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Hank Aaron
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Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5,
1934), baseball player and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame,
is best known for setting the record for most home runs in a
career (755), surpassing the previous mark of 714 by Babe Ruth.
He was born in Mobile, Alabama. Aaron was a star outfielder with
the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, a perennial All-Star, and the
National League's Most Valuable Player in 1957. In his career,
he was selected to a record 24 All-Star Game appearances. He
also won three Gold Glove Awards as an outfielder (1958-1960).
Aaron's first team, with whom he signed while he was still in
high school, was the semi-pro Birmingham Black Bears, but he was
acquired in 1951 by the Negro American League champion
Indianapolis Clowns after the Black Bears played an exhibition
against the Clowns the previous year. The Clowns won the Negro
League World Series in 1952 and Aaron's contract was acquired by
the Braves, then still in Boston. After a stellar year with the
Braves minor League affiliate in Eau Claire, Aaron, along with
Horace Garner and Felix Mantilla, was sent to Jacksonville to
break the color line in the South Atlantic League. Despite
enduring non-stop racial epithets and threats, Aaron led the
league in runs, hits, doubles, RBI, and batting average to
become the league's Most Valuable Player. The next year, he got
his big break in the majors when he was called up by the Braves,
who had moved to Milwaukee before the 1953 season, to replace
the injured Bobby Thomson. In his first season (1954) he was
moved from shortstop to outfielder, and despite an injury which
caused him to miss part of the season, posted a batting average
of .280 and hit 13 home runs. Over the next twenty years, Aaron
proved himself to be one of the greatest baseball players in
history. |
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He was a perennial all star (1955-1975)
and led the league in batting average twice (1956, 1959),
slugging percentage four times (1959, 1963, 1967, 1971), OPS
three times (1959, 1963, 1971), runs scored three times
(1957, 1963, 1967), hits twice (1956, 1959), total bases an
amazing eight times (1956, 1957, 1959-1961, 1963, 1967,
1969), doubles four times (1955-1956, 1961, 1965), home runs
four times (1957, 1963, 1966-1967), and RBIs four times
(1957, 1960, 1963, 1966). He hit .300 fourteen times
(1955-1959, 1961-1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973), scored 100
or more runs fifteen times (1955-1967, 1969-1970), and
knocked in 100 or more runs eleven times (1955, 1957,
1959-1963, 1966-1967, 1970-1971). Aaron and teammates Eddie
Mathews and Warren Spahn led Milwaukee to pennants in 1957
and 1958 and defeated the New York Yankees in the 1957 World
Series. He played most of his prime in Milwaukee's County
Stadium, which was a poor home-run park. |
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When the team moved to Atlanta in 1966, Aaron's
home run output increased (Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium - famously
friendly to hitters - was nicknamed "The Launching Pad"); he hit 44
homers his first season there. His hallmark was consistency: his
best home run season was "only" 47 (in 1971), but he sustained high
levels of production for over twenty years |
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This enabled him to approach the home run record
in the early 1970s. As a 39-year-old, Aaron hit exactly 40 home runs
in 1973, ending the season with a career total of 713. Over the
winter, Aaron endured death threats and a barrage of racist hate
mail from people who did not want to see a black man break Ruth's
home run record. However, when this harassment became widely known,
the ballplayer enjoyed a massive flood of public support motivated
at least partially to counter the bigotry. As the 1974 season began,
Aaron's pursuit of the home run record caused a small controversy.
The Braves opened the season in Cincinnati with a three game series
before playing their first home game, but Braves management wanted
him to break the record in Atlanta. Therefore, they were going to
have Aaron sit out the first three games of the season. Commissioner
Bowie Kuhn ruled that he had to play two out of three. He tied Babe
Ruth's record in his very first at bat, but did not hit another home
run in the series. Hank Aaron broke the record on April 8, with a
home run in Atlanta off Los Angeles pitcher Al Downing. He finished
his career with a two-year stint with the Milwaukee Brewers. Aaron
is the all-time leader in home runs (755), RBIs (2297), extra base
hits (1477), and total bases (6856). He is also in the top ten in
games (3rd, 3298), at bats (2nd, 12364), runs (3rd, 2174), hits
(3rd, 3771), and doubles (9th, 624). Although he is justifiably
proud of his record for home runs, he is particularly proud of his
total bases record because he feels it more accurately acknowledges
his valuable contribution to his team. Aaron now works as an
executive with the Atlanta Braves organization. His autobiography I
Had a Hammer was published in 1990. Aaron now owns Hank Aaron BMW of
south Atlanta where every car is sold with an autographed baseball.
Aaron attended Game 4 of the 2004 World Series at Busch Stadium in
St. Louis, Missouri and personally awarded the Hank Aaron award
winners - Barry Bonds in the NL, Manny Ramirez in the AL. |
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