The great Henry Aaron turns 79 today.

Ten Notes On Hank Aaron.

1. Fifty dollars. That is all that kept the New York Giants from teaming Willie Mays with Hank Aaron. Aaron was in the Negro Leagues. He was eighteen years old. He got offers from two teams the Giants and the Milwaukee Braves. The Braves were offering $50 more. Aaron signed with the Braves. I can’t imagine what the history of baseball would have been like had Mays and Aaron played on the same team all those years.

2. Hank Aaron played in 25 All-Star Games. He was an All-Star from 1955-75 every year. He played with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves from 1954 to 1974 before heading back to Milwaukee to finish his career where he started but with the American League Milwaukee Brewers 1975-76. Aaron hit 755 career home runs,  2297 RBI which is the major league record, 3771 career hits with a .305 career batting average. He holds the major league record for total bases with 6856, extra base hits with 1477 and a record 17 consecutive seasons getting 150 hits or more.He won 4 home run titles, 3 Golden Gloves and 2 batting titles. He was the MVP in 1957 the year he won a World Series title with the Braves. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year eligible 1982.

3. Up until the 1970’s when he made his run at Babe Ruth’s home run record and drew all kinds of attention, Aaron played most of his career in the shadows of players like Mays and Mantle. Aaron wasn’t flashy he just went out everyday and did his job. He hit 755 home runs but he didn’t hit tape measure shots. He hit home runs that cleared the fences. He was one of the most consistant players in the history of the game. A strong case could be made that he is the greatest living player. Certainly one of the 5 greatest players who ever lived.

4. Aaron was the first player to reach 3000 hits and 500 home runs. You look at his career season to season they are remarkably consistant. Hard to find a bad year when he was in his prime. He also had speed. He stole 31 bases one season and had 240 steals in his career and this was during an era when stealing 31 bases was a lot. Not the run happy 1970’s and 1980’s. Aaron was a complete ballplayer. I once heard some old time manager or player say that the only difference between Aaron and Mays was that Aaron never missed a cut off man and Mays never hit one.

5. I can’t imagine the pressure Aaron was feeling as he approached the 714 home run record held by the great Babe Ruth. In 1971 when Aaron at the age of 37 [which was old back then before the juicing] hit 47 put him into a position of a guy who many thought had a shot at the record to one who was surely going to break it. I have read all the stories about the racism Aaron faced. The nasty letters and death threats. I am a big fan of Babe Ruth’s, I believed then and believe now that he was the greatest player who ever lived but I remember being 13 years old and rooting for Hammerin’ Hank to beat the record. I remember the game well. Monday Night Baseball- Dodgers at the Braves. Al Downing on the mound for the Dodgers. It was the fourth inning. Home run clearing the fence in left field. Here was the great Vin Scully’s comments after he broke the record. Vinny’s the best.

“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 in 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.”

There was one down moment that evening but I didn’t realize it at the time. In ceremonies before the game the Governor of Georgia was down on the field. He stood there with his big toothy smile. It was the first time I’d heard of or saw James Earl Carter.

6. The New York Giants and Milwaukee Braves moving to San Francisco and Atlanta respectively had a huge impact on the Aaron/ Mays home run record race. For a period of time there were those who thought Mays might be the man to break the record. When the Giants moved from New York to San Francisco the ballpark change had a negative effect on Mays quest. When Aaron moved from Milwaukee to the Launching Pad in Atlanta it boosted his chances greatly. Aaron would end up with 755 career home runs to Mays 660.

7. In 1999 The Sporting News named Hank Aaron the 5th greatest baseball player of all time. Some more records he holds-he is the only  player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times. His #44 has been retired by both the Braves and Brewers.

8. Hank Aaron in the Negro League and in the minors he had been a second baseman and a shortstop. In the 1953 off-season the Braves moved Aaron to the outfield while playing winter ball in Puerto Rico.

9. Early in his career the Braves PR people started to refer to the quiet, reserved and dignified Henry Aaron-Henry is what his friends and family called him- to Hank. He would answer to either. He had the nicknames “Hammerin’ Hank’ or “The Hammer” my personal favourite is what opposing pitchers took to calling him “Bad Henry.’

10. Statues of Henry Aaron stand outside of Turner Field in Atlanta and Miller Park in Milwaukee.