Editing Hank Aaron (section)

====Home run milestones and 3,000th hit====
[[File:Hank Aaron Braves Jersey signed.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Away jersey worn by Aaron during the 1968 or 1969 MLB season]]

During his days in Atlanta, Aaron reached several [[milestone]]s; he was only the eighth player ever to hit 500 career home runs, with his 500th coming against [[Mike McCormick (pitcher)|Mike McCormick]] of the [[San Francisco Giants]] on July 14, 1968—exactly one year after former Milwaukee Braves teammate [[Eddie Mathews]] had hit his 500th.<ref>{{cite web |title=500 Home Runs Club |url=https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hi500c.shtml |website=[[Baseball Almanac]]}}</ref> Aaron was, at the time, the second-youngest player to reach the milestone.{{efn|Aaron was 34 years, five months, and nine days old. [[Jimmie Foxx]] was the youngest to reach the mark at the time. Since then, [[Alex Rodriguez]] has become the youngest to reach this mark.}} On July 31, 1969, Aaron hit his 537th home run, passing [[Mickey Mantle]]'s total; this moved Aaron into third place on the career home run list, after [[Willie Mays]] and [[Babe Ruth]]. At the end of the 1969 season, Aaron again finished third in the MVP voting.<ref>{{cite web |title=1969 Awards Voting |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1969.shtml |website=[[Baseball Reference]]}}</ref>

In 1970, Aaron reached two more career milestones. On May 17, Aaron collected his 3,000th hit, in a game against the [[Cincinnati Reds]], the team against which he played in his first major-league game.<ref>[[#Stanton|Stanton]], p. 202.</ref> Aaron established the record for most seasons with thirty or more home runs in the National League. On April 27, 1971, Aaron hit his 600th career home run, the third major league player ever to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gattie |first=Gordon J. |title=April 27, 1971: Hank Aaron hammers 600th career home run |url=https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-27-1971-hank-aaron-hammers-600th-career-home-run/ |access-date=September 4, 2024 |website=[[Society for American Baseball Research]] |language=en-US}}</ref> On July 13, Aaron hit a home run in the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] (played at Detroit's [[Tiger Stadium (Detroit)|Tiger Stadium]]) for the first time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 13, 1971 |title=1971 All-Star Game Box Score, July 13 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1971-allstar-game.shtml |access-date=September 4, 2024 |website=[[Baseball Reference]] |language=en}}</ref> He hit his 40th home run of the season against the [[San Francisco Giants|Giants]]' [[Jerry Johnson (baseball)|Jerry Johnson]] on September 10, which established a National League record for most seasons with 40 or more home runs (seven). At age 37, he hit a career-high 47 home runs during the season (along with a career-high .669 [[slugging percentage]]) and finished third in MVP voting for the sixth time.<ref name="aaron-bbref" /> During the strike-shortened season of 1972, Aaron tied and then surpassed Willie Mays for second place on the career home run list. Aaron also drove in the 2,000th run of his career and hit a home run in the first All-Star game played in Atlanta.<ref>{{cite web |title=1972 All-Star Game Box Score, July 25 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1972-allstar-game.shtml |website=[[Baseball Reference]]}}</ref> As the year came to a close, Aaron broke [[Stan Musial]]'s major-league record for total bases (6,134).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schwartz |first1=Larry |title=Hank Aaron sets career total bases record |url=http://www.espn.com/classic/s/moment010903-aaron-totalbases.html |website=[[ESPN Classic]] |date=November 19, 2003}}</ref> He finished the season with 673 career home runs.<ref name="aaron-bbref" />