Atlanta Braves great Hank Aaron turns 84 years old today. Remembering his impact on the game and his legacy are an incredible thing to ponder.
The Atlanta Braves have been in three locations in the team’s history, but there’s not been a player in the team’s history who has shown the elite production and consistent production that Hank Aaron was able to produce in his career.
Background
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Henry “Hank” Aaron was one of 7 children. He got his start playing in the Negro Leagues with the Indianapolis Clowns, hitting .467 in his only season in the Negro Leagues to lead the league.
He was scouted heavily by both the Braves and the Giants, and Aaron has said that he nearly teamed with another all time great:
"“I had the Giants’ contract in my hand. But the Braves offered fifty dollars a month more. That’s the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates – fifty dollars.”"
Early Braves years
Though the team was in Boston when Aaron signed, the team had moved to Milwaukee by the time he made his debut in 1954 with the Braves, hitting .280/.322/.447 with 13 home runs as a 20 year-old. He would lead the National League in doubles in 1955 while hitting .314.
Aaron led the National League in total bases and batting in 1956, establishing himself as a hitting threat going into the 1957 season. He would lead the Braves to their only title in his career, winning his one and only MVP award, hitting .322/.378/.600 with 44 home runs.
Aaron would go on to hit at least 20 home runs in 20 seasons in a row from 1955 to 1974. He made 25 All-Star games in his career, making both All-Star games in seasons when there were two AS games in the same season.
Pursuit of the Babe
As he entered the 1970 season, Aaron was still going strong, having just hit another 44 home runs, and he had just completed his age 35 season with 554 career home runs. This gave Aaron a legitimate chance at eclipsing Babe Ruth, who at the time had hit 714 home runs and put the record into a place most thought no one would ever reach.
Aaron’s power hitting was incredibly consistent throughout his career, always one of the top power hitters, but never hitting with huge numbers, never having more than 47 home runs in a single season. He continued his consistent power hitting into his late 30s, hitting his most home runs of his career in 1971 at age 37.
After 34 home runs in 1972 and 40 in 1973, Aaron entered the 1974 season just two home runs away from breaking the record with 713 home runs. Throughout the offseason, Aaron was beset by racist letters, phone calls, and other things that a lesser man may have backed away from the challenge.
Not Aaron, as his biggest concern with the record was that the 1974 season opened on the road in Cincinnati, a stadium that was small and lent itself to Aaron smacking out a few home runs and breaking the record on the road. Sure enough, in his first at bat of the season, Aaron smacked a three-run home run to tie the record.
He sat the 2nd game of the season, but the commissioner forced him to play in the 3rd game of the opening series. He went 0-3 in the game, with two strikeouts.
The season opener in Atlanta, he walked and scored in his first plate appearance of the game. His second time at the plate, there was a man on base when he came to the plate:
The Atlanta Braves were playing the Dodgers, so the legendary Vin Scully also called the home run:
He would go on to hit just 20 home runs that season in limited time due to injuries. The Atlanta Braves assumed he would be retiring after the season, and they wanted to give time to young defensive star Rowland Office, hoping he would turn into a star.
He was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers to give him a chance to finish his major league career in the city where he got his start. In two seasons with the Brewers, Aaron would hit 22 home runs over 222 games, putting up a .232/.326/.360 slash line.
He retired as the all-time leader in home runs (755), RBI (2,297), Total bases (6,856), plate appearances (13,941), games played (3,298), and Extra base hits (1,477). He has retained the career lead in three of those categories over 40 years after his career ended.
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Post-playing career
After his playing career was done, Aaron re-joined the Atlanta Braves as a member of the front office, serving as a director of player development. He served the team in the front office in a community relations role as a vice president.
Keenly aware of the issues minorities had in baseball and continue to have, Aaron worked with Major League Baseball to promote hiring of African American candidates into front office positions.
MLB has utilized Hank’s name in their new award that began in 1999, given to the top offensive performer in each league each season. Aaron has received high honors for his work in racial justice, receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Clinton and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush.
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Aaron is one of the 5-10 greatest players of all-time in the game, no matter how you cut it, and his ability to endure the threats and taunts made toward him with dignity and character endeares him even further.
Happy birthday, Hank!