Jersey Yankee
02-25-03, 06:09 PM
Henry Louis Aaron
Nicknames: "Hammerin' Hank",
ESPN-C/Sports Century
Sat, 03/01/03, 7am ET (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/schedule?date=20030301&network=18&sport=all).
1 hr.
Please see his career stats (http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/aaronha01.shtml), notable quotes (both from and about Hank) (http://baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quoaar.shtml), HOF bio (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/aaron_hank.htm) and his Cooperstown Plaque (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/plaques/aaron_hank.htm):
HENRY “HANK” L. AARON
MILWAUKEE N.L., ATLANTA N.L., MILWAUKEE A.L., 1954-1976
HIT 755 HOME RUNS IN 23-YEAR CAREER TO
BECOME MAJORS’ ALL-TIME HOMER KING. HAD
20 OR MORE FOR 20 CONSECUTIVE YEARS, AT
LEAST 30 IN 15 SEASONS AND 40 OR BETTER
EIGHT TIMES. ALSO SET RECORDS FOR GAMES
PLAYED (3,298), AT BATS (12,364), LONG HITS
(1,477), TOTAL BASES (6,856), RUNS BATTED
IN (2,297). PACED N.L. IN BATTING TWICE
AND HOMERS, RUNS BATTED IN AND SLUGGING
PCT. FOUR TIMES EACH. WON MOST VALUABLE
PLAYER AWARD IN N.L. IN 1957.
Hammerin' back at racism (http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/aaron_hank.html)
By Larry Schwartz
Special to ESPN.com
"For me he was the toughest out. Everybody else, I had a plan. It may not work, but I knew what I was going to try and do that day. But Henry, I just never, never figured out what I was going to do," says Sandy Koufax about Hank Aaron on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
Alphabetically and arithmetically, what could be finer than having "Aaron, Hank" as the first name listed in The Baseball Encyclopedia? The book's leadoff man is better recognized as the cleanup hitter who holds the Cadillac of baseball records: His 755 home runs are the most by a major leaguer.
Aaron also hammered his way into the record book for most runs batted in (2,297), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477). He ranks second in at-bats (12,364), tied for third with Babe Ruth in runs (2,174), and third in hits (3,771) and games played (3,298). He is the only player to hit at least 30 homers in 15 seasons and at least 20 homers in 20 years. He hit at least 40 homers eight times, with a career-best of 47. He is the first player to reach 3,000 hits and 500 homers. He led the National League in homers and RBI four times each and played in 24 All-Star Games.
A lifetime .305 hitter, he did most of his damage for the Braves, first in Milwaukee (1954-65), then in Atlanta (1966-74) before finishing his 23-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975 and 1976.
"The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one," Aaron said. "You stand up there alone, and if you make a mistake, it's your mistake. If you hit a home run, it's your home run."
His crowning moment was, of course, a home run. It came when he surpassed what had seemed like an unbreakable record only a decade earlier. That was the night in 1974 he walloped No. 715 and trotted around the bases past the Babe and into history.
While Aaron had the numbers, he didn't have fan appeal. He was considered hard working, humble and shy, just as Joe DiMaggio was. But while those qualities made DiMaggio a hero, they made Aaron an enigma. Aaron was often overlooked as one of the game's greats until he took off on his chase of the Bambino. Racism might have something to do with it as well as playing in Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Aaron was born on Feb. 5, 1934, in a part of Mobile, Alabama, called "Down The Bay," a poor black area of town. The family moved to a better area of Mobile called Toulminville, where he was raised. In high school, Aaron played shortstop and third base, and was an outstanding hitter though he batted cross-handed.
In 1952, Aaron quit high school and joined the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. After a brief stay as their shortstop, he was sold in June for $10,000 to the Braves, who beat out the Giants (can you imagine an outfield with Mays and Aaron?). That summer, he was the Northern League's Rookie of the Year for Eau Claire (Wisconsin) despite playing only 87 games.
In 1953, Aaron was one of the first five black players in the South Atlantic League. Moved from shortstop to second base, it didn't affect his hitting. Though faced with the racism of the south, he sparked Jacksonville to the Sally League pennant by leading the league in batting (.362), RBI (125), runs (115) and hits (208). He was voted the league's MVP. "Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations," one writer said.
At spring training the next year, it didn't look like the 20-year-old Aaron would make the Braves. But then Bobby Thomson (yes, that Bobby Thomson of Ralph Branca fame) suffered a broken ankle sliding into second base. The Braves needed a starting outfielder to replace Thomson and the 6-foot, 160-pound Aaron won the competition, taking over as the regular leftfielder.
He hit his first home run on April 23, 1954, off the Cardinals' Vic Raschi. In 122 games, he batted .280 (he wouldn't hit that low again until 1966) with 13 homers (he wouldn't go below 20 for the next 20 years) before suffering a broken ankle sliding on September 5. He was sidelined for the rest of the season.
In 1955, Aaron moved to right field, where he remained for most of his career (and won three Gold Gloves). He batted .314 with 27 homers and 106 RBI. This was just the start. The next season, he won the first of two National League batting titles with a .328 average. (In 1959, he won the crown with a career-best .355.)
Two changes were made in 1957. Aaron went from second in the batting order to fourth, behind Eddie Mathews instead of in front of him, and he switched from a 36-ounce bat to a 34-ounce model. Aaron responded by leading the league with 44 homers (one of four times he would hit his uniform number) and a career-high 132 RBI, while batting .322. When Aaron drilled a pitch from the Cardinals' Billy Muffett for a two-run homer in the 11th inning of a game in late September, it clinched the Braves' first pennant in Milwaukee. Aaron was carried off the field by his teammates in jubilation. At 23, he won his lone MVP.
Milwaukee registered its only World Series triumph behind righthander Lew Burdette, who defeated the Yankees three times. Aaron did his part by hitting .393 with three homers and seven RBI in Milwaukee's 4-3 series win.
Aaron (.326, 30 homers, 95 RBI) led the Braves to another pennant in 1958, but this time the Braves lost a seven-game Series to the Yankees. As the years went on, so did the homers. While the 6-foot Aaron would fill out - he would reach 190 pounds - he never was a heavy man. The key to his hitting seemed to be his supple, powerful wrists that allowed him to "crack" his bat like a buggy whip.
The chase to beat the Babe heated up in the summer of 1973. So did the mail. He needed a secretary to sort it as he received more than an estimated 3,000 letters a day, more than any American outside of politics. Unfortunately, racists did much of the writing. A sampling:
"Dear Nigger Henry,
You are (not) going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it. . . . Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. . . . My gun is watching your every black move."
"Dear Henry Aaron,
How about some sickle cell anemia, Hank?"
The letters came from all over, but most were postmarked in northern cities. They were filled with hate. More hate than Aaron had ever imagined. "This," Aaron said about the letters, "changed me."
The summer of '73 ended with Hammerin' Hank at 713 homers after hitting a remarkable 40 in just 392 at-bats. He was 39.
In his first swing of 1974, Aaron homered off Cincinnati's Jack Billingham, tying Ruth. His eyes got teary as he rounded third base. That night he called his mother. "I'm going to save the next one for you, Mom." On April 8, 1974, the largest crowd in Braves history (53,775) came out to witness history. Aaron didn't disappoint. In the fourth inning, he ripped an Al Downing pitch into the Braves bullpen, where it was caught by reliever Tom House. As Aaron rounded second base, two hippie college students appeared and ran alongside him. The new home run king was mobbed at home by his teammates.
A quarter of a century later, Aaron still has the record - and the mail. "I read the letters," he said, "because they remind me not to be surprised or hurt. They remind me what people are really like."
After retiring as a player, Aaron became one of the first blacks in upper-level management as a Braves vice president and director of player development. Since December 1989 he has served as senior vice president and assistant to the president, but he's more active for Turner Broadcasting as a corporate vp of community relations and a member of TBS' board of directors. He also is vp of business development for The Airport Network.
=============================
http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/A/Aaron_Hank.stm
Aaron was normally not an excitable sort. One observer remarked that Aaron seemed to be looking for a place to sit down when he approached the batter's box. Robin Roberts once remarked that Aaron was the only batter he knew that "could fall asleep between pitches and still wake up in time to hit the next one."
On a muggy April night in Atlanta in 1974, relief pitcher Tom House carried a baseball in from the left-field bullpen. When he handed the ball that had eclipsed the most important record in baseball to the unemotional record breaker, House reported that there were tears in Aaron's eyes. Perhaps the emotion was in response to his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's career record, but more likely it was in thanks that the ordeal was finally over. It was an ordeal similar to the one undergone by Roger Maris 13 summers earlier, one difference being that Aaron's pursuit of Ruth had racial implications to many. Aaron received hate mail and death threats and, when he failed to get number 714 at the end of the 1973 season, he left an entire off-season for speculation and building expectations. The tears may have been the reaction to a giant weight being lifted off his shoulders.
Aaron was able to become the all-time home run champ by sustaining a relatively unspectacular but remarkably consistent career. He was never hurt badly enough to be out of the lineup for an extended period of time. He was not a particularly aggressive baserunner, so his legs suffered little wear and tear. He controlled his weight throughout his career. His remarkable physical condition allowed him to average 33 HR a year, hitting between 24 and 45 HR for 19 straight years. He drove in more than 100 runs 15 times, including a record 13 seasons in a row. He was an All-Star in each of the 23 seasons he played. Sometimes lost among the home run hullaballoo are Aaron's two batting titles and four Gold Gloves for his play in right field. He was consistent and dangerous, and he quickly gained the respect he was to enjoy through his entire career. Early in his career, the Braves played the Dodgers with Jackie Robinson at third. Aaron twice faked bunts, but Robinson didn't budge. After the game, Aaron asked him why he didn't move in. Robinson told him, "We'll give you first base anytime you want it."
Aaron had an understated style that could make him look lazy. He wasn't. He didn't play high school ball in Mobile, Alabama, which somehow hatched the strange story that he batted crosshanded early in his career. He played semi-pro ball when he was 15, and was the shortstop for two seasons with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro leagues. In May 1952, the Braves paid $7,500 for Aaron, who spent the next season and a half tearing up three different minor and winter leagues. He desegregated the Braves in 1954 after Bobby Thomson broke a leg in spring training to open a spot. Aaron joined a powerful lineup featuring Eddie Mathews and Del Crandall that needed a final link.
Aaron won his first batting title in 1956, his third ML season. He came close to the Triple Crown the following year with league bests of 44 homers and and 132 RBI, but he finished third in the batting race behind Stan Musial and Willie Mays. Aaron blamed an ankle injury (he twisted it when he stepped on a bottle thrown onto the field) for slowing him up at bat. One of those 1957 homers is reputedly Aaron's own favorite: the homer that clinched the 1957 NL pennant. For his efforts that season, he won his only MVP award. In the Braves' World Series win over the Yankees, he batted .393 with three more homers and seven RBI.
In 1959, Aaron won his second batting title with a .355 average and led the league in slugging with a .636 average. In that year's All-Star Game, he singled in the tying run in the eighth inning, then scored the eventual winner on Mays's triple. In 1963, he again threatened to win the Triple Crown. He led the league with 44 HR and 130 RBI, but again finished third in the batting race with a .319 average, beaten by Tommy Davis (.326) and Roberto Clemente (.320). He won HR titles in 1966, when he also won his final RBI crown, and in 1967, the Braves' first two seasons in Atlanta. The Braves won a wild NL Western Division race in 1969, but lost in the LCS in three games to the Mets, despite an Aaron homer in each game, seven RBI, and a .357 average.
It was around this time that Aaron was acknowledged to be a serious threat to Ruth's lifetime record. Heretofore soft-spoken and reserved, Aaron became more vociferous on the treatment of blacks in baseball's upper echelon. In 1970, soon after collecting his 3,000th hit, he stated frankly: "I have to tell the truth, and when people ask me what progress Negroes have made in baseball, I tell them the Negro hasn't made any progress on the field. We haven't made any progress in the commissioner's office. Even with Monte Irvin in there, I still think it's tokenism. I think we have a lot of Negroes capable of handling front-office jobs. We don't have Negro secretaries in some of the big league offices, and I think it's time that the major leagues and baseball in general just took hold of themselves and started hiring some of these capable people."
His quest for racial equality did not interrupt his chase of Ruth. In 1971, he had a career-high .669 slugging average and slammed 47 HR to climb to third place on the all-time list with 639, behind Ruth and Willie Mays. With 34 more in 1972, he passed Mays to go into second place. At the age of 39 in 1973, he cracked 40, the most HR ever for a player his age, ending the season one homer off the record. When the 1974 season opened, the Braves preferred he sit out the first series in Cincinnati so he'd hit the record shots in Atlanta. Aaron and Commissioner Bowie Kuhn thought not. And Aaron didn't leave people in suspense long, hitting a 3-1 pitch off Jack Billingham in his second at-bat on Opening Day, the first homer to be struck at the new Riverfront Stadium. He sat out the next game before the scene shifted back to Atlanta. On April 8, a Monday night game on national TV, he leaned into a 1-0 fastball from Dodger lefty Al Downing. He hit the ball with his weight on his front foot, as was his custom, on a slow arc into the left-field bullpen, where reliever House made a nice catch. As he jogged around the bases, easily and emotionlessly with his head down, he was congratulated by the Dodger infielders. He was met at home plate by a small mob, including his mother.
Aaron finished the year with 20 homers. Soon after the season was over, the Braves sent him to Milwaukee, where he hit 22 HR in two seasons for the Brewers. He finished his career tops all-time in HR, RBI, total bases, and extra-base hits, second in at-bats and runs (tied with Ruth), and third in games played and hits (3,771). He currently works in the Braves' front office. (ArB/SEW)
Nicknames: "Hammerin' Hank",
ESPN-C/Sports Century
Sat, 03/01/03, 7am ET (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/schedule?date=20030301&network=18&sport=all).
1 hr.
Please see his career stats (http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/aaronha01.shtml), notable quotes (both from and about Hank) (http://baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quoaar.shtml), HOF bio (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/aaron_hank.htm) and his Cooperstown Plaque (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/plaques/aaron_hank.htm):
HENRY “HANK” L. AARON
MILWAUKEE N.L., ATLANTA N.L., MILWAUKEE A.L., 1954-1976
HIT 755 HOME RUNS IN 23-YEAR CAREER TO
BECOME MAJORS’ ALL-TIME HOMER KING. HAD
20 OR MORE FOR 20 CONSECUTIVE YEARS, AT
LEAST 30 IN 15 SEASONS AND 40 OR BETTER
EIGHT TIMES. ALSO SET RECORDS FOR GAMES
PLAYED (3,298), AT BATS (12,364), LONG HITS
(1,477), TOTAL BASES (6,856), RUNS BATTED
IN (2,297). PACED N.L. IN BATTING TWICE
AND HOMERS, RUNS BATTED IN AND SLUGGING
PCT. FOUR TIMES EACH. WON MOST VALUABLE
PLAYER AWARD IN N.L. IN 1957.
Hammerin' back at racism (http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/aaron_hank.html)
By Larry Schwartz
Special to ESPN.com
"For me he was the toughest out. Everybody else, I had a plan. It may not work, but I knew what I was going to try and do that day. But Henry, I just never, never figured out what I was going to do," says Sandy Koufax about Hank Aaron on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
Alphabetically and arithmetically, what could be finer than having "Aaron, Hank" as the first name listed in The Baseball Encyclopedia? The book's leadoff man is better recognized as the cleanup hitter who holds the Cadillac of baseball records: His 755 home runs are the most by a major leaguer.
Aaron also hammered his way into the record book for most runs batted in (2,297), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477). He ranks second in at-bats (12,364), tied for third with Babe Ruth in runs (2,174), and third in hits (3,771) and games played (3,298). He is the only player to hit at least 30 homers in 15 seasons and at least 20 homers in 20 years. He hit at least 40 homers eight times, with a career-best of 47. He is the first player to reach 3,000 hits and 500 homers. He led the National League in homers and RBI four times each and played in 24 All-Star Games.
A lifetime .305 hitter, he did most of his damage for the Braves, first in Milwaukee (1954-65), then in Atlanta (1966-74) before finishing his 23-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975 and 1976.
"The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one," Aaron said. "You stand up there alone, and if you make a mistake, it's your mistake. If you hit a home run, it's your home run."
His crowning moment was, of course, a home run. It came when he surpassed what had seemed like an unbreakable record only a decade earlier. That was the night in 1974 he walloped No. 715 and trotted around the bases past the Babe and into history.
While Aaron had the numbers, he didn't have fan appeal. He was considered hard working, humble and shy, just as Joe DiMaggio was. But while those qualities made DiMaggio a hero, they made Aaron an enigma. Aaron was often overlooked as one of the game's greats until he took off on his chase of the Bambino. Racism might have something to do with it as well as playing in Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Aaron was born on Feb. 5, 1934, in a part of Mobile, Alabama, called "Down The Bay," a poor black area of town. The family moved to a better area of Mobile called Toulminville, where he was raised. In high school, Aaron played shortstop and third base, and was an outstanding hitter though he batted cross-handed.
In 1952, Aaron quit high school and joined the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. After a brief stay as their shortstop, he was sold in June for $10,000 to the Braves, who beat out the Giants (can you imagine an outfield with Mays and Aaron?). That summer, he was the Northern League's Rookie of the Year for Eau Claire (Wisconsin) despite playing only 87 games.
In 1953, Aaron was one of the first five black players in the South Atlantic League. Moved from shortstop to second base, it didn't affect his hitting. Though faced with the racism of the south, he sparked Jacksonville to the Sally League pennant by leading the league in batting (.362), RBI (125), runs (115) and hits (208). He was voted the league's MVP. "Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations," one writer said.
At spring training the next year, it didn't look like the 20-year-old Aaron would make the Braves. But then Bobby Thomson (yes, that Bobby Thomson of Ralph Branca fame) suffered a broken ankle sliding into second base. The Braves needed a starting outfielder to replace Thomson and the 6-foot, 160-pound Aaron won the competition, taking over as the regular leftfielder.
He hit his first home run on April 23, 1954, off the Cardinals' Vic Raschi. In 122 games, he batted .280 (he wouldn't hit that low again until 1966) with 13 homers (he wouldn't go below 20 for the next 20 years) before suffering a broken ankle sliding on September 5. He was sidelined for the rest of the season.
In 1955, Aaron moved to right field, where he remained for most of his career (and won three Gold Gloves). He batted .314 with 27 homers and 106 RBI. This was just the start. The next season, he won the first of two National League batting titles with a .328 average. (In 1959, he won the crown with a career-best .355.)
Two changes were made in 1957. Aaron went from second in the batting order to fourth, behind Eddie Mathews instead of in front of him, and he switched from a 36-ounce bat to a 34-ounce model. Aaron responded by leading the league with 44 homers (one of four times he would hit his uniform number) and a career-high 132 RBI, while batting .322. When Aaron drilled a pitch from the Cardinals' Billy Muffett for a two-run homer in the 11th inning of a game in late September, it clinched the Braves' first pennant in Milwaukee. Aaron was carried off the field by his teammates in jubilation. At 23, he won his lone MVP.
Milwaukee registered its only World Series triumph behind righthander Lew Burdette, who defeated the Yankees three times. Aaron did his part by hitting .393 with three homers and seven RBI in Milwaukee's 4-3 series win.
Aaron (.326, 30 homers, 95 RBI) led the Braves to another pennant in 1958, but this time the Braves lost a seven-game Series to the Yankees. As the years went on, so did the homers. While the 6-foot Aaron would fill out - he would reach 190 pounds - he never was a heavy man. The key to his hitting seemed to be his supple, powerful wrists that allowed him to "crack" his bat like a buggy whip.
The chase to beat the Babe heated up in the summer of 1973. So did the mail. He needed a secretary to sort it as he received more than an estimated 3,000 letters a day, more than any American outside of politics. Unfortunately, racists did much of the writing. A sampling:
"Dear Nigger Henry,
You are (not) going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it. . . . Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. . . . My gun is watching your every black move."
"Dear Henry Aaron,
How about some sickle cell anemia, Hank?"
The letters came from all over, but most were postmarked in northern cities. They were filled with hate. More hate than Aaron had ever imagined. "This," Aaron said about the letters, "changed me."
The summer of '73 ended with Hammerin' Hank at 713 homers after hitting a remarkable 40 in just 392 at-bats. He was 39.
In his first swing of 1974, Aaron homered off Cincinnati's Jack Billingham, tying Ruth. His eyes got teary as he rounded third base. That night he called his mother. "I'm going to save the next one for you, Mom." On April 8, 1974, the largest crowd in Braves history (53,775) came out to witness history. Aaron didn't disappoint. In the fourth inning, he ripped an Al Downing pitch into the Braves bullpen, where it was caught by reliever Tom House. As Aaron rounded second base, two hippie college students appeared and ran alongside him. The new home run king was mobbed at home by his teammates.
A quarter of a century later, Aaron still has the record - and the mail. "I read the letters," he said, "because they remind me not to be surprised or hurt. They remind me what people are really like."
After retiring as a player, Aaron became one of the first blacks in upper-level management as a Braves vice president and director of player development. Since December 1989 he has served as senior vice president and assistant to the president, but he's more active for Turner Broadcasting as a corporate vp of community relations and a member of TBS' board of directors. He also is vp of business development for The Airport Network.
=============================
http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/A/Aaron_Hank.stm
Aaron was normally not an excitable sort. One observer remarked that Aaron seemed to be looking for a place to sit down when he approached the batter's box. Robin Roberts once remarked that Aaron was the only batter he knew that "could fall asleep between pitches and still wake up in time to hit the next one."
On a muggy April night in Atlanta in 1974, relief pitcher Tom House carried a baseball in from the left-field bullpen. When he handed the ball that had eclipsed the most important record in baseball to the unemotional record breaker, House reported that there were tears in Aaron's eyes. Perhaps the emotion was in response to his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's career record, but more likely it was in thanks that the ordeal was finally over. It was an ordeal similar to the one undergone by Roger Maris 13 summers earlier, one difference being that Aaron's pursuit of Ruth had racial implications to many. Aaron received hate mail and death threats and, when he failed to get number 714 at the end of the 1973 season, he left an entire off-season for speculation and building expectations. The tears may have been the reaction to a giant weight being lifted off his shoulders.
Aaron was able to become the all-time home run champ by sustaining a relatively unspectacular but remarkably consistent career. He was never hurt badly enough to be out of the lineup for an extended period of time. He was not a particularly aggressive baserunner, so his legs suffered little wear and tear. He controlled his weight throughout his career. His remarkable physical condition allowed him to average 33 HR a year, hitting between 24 and 45 HR for 19 straight years. He drove in more than 100 runs 15 times, including a record 13 seasons in a row. He was an All-Star in each of the 23 seasons he played. Sometimes lost among the home run hullaballoo are Aaron's two batting titles and four Gold Gloves for his play in right field. He was consistent and dangerous, and he quickly gained the respect he was to enjoy through his entire career. Early in his career, the Braves played the Dodgers with Jackie Robinson at third. Aaron twice faked bunts, but Robinson didn't budge. After the game, Aaron asked him why he didn't move in. Robinson told him, "We'll give you first base anytime you want it."
Aaron had an understated style that could make him look lazy. He wasn't. He didn't play high school ball in Mobile, Alabama, which somehow hatched the strange story that he batted crosshanded early in his career. He played semi-pro ball when he was 15, and was the shortstop for two seasons with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro leagues. In May 1952, the Braves paid $7,500 for Aaron, who spent the next season and a half tearing up three different minor and winter leagues. He desegregated the Braves in 1954 after Bobby Thomson broke a leg in spring training to open a spot. Aaron joined a powerful lineup featuring Eddie Mathews and Del Crandall that needed a final link.
Aaron won his first batting title in 1956, his third ML season. He came close to the Triple Crown the following year with league bests of 44 homers and and 132 RBI, but he finished third in the batting race behind Stan Musial and Willie Mays. Aaron blamed an ankle injury (he twisted it when he stepped on a bottle thrown onto the field) for slowing him up at bat. One of those 1957 homers is reputedly Aaron's own favorite: the homer that clinched the 1957 NL pennant. For his efforts that season, he won his only MVP award. In the Braves' World Series win over the Yankees, he batted .393 with three more homers and seven RBI.
In 1959, Aaron won his second batting title with a .355 average and led the league in slugging with a .636 average. In that year's All-Star Game, he singled in the tying run in the eighth inning, then scored the eventual winner on Mays's triple. In 1963, he again threatened to win the Triple Crown. He led the league with 44 HR and 130 RBI, but again finished third in the batting race with a .319 average, beaten by Tommy Davis (.326) and Roberto Clemente (.320). He won HR titles in 1966, when he also won his final RBI crown, and in 1967, the Braves' first two seasons in Atlanta. The Braves won a wild NL Western Division race in 1969, but lost in the LCS in three games to the Mets, despite an Aaron homer in each game, seven RBI, and a .357 average.
It was around this time that Aaron was acknowledged to be a serious threat to Ruth's lifetime record. Heretofore soft-spoken and reserved, Aaron became more vociferous on the treatment of blacks in baseball's upper echelon. In 1970, soon after collecting his 3,000th hit, he stated frankly: "I have to tell the truth, and when people ask me what progress Negroes have made in baseball, I tell them the Negro hasn't made any progress on the field. We haven't made any progress in the commissioner's office. Even with Monte Irvin in there, I still think it's tokenism. I think we have a lot of Negroes capable of handling front-office jobs. We don't have Negro secretaries in some of the big league offices, and I think it's time that the major leagues and baseball in general just took hold of themselves and started hiring some of these capable people."
His quest for racial equality did not interrupt his chase of Ruth. In 1971, he had a career-high .669 slugging average and slammed 47 HR to climb to third place on the all-time list with 639, behind Ruth and Willie Mays. With 34 more in 1972, he passed Mays to go into second place. At the age of 39 in 1973, he cracked 40, the most HR ever for a player his age, ending the season one homer off the record. When the 1974 season opened, the Braves preferred he sit out the first series in Cincinnati so he'd hit the record shots in Atlanta. Aaron and Commissioner Bowie Kuhn thought not. And Aaron didn't leave people in suspense long, hitting a 3-1 pitch off Jack Billingham in his second at-bat on Opening Day, the first homer to be struck at the new Riverfront Stadium. He sat out the next game before the scene shifted back to Atlanta. On April 8, a Monday night game on national TV, he leaned into a 1-0 fastball from Dodger lefty Al Downing. He hit the ball with his weight on his front foot, as was his custom, on a slow arc into the left-field bullpen, where reliever House made a nice catch. As he jogged around the bases, easily and emotionlessly with his head down, he was congratulated by the Dodger infielders. He was met at home plate by a small mob, including his mother.
Aaron finished the year with 20 homers. Soon after the season was over, the Braves sent him to Milwaukee, where he hit 22 HR in two seasons for the Brewers. He finished his career tops all-time in HR, RBI, total bases, and extra-base hits, second in at-bats and runs (tied with Ruth), and third in games played and hits (3,771). He currently works in the Braves' front office. (ArB/SEW)