Last week baseball lost another legend. Henry Aaron. Though he never played for the Dodgers, I had a deep respect for him as a man, and a ballplayer. I cannot imagine how it was for him growing up a black kid in the south. Nor can I imagine the hate directed at him when he was closing in on breaking the all-time HR mark set by Babe Ruth.
He had a secretary assigned to him by the Braves simply because the volume of mail he was receiving was overwhelming. Both pro and con. He was called so many vile names, and had his life threatened many times. And yet, he persevered, broke the record, and never looked back.
He was born Henry Louis Aaron to Herbert and Estella Aaron in Mobile, Alabama on February 5th, 1934. He was born in an area called Down on the Bay. His family was very poor. He spent most of his youth in Toulminville.
His family could not afford baseball equipment, so he practiced by hitting bottle caps with sticks. He would make his own bats and balls out of materials he would find on the streets. I know a little about doing this since we used to make baseballs by getting a beat up golf ball and wrapping it in tape.
His boyhood idol, like many of the kids of his era, was Jackie Robinson. He went to Central high school as a freshman and sophomore. Like most high schools, they did not have organized baseball, so he played outfield and third base for the Mobile Black Bears, a semipro team. At the time, Hank hit cross handed with his left hand above his right.
He still established himself as a power hitter. As a result, in 1949 at the age of 15 he got his first tryout with a major league team. The Dodgers however passed on signing him. So he returned to school to continue his secondary education.
During his junior year, Aaron joined the Prichard Athletics, another semipro team and then went again to the Black Bears. He earned 3 dollars a game with the Bears, which was a dollar more than he got with the Athletics.
On Nov 20,1951, Aaron signed a contract with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. He played there for 3 months. He started out as a SS. He was making 200 dollars a month.
As a result of his outstanding play, he received two offers from major league teams by telegram. One was from the Giants, and the other from the Braves. He had the Giants contract in his hand, but the Braves offered 50 dollars a month more. And that kept Aaron from being Willie Mays teammate.
He had experienced racism in his time with the Clowns. One time the team was in Washington, D.C. and they were eating in a restaurant behind old Griffith Stadium, and they could hear the kitchen staff smashing their plates after they had eaten. He recalled that if a dog had eaten off of them, they would have washed them. All of this happening in the capital city of the land of the free.
The Braves purchased his contract from the Clowns for 10,000 $. GM John Quinn felt it was a steal. He was obviously right. Aaron signed with the Braves on June 12, 1952. During this time he picked up the nickname ” pork chops” because it was the only thing he knew how to order off of the menu.
He was assigned by the Braves to the Eau Claire Bears, a class C team in the Northern League. It proved to be very beneficial to him as he played in the infield mostly, and finally adopted the standard way to hold a bat. He appeared in just 87 games, but scored 89 runs, 9 homers, 61 RBI’s and a .336 BA. He was the league’s ROY. But he also experienced racism and was very homesick. But his older brother Herbert convinced him to not lose this opportunity.
In 1953 he was promoted to Jacksonville, their A affiliate. He had an outstanding season hitting .362 and leading the league in many offensive categories. He also was segregated from his teammates whenever he was not at the ballpark. Because of the Jim Crow laws, he could not stay in the same hotels. The team made arrangements for all the other players, but as a black man, Aaron was forced to find his own accommodations.
His manager, Ben Geraghty, tried to help as much as he could. Aaron credited him with his swift rise to stardom. Hank also met his future wife, Barbara Lucas that same year. The night they met she attended the game and Aaron singled, doubled and homered. They were married on October 6th that year.
Aaron spent the winter of 1953 playing in Puerto Rico for Mickey Owen. Owen helped Aaron with his batting stance. Until that time Aaron hit most pitches to left or center field. After working with Owen, he began to hit to all fields. During that stay, he also began his transition from the infield to the outfield. Owen saw that Aaron was not very good at second, but he had a good arm and could catch fly balls easily.
Being in Puerto Rico also kept him out of the military. Although the Korean War was over, men were still being drafted. The Braves were able to speak to the draft board and convince them that Aaron would be integrating the Southern Association the next season with the Atlanta Crackers. The board was convinced, and he was not drafted.
He went to spring training in 1954 with the major league club. Charley Grimm, the Braves manager at the time stated, we knew from the start we were going to have to carry him. He played so well, there was really no other choice. On the 13th of March, Braves LF, Bobby Thompson, yeah that guy again, fractured his ankle while sliding into second base.
The next day, Aaron made his first spring training start and hit a home run. He signed his first big league contract on the final day of spring training. On the 13th of April, he debuted against the Reds Joe Nuxhall and went 0-5. On the 15th, he collected his first hit off Vic Raschi of the Cardinals. One the day he made his debut against the Reds, teammate Eddie Mathews hit 2 homers in the second game, the first of a record 863 the pair would hit as teammates. On the 23rd of April, again off of Raschi, Aaron hit his first HR in the majors.
Originally assigned # 5 on his uniform, Hank wore that number until he fractured his ankle on the 5th of September. No reason given, but he then changed his number to 44. It would turn out to be a lucky number for him. He hit 44 home runs 4 times in his career, and when he hit number 715, it was off of Dodger pitcher Al Downing, who coincidentally wore #44.
To this point, Aaron was usually called Henry. Braves PR director, Don Davison, observing Aaron’s quiet reserved nature began referring to him publicly as Hank in order to suggest more accessibility. The moniker quickly gained some currency.
Aaron would answer to either one. During his rookie year, his other nicknames, Hammerin Hank, and Bad Henry began to be used. Hammerin Hank by his teammates and Bad Henry by the pitchers.
He also coined the nickname Stone-fingers for Pirate first baseman, and notoriously bad fielder, Dick Stuart, who delighted in the nickname. Probably preferred it to his other nickname, Dr. Strangeglove.
Aaron over the course of his career would be named to the All Star team a record 21 times. 1955 was the first. He also appeared in 25 All Star games. This is because they played 2 a year for a few years.
Aaron was probably one of the most consistent players to ever play the game. 20 years in a row of 20 homers or more. Only hit less than 20 3 times in his career. 7 times 40 or more. His top HR total of 47 he hit when he was 37 years old. 11 times he had 100 RBIs or more. He finished with a career BA of .305. He hit 44 HR’s in the Braves first year in Atlanta. He was the NL MVP in 1957. He won batting titles in 56 and 59.
He walked more than he struck out over his career. 1402 to 1383. He also NEVER struck out 100 times in a season. 97 in 1967 was his highest total ever. And that in 600 at bats. He is still the all-time leader in RBI’s with 2297, and total bases with 6856.
Hank was perennially in the top 10 in MVP voting. 6 times he was third. He hit .362 with 6 HR’s and 16 RBI’s in his postseason career which spanned 17 games in two World Series and one NLCS.
1973. The year started with Aaron within striking distance of Ruth’s 714. And the hate mail increased with every HR he hit. He had a secretary to help him sort through it. As the season drew to a close, he hit # 713 in the next to last game of the season. The next day, he did not homer, so finishing with 40 homers, and just one short of the record, he headed home for the winter.
1974. Aaron was now 40 years old. Not the everyday player he once was. And there was some controversy because the Braves opened in Cincinnati and were going to keep Aaron out of the lineup so he could break the record in Atlanta. Aaron himself had been worried because of all the death threats that he would even live to see the 1974 season. He had received a plaque from the US Postal service for receiving more pieces of mail, 930,000, than any person in the United States, not including of course politicians.
Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner, told the Braves that Aaron had to play at least 2 of the games in Cincinnati. On April the 4th, on his first swing of the season, he hit # 714 off of Jack Billingham.
The Braves headed home to face the Dodgers. On the 8th of April, the Braves played a nationally televised game before a record crowd of 53,775 fans. Al Downing started for the Dodgers. In the 4th inning Aaron connected on a pitch and sent it towards the left field fence.
Bill Buckner, the Dodger left fielder made a valiant attempt to scale the wall and catch the ball, but it landed in the glove of relief pitcher Tom House and Hank circled the bases to tremendous applause. Two fans caught up with him as he rounded second, and he was congratulated along the way by the Dodger infielders.
Vin described the moment.
“What a marvelous moment for baseball, what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, what a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation is the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron…. And for the first time in a long time, that poker face in Aaron shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have been like to live with for the past several months.”
Vin, as usual, hit the nail right on the head. The rest of the season was just business as usual for Aaron. But he was not the same player. He played in only 112 games. He hit 20 HR’s and had 69 RBI’s. His BA was .268. He was 40 and definitely slowing way down.
So that winter, the Braves traded Aaron to the Brewers and the AL where he could be their DH and not have to play in the field so much. He had hit 733 HR’s as a Brave. And he hit # 733 in his last at bat as a Brave.
He had requested the trade because he had a prior relationship with Bud Selig, the Brewers owner. He was traded to the Brewers for Dave May on the 2nd of November, 1974. A month later, RHP Roger Alexander was sent to the Braves to complete the deal. He was reunited with former teammate Del Crandall who was the Braves manager.
In 1975, he played in 137 games for the Brewers, hitting 12 homers, his first season below 20 since 1954, batted .234 and drove in 60. In 1975 at the age of 42, Hank played in only 85 games, the first and only time in his big league career he did not play in 100 or more. He had 10 HR’s, 35 RBI’s and hit .229. After the season, he retired.
Hank went on to work in different front office roles for the Braves, including senior vice president. In 1988 he was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. He went into the baseball hall in 1982 on his first try getting 97.8 percent of the votes. At the time second only to Ty Cobb’s 98.2.
His brother, Tommie was on the Braves with him for a short time. Tommie and Hank have the most career HR’s for brothers. Tommie’s 13, and Hank’s 755. He finished with over 3,000 hits. After the election, Aaron was made the Braves VP and director of player development.
He was named the corporate VP of community relations for TBS. He was also a member of the board of directors, and the VP of business development for The Airport Network. When the Braves were sold in 2007, Selig announced that Aaron would be playing a major role in the management of the Braves. Part of that was forming programs to encourage minorities to play and be part of baseball. Aaron founded the Hank Aaron Rookie League program.
Aaron owned a BMW dealership in Union City, Georgia, where an autographed baseball was included with every car sold. Aaron also owned Mini, Land Rover, Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda dealerships throughout Georgia, as part of the Hank Aaron Automotive Group. Aaron sold all but the Toyota dealership in 2007. Additionally he owned a chain of 30 restaurants around the country.
Aaron had divorced his first wife in 1971, they had 5 children, Gary, Lary, Dorinda, Gale and Hank Jr. He married his second wife, Billye in 1973. They had one child, a daughter, Ceci.
In 2006, Bonds passed Ruth to move into second place. Bonds and Aaron did a commercial for the Super Bowl in which Aaron jokingly told Barry to retire before he broke the record. As Bonds closed in on the record, Hank let it be known that although he recognized the achievement, he would not be in attendance to watch the record fall. It was totally within his character. He had downplayed his own achievement.
But when Barry broke the record on the 7th of August, a surprise video of Aaron congratulating him was shown on the jumbotron.
Aaron had converted to the Roman Catholic religion in 1959. And he was very devout. He was a longtime fan of the Cleveland Browns, and even attended many games in disguise sitting in the Dawg Pound. Aaron lived in the Atlanta area, and in 2013, his home was burglarized with jewelry and 2 BMW’s stolen. The cars were later recovered.
Hank suffered from arthritis, and had a partial hip replacement after a fall in 2014. He received a Covid-19 vaccination publicly on the 5th of January 2021 at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. He and several other notable African-American public figures to demonstrate the safety of the vaccine and encourage other Black Americans to do the same.
Aaron died in his sleep on the 22nd of January at the age of 86. Cause of death was listed as natural causes. His funeral was held on the 27th and burial followed at South View Cemetery. Hank’s funeral procession made one last trip to the place where his 715th homer landed. In the parking lot across from where the stadium now stands there is a portion of the wall that stood when Hank hit the homer with a marker showing the spot.
Hank was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 by President Bush. Each year the Hank Aaron award is presented to the hitter voted the most effective in his league. He is also # 5 on the top 100 baseball players of all-time list. His #44 has been retired by both the Braves and the Brewers. He was a class act.
Great, he should be the one and only true leader of homeruns, I’m sure he did it cleanly, without cheating …
Thanks Jeff for a great job of editing and adding some videos to my post. I did say Crandall was the manager of the Braves, that should have read Brewers..
This was great reading about a much admired baseball star and person. Thank you guys for writing it. I got chills reading about the number 44 which was the number of Dodger pitcher, Downing. Very interesting.
I was watching when he hit it. I got chills, felt exactly the opposite when Bonds broke Aaron’s mark. Aaron did it the right way and never hit 50 HR’s in a season, but Hank was all class and congratulated Bonds in a video that was on the Jumbotron.
I work with a douchebag Braves fan who came into my office the other day proudly saying he’d never buy any Atlanta Hammers merch. Idiots gonna idiot.
Off to a great start today. After paying a deserved and positive homage to the greatness of Hank Arron, the comments devolve into Bonds bashing and racist team names. Way to go guys! Way to turn an uplifting article into negative comments.
I think Barry gets an undeserved amount of flack for his steroid use. There are estimates and allegations that 40% to 80% of players that played in Bond’s era used steroids. There’s allegations that players in the 50s and 60s also used steroids and stimulants. It’s naïve to assume that Hank did things “the right way” without knowing that to be fact. I’m not condoning the use of steroids and I’m not accusing Hank. I’m just saying that that stuff was kept out of the spotlight in Hank’s era and players didn’t even try to hide it in Barry’s era.
Henry was an all time great. Barry was a freaking cyborg! Hank hit 755 in 12364 ABs. Barry hit 762 in 9847 ABs in two really tough home ballparks for homers. Henry never had 100 walks in a season, Barry had 232 when he was 39 years old and 132 when he was 42. No one wanted to pitch to him and he still hit all those homers!
DodgerLover, when the Dodgers are ultimately forced to change their name because of the racist act of kicking out all those Mexican American families from Chavez ravine to build their ballpark, are you going to happily buy new Los Angeles Chavez’s jerseys?
I think you misread what he said. He said it was a Braves fan who came in to his office and made the statements. Not DodgerLover. You’re the one who doesn’t like words put into your mouth.
Nope, I understood what he wrote and I didn’t put any words into his mouth. He basically said his Braves fan coworker is an idiot for not supporting a name change of his favorite team. People can have different opinions without being idiots. Please let me know what I misunderstood.
In he 50’s and early 60’s, steroids were not a problem baseball. They did not have access to the kind of medicine that came along in the 70’s and 80’s. Mostly if a player was hurt, they got cortisone shots. Allegations are just that nothing more. There was a problem that surfaced later that players were using what was called Greenies. An amphetamine that boosted energy, and some players became addicted to those. But what Bonds did, well, he gets all the negative press he deserves and he brought it on himself. No one gets that good at that age. He had HOF credentials before all the steroid stuff, but he wanted the same kind of attention that Sosa and McGwire were getting. He walked a lot yeah, but pitchers in Aaron’s era were of a different mindset and skill set than those when Bonds played. Aaron did it the right way. He was not the kind of person who brought attention to himself, but Bonds was a self serving type. Bonds wanted attention and he got it. But you do not all of a sudden after a mediocre season at age 34 get so good you hit 122 homers over the next two seasons. The season he hit 73, he hit more than half, 37 in San Francisco, so so much for your hard to hit homers theory. In 2000 he hit 25 of his 49 at home. You do not get that much better as you age. Bonds deserves every bit of negative press he gets. Aaron deserves all the accolades that he has been given. Two entirely different people with different moral codes.
Bravo Bear right on point as usual!!
Very nice article boys about Henry Aaron, who quietly went about his business in a working-mans fashion while in the shadow of other stars, particularly Mays and Mantle. I had wished he would have broken the record in 73 and not given the racist idiots more time to spew their venom. I remember being very nervous when those 2 guys ran him down as he rounded the bases, fearing they had bad intentions. Happily they didn’t. I’m still amazed with the lack of security on that day.
The picture of Henry as a young boy is priceless.
I find some of the circumstances of his record breaking homer ironic.The fact he replace Bobby Thompson was news to me. The number 44 and Al Downing (as some of you know) was the only player in uniform on the days when Henry hit his 715th (off him) and when Roger Maris hit his 61st in 61, as a rookie Yankee pitcher in the dugout. I’ve won a few beers on that trivia question. I also know Tom House a bit and have talked with him about his catch.
Very nice tribute Bear and Jeff to a classy man and great ballplayer.
Thanks Phil, I saw him play many times and he was a great one.
Excellent article Jeff and Bear!
Hank Aaron was such a great player, and I still remember watching him hit #715. He was such a consistently outstanding player. Not flashy, but always productive. And amazing that he finished his career as the all time HR leader with more walks than strikeouts.
We have lost so many great baseball icons in the last year, and none more impactful than Henry Aaron.
This article was all Bear. I added a couple of videos.
And a few paragraph breaks.
Possible 154 game season and delay of start. Guess will see how things progress.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2929133-report-mlb-proposed-154-game-schedule-expanded-postseason-mlbpa-considering
I just read that. DH is on the table. Nelson Cruz has become interested in the Dodgers. Now way he signs unless there is a DH.
Pending the physicsl with Ozuna, it seems that it will be a Dodger
Afternoon guys. I have been reading almost everything being posted on different sites today, so many rumors, so little time. Nothing breaking on the Dodgers so far. I enjoy writing for this blog so much. It is fun doing the research, and it is also fun reading the responses to the posts. Over all the years I have watched baseball I have tried to be as objective as possible. I recognize the greats on the other teams. I recognize a great opponent when I see one. Some players just seemed to be better when they played the Dodgers. Hank Aaron was one of those guys. Hank hit over 90 homers in his career against 2 teams, the Dodgers and the Reds. He was just one of those guys who you knew you had better be careful with. McCovey was very good against Drysdale, but overall, not the kind of devastating bat against them as Aaron. For all his prowess, Bonds was no where near the hitter against the Dodgers Hank was. He had good numbers against LA. Hank hit over .300 against LA in Brooklyn and LA. One guy who matched Hank’s prowess against LA was Willie Mays. Mays hit 98 homers in his career against the Dodgers and also had a BA over .300. Willie and Hank were two of the best of who I ever saw play. I recognize greatness when I see it. But one thing will never change in my mind. I do not like cheaters. I do not care what percentage of players were juicing when steroids were at their peak. It still does not make it right. I do not blame the players for wanting to be better. I do blame MLB for not being more forceful in their policy’s towards steroids. I blame them for turning a blind eye to the problem, and not addressing it sooner. Ken Caminiti died as a direct result of his steroid use. What a waste. He was 41 years old when he passed. Athletes in other sports would die too. Most people believe that most of the players named in the Mitchell report used or had knowledge of who was using. Paul LoDuca and Eric Gagne were caught in the web. Hopefully, the day will come when all of this is so far behind us that we will just have it as part of the games history. And not part of the fabric of the game.