, the bases were loaded, and nobody was out. Then Shea watched a rally die of caution: Luplow lined to center, and Kranepool, at third, failed to tag and try for the tying run; Stuart then grounded into a third-to-second-to-first double play, and the inning, and the tying run, were gone.

Mack Jones homered off Bearnarth in the seventh to stretch it to 7-5, and that insurance run decided the game. In the ninth, pinch-hitter Chuck Hiller homered off Carroll to make it 7-6, and Ted Abernathy came on for the save: Ron Swoboda struck out, Hunt grounded to second, Kranepool grounded to second, and Aaron's masterpiece was safe. Clay Carroll got the win, Fisher took the loss, and Aaron — who also singled in the ninth for his fourth hit — walked off having personally outscored the entire Mets lineup for eight and a half innings. Final score: Braves 7, Mets 6.

Ralph's Guest

The Braves' right fielder and cleanup man — 4-for-5, two home runs, a double, six runs batted in, and a personal demolition of Shea Stadium in the Braves' first season in Atlanta.

The Interview (imagined)

What follows is a dramatic recreation. The game was real. The conversation is our imagining of the Kiner's Korner segment that likely aired that night — the tapes of those early shows were erased long ago.

Ralph: Hank, I've hit a few home runs myself, so believe me when I say I know the difference between a good night and a night like this. Four for five, two home runs, a double, six runs batted in out of your club's seven. Where do we even start?

Aaron: Start with Jack Fisher, Ralph. He pitched me tough. That first home run, he had me one and two — I was just trying to protect, and he left one out over the plate. I was fortunate to get it. After that, I was seeing the ball well, and my teammates kept getting on base in front of me. Six runs batted in means six times somebody was out there to drive in.

Ralph: Let's give those teammates their due, then, because the third inning was a rally before it was a grand slam. Millán singles, Mathews beats out an infield single, Woodward walks on four pitches. One out, bases loaded, and you take Fisher's second pitch out of the ballpark. The tenth grand slam of your career, and your twentieth home run of the season — in early June.

Aaron: Eddie and Woody made that inning. A pitcher with the bases loaded has nowhere to put you — he has to throw a strike sometime in the first couple of pitches, and I was looking for it early. I got it on the second pitch. But believe me, hitting with the bases loaded is the easiest job on the field. The pressure is all on the man on the mound.

Ralph: You weren't finished. Fifth inning, Bearnarth is in, Woodward singles, and you double to left for run batted in number six. And yet — here's what fascinates me — the Mets nearly stole your game anyway. Bottom of the fifth, six to five, bases loaded, nobody out. Luplow lines to center. What did you think from right field when this ballclub of yours was one swing from losing the lead?

Aaron: I thought they were going to tie it, Ralph. Kranepool was on third, and when Luplow lined out to Mack, I held my breath for the tag. He stayed. Then Stuart hits into the double play, and we're out of it. That's baseball — we were one tag-up from a tie game, and instead we're still ahead. A foot here, a step there.

Ralph: And still the Mets came at you in the ninth. Hiller pinch-hits a home run, it's seven to six, and Abernathy has to get Swoboda, Hunt, and Kranepool. Even your own last at-bat, a single off Ribant in the ninth, you got forced at second on Torre's grounder. There was no relaxing in this one, was there?

Aaron: Not one minute. People look at five to nothing in the third inning and think the game is over. It is never over at Shea — this Mets crowd won't let their club quit, and the club doesn't quit. We needed Mack's home run in the seventh more than we knew at the time. Without it, Hiller ties the game in the ninth.

Ralph: Last thing, Hank. Twenty home runs before the middle of June, and I know you've said you'd like to take a run at fifty this year — the best start you've ever had at it. You've already passed four hundred for your career this spring. Do the numbers ever cross your mind out there?

Aaron: The numbers are for the winter, Ralph. In June, there's just the next pitch. But I'd be lying if I said fifty didn't interest me. I've never hit fifty. A man should have something out in front of him to chase. Tonight, I'm just glad we got out of here with a win. Six runs batted in and we won by one — that tells you everything about this game.

Ralph: Hank Aaron — a solo homer, a grand slam, a double, and a night the Shea crowd won't forget, even if they'd like to. Thank you, Hank.

Aaron: Thank you, Ralph. Always a pleasure.

Recreation of the lost Kiner's Korner interview — not an authentic broadcast still. Box score: Baseball-Reference (Retrosheet play-by-play). Game account: SABR Games Project, Tim Odzer, "June 8, 1966: Henry Aaron's two homers, six RBIs power Braves past Mets." The audio companion to this article — the Flag of Victory Polka, the disclaimer, and the full imagined interview — is available with this post.