An aging Babe Ruth and a young Henry Aaron

Babe Ruth during his final season with the Yankees in 1934

After a dismal 1934 season – at least dismal by his standards – in which he hits only .288 with 22 homers, the increasingly plump Babe Ruth finds himself out of work 89 years ago today as the New York Yankees tell baseball’s most prodigious power hitter of their plans to release him.

Babe Ruth with the Braves in 1935

The move comes the day before Ruth’s 40th birthday.

Ruth quickly — albeit briefly — joins the Boston Braves for a final season as a player in 1935 with the hope that he one day will manage the team, an opportunity he does not get with the Yankees.

Alas for Ruth, he never gets a chance to manage the Braves or any other team before he passes away in 1948.

Ruth's release from the Yankees also comes on the same day as the first birthday of a kid in Mobile, Alabama.

The kid’s name is Henry Louis Aaron, who when he grows up also will play for the Braves – and when he is 40 years old in 1974 will break Ruth’s all-time record of 714 homers.

The ever-classy Aaron, of course, deftly handles his chase of Ruth’s iconic record and the fame that goes with it.

“I don’t want them to forget Ruth,” Aaron says as he prepares to break Ruth’s record. “I just want them to remember me.”

Hank Aaron in 1974 hitting his record 715th homer