Legends and records die hard in the sporting world and the bigger they are, the harsher the death. When Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit a home run last Thursday afternoon in Cincinnati, his 714th, he tied the most hallowed record held by the biggest legend in all of sports, Babe Ruth's home run mark.

And when Aaron hit an A1 Downing pitch over the left center field wall before a home crowd in Atlanta Monday night, Aaron broke Ruth's record of four decades to become the new home run king and on paper anyway, the new Sultan of the Swat.

But there are many people who will never acknowledge the greatness of Hank Aaron, because, to them, it will lessen the legend of the Babe. After all, they did not even really hear about soft-spoken slugger for Atlanta until he hit his 700th homer last summer and it became apparent that barring misfortune, he was a cinch to break the record.

The son of a Mobile, Ala., shipyard worker, Aaron, like Ruth, rose from humble origins. He started in professional ball in the old Negro League Indianapolis Clowns. The 19-year-old Aaron signed with the Braves organization and played for the Braves Eau Claire, Wis., farm club in 1952. In 1953 the young slugger hit his way to the most valuable player award in the minors. The next year he was called up to the Braves squad and on April 23, 1954, he hit his first four-bagger against the Cards.

By anyone's standards, Aaron was a star from the very beginning, but for his first 19 seasons he had been pretty much lost among the myriad of other more prominent stars despite his many fine seasons. He was not nearly as popular a hero as Ruth was in his day.

The Hammer led the National League in home runs four times and won the batting championship three times. He was the league leader in a slew of categories such as RBIs, total runs and total bases many times, but still he did not gain the recognition that he deserved. This could be for many reasons but it is probably because of his quiet demeanor and the fact that he played his career in Milwaukee and Atlanta, neither of which are large megalopian centers and neither abounding in sports writers.

Aaron will probably finish his career with somewhere around 750 home runs. The only active players over 500 are Frank Robinson and Harmon Killebrew with 552 and 546 respectively. Neither has a chance of coming close. And for that matter, it is doubtful that anyone else playing today has much of a chance either. It took almost forty years to break Ruth's record and it will probably take at least as long to break Aaron's, the new most revered record in sports.

It wasn't until he challenged a legend, and the biggest legend in all of sports before people began to realize just how good Henry Aaron really is.

An article on the original home run king, George Herman Ruth, will appear in tomorrow's paper.