February 5, 1934 - Present
Birth Place : Mobile, Alabama
Early life
Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. While he was born in a section of town referred to as 'Down the Bay', he spent most of his youth in Toulminville. Aaron attended Central High School as a freshman and a sophmore. There he played shortstop and third base on the baseball team and helped lead his team to the Negro High School Championship both years. During this time, he also excelled in football.
Aaron's last two years of high school were spent at the Josephine Allen Institute, a private high school in Alabama. Aaron was so proficient a ballplayer that he was able to play on the Pritchett Athletics, a semi-pro team, as their shortstop and third baseman. After being seen by scout Ed Scott, then signed a contract with the Mobile Black Bears for $3 a game. However, his mother would not allow him to travel so the contract was only for games played in and around the city. It was on the Black Bears that sports agent Bunny Downs found Aaron.
Negro league career
By 1951, Aaron had clearly established himself as talented ballplayer. Although his mother wanted him to attend college in Florida, Downs helped sign Aaron to a contract with the Negro League's Indianapolis Clowns on November 20th of that year. This came with the promise by Aaron to his mother that he would complete his high school education.
The Clowns, the reigning league champions, signed Henry to a $200/month contract. In return, Aaron helped lead the Clowns to victory in the 1952 Negro League World Series. Shortly thereafter, he tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Needless to say, he did not make the team.
Minor league career
On June 14, 1952 Aaron's contract was acquired by the Boston Braves for $10,000. The team assigned Aaron to the Eau Claire Bears, the Braves' Northern League farm club. That year, he secured league's Rookie of the Year as the Bears' second baseman. Aaron also received a raise to $350 a month.
In 1953, Aaron was sent to the Jacksonville Tars. He was the first to break the color line in the Class A South Atlantic League.[citation needed] That year, Aaron led the league in runs (115), hits (208), doubles (36), RBI (115), and batting average (.362). He won the league's MVP Award and had such a dominant year that one sportswriter was prompted to say, "Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations".
Despite his success on the field, Aaron constantly heard racial epithets and received racially motivated threats. Ben Geraghty, Aaron's manager, battled unsuccessfully with locals to gain equal rights for Aaron and other minority players. Former Braves farmhand Pat Jordan said: "Aaron gave [Geraghty] much of the credit for his own swift rise to stardom."
In what turned out to be his last stop before the majors, Aaron played winter ball in Puerto Rico. It was there that he was moved from second base to the outfield. On March 13, 1954, Braves left fielder Bobby Thomson broke his ankle sliding into second base during a spring training game. The next day Aaron made his first spring training start for the Braves in left field and hit a home run.
Major league career
The early years
On April 13, 1954, Aaron made his major league debut and went 0-for-5 against the Cincinnati Reds' Joe Nuxhall.[2] In the same game, Eddie Mathews hit two home runs, the first of a record 863 home runs the pair would hit as teammates. On April 15, 1954, Aaron collected his first major league hit, a single off Cardinals pitcher Vic Raschi. Aaron hit his first Major League home run eight days later, also off Raschi. Over the next 122 games, Aaron batted .280 with 13 homers before suffering a broken ankle on September 5.
The following season, Henry made his first All-Star team. It was the first of a record-tying 24 All-Star Games for Aaron.[5] Aaron finished the season batting .314 with 27 home runs and 106 RBI. Hank hit .328 in 1956 and captured first of two NL batting titles. He was also named The Sporting News NL Player of the Year.
Up until 1957, Aaron had usually hit second in the batting order. In 1957, he was moved to fourth, behind Mathews. He also switched from a 36-ounce bat to a 34-ounce bat. Coincidently, Aaron won his only NL MVP Award that year. He batted .322 and led the leaguee in home runs and runs batted in.
On September 23, 1957, Aaron hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning of a game against the Cardinals. The win clinched the Braves' first pennant in Milwaukee and Aaron was carried off the field by his teammates. Milwaukee went on to win the World Series against Yankees. Aaron did his part by hitting .393 with three homers and seven RBI.
Prime of career
Aaron had another spectacular year in 1958, hitting .326, with 30 home runs and 95 RBI. He led the Braves to another pennant, but this time they lost a seven-game Series to the Yankees. Aaron still had was able to take home an award that year. He finished just 3rd in the MVP race, but, he picked up his first Gold Glove.
During the next several years, Aaron would have some of his best games and seasons as a major leaguer. On June 21, 1959 Aaron had his single most productive day as a hitter. Against the San Francisco Giants, he hit two-run home runs in the 1st, 6th and 7th innings off Johnny Antonelli, Stu Miller and Gordon Jones. It was the only time in his career that he hit three homers in a game. On June 8, 1961, Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas became the first four players ever to hit successive home runs in a game.
Aaron just missed winning the triple crown in 1963 by leading the league with 44 home runs and 130 RBI while finishing second in batting.[6]. He did became the third player to successfully steal 30 bases and hit 30 home runs in a single season. Despite his impressive year, he again finished third in the MVP voting.
The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta after the '65 season. During his days in Atlanta, Aaron reached a number of mile stones. Aaron was just the eighth player to reach the 500 home run milestone. At the time, Aaron was the second youngest player to ever do so at 34 years, five months and nine days, a year and a half older than the youngest player to do so, Jimmie Foxx.
The chase is on
On July 30, 1969 Aaron hit his 537th home run to move into third place on the career home run list behind only Willie Mays and Babe Ruth. Aaron was now in the most productive home run hitting stretch of his career, and it became apparent that he would have a legitimate chance of overtaking Ruth, moreso than Mays who was more rapidly approaching the end of his career. Aaron again finished 3rd in the MVP voting.
The next year Aaron had two major career achievements. The first came on May 17, 1970 as Aaron hit safely for the 3,000th time. He was the first player to reach the 3,000 career hit plateau and hit at least 500 career home runs. His second major achievement of that year came when he hit his 30th home run of the season. That established the record for most seasons with 30 or more homers in the National League (12).
The Hammer reached several milestones 1971. On April 27 he hit his 600th career homer off the San Francisco Giants' Gaylord Perry in Atlanta. On July 31 Aaron homered in an All-Star Game for the first time, connecting off Vida Blue in Detroit. He hit his 40th home run of the season against the Giants' Jerry Johnson on August 10, establishing a National League record for most seasons with 40 or more home runs (seven). He hit 47 home runs during the season and finished third in MVP voting for the 6th time .
During the strike shortened season of 1972, Aaron tied and then surpassed Willie Mays for second place on the career home run list. Aaron also knocked in the 2,000th run of his career and hit a home run in the first All-Star game in Atlanta. As the year came to a close, Aaron broke Stan Musial's major league record for total bases (6,134).
Racism and the record
The chase to beat pass Ruth heated up in the summer of 1973. Aaron recieved an estimated 3,000 letters per day. He ended up hiring a secretary to help sort it. Unfortunately, racists initially 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 every state, but most were postmarked in northern cities. They were filled with hate; more hate than Aaron had ever imagined. "This," Aaron said later about the letters, "changed me."
Still, Aaron continued to hit home runs. Despite being 39-years-old, Aaron managed to hit a remarkable 40 home runs in 392 at-bats. The 1973 season ended and Aaron was at 713 career homers. Over the winter, Aaron endured death threats and a large assortment of racist hate mail from people who did not want to see a black man break Ruth's home run record. Lewis Grizzard, then sports editor the Atlanta Journal became so concerned that he had an obituary written just in case. However, when the harassment became widely known, the ballplayer enjoyed a massive flood of public support motivated at least partially to counter the bigotry. This included Babe Ruth's widow who denounced the racists and declared that her husband would have enthusiastically cheered Aaron's attempt at the record.
As the 1974 season began, Aaron's pursuit of the home run record caused a small controversy. The Braves opened the season on the road in Cincinnati with a three game series. 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 off Reds pitcher Jack Billingham, but did not hit another home run in the series.
53,775 people showed up on April 8, 1974. It was a Braves record at the time. Aaron responded with career home run 715 in the 4th inning off Los Angeles pitcher Al Downing. The ball landed in the Braves bullpen where reliever Tom House caught it. While cannons were firing in celebration and Aaron rounded the bases, two college students appeared and ran alongside, congratulating him before security stepped in. Aaron's mother ran onto the field and into the arms of her son, tears brimming in her eyes. Just a few months later, on October 2, 1974, Aaron hit his 733rd and final home run as a Brave.
Thirty-days later the Braves traded Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers for Roger Alexander and Dave May. Because the Brewers were an American League team, Aaron could extend his career by taking advantage of the designated hitter rule. Aaron broke baseball's all-time RBI record on May 1, 1975. On July 20, 1976 Hank Aaron hit his 755th and final home run off the California Angels' Dick Drago at Milwaukee County Stadium.
Post-playing career
Aaron rejoined the Atlanta Braves organization as player development director four days after retiring from baseball. On August 1, 1982 Hank Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving votes on 97.8 percent of the ballots. At the time, only Ty Cobb received a higher percentage (98.2) of votes cast.
Aaron became one of the first blacks in Major League Baseball upper-level management as Atlanta's vice president of player development. Since December 1989, he has served as senior vice president and assistant to the president, but he is more active for Turner Broadcasting as a corporate vice president of community relations and a member of TBS's board of directors. He also is vice president of business development for The Airport Network.
On February 5, 1999, at a celebration for his 65th birthday, Aaron was honored for his achievements as a player and a person. Major League Baseball announced the introduction of the Hank Aaron Award, to be presented annually to the best hitters in the American League and National League. The first major award to be introduced in more than thirty years, it is also the first to be named after a former player still living at the time the award was inaugurated. Later that year, he ranked number 5 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
In 2002 Aaron received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
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. The book's title is a play on his nickname, "The Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", itself a play on comparing his power hitting with the legendary steel-driving hammer of John Henry; and on the title of the folk song, If I Had a Hammer.
Statues of Aaron now stand outside the front entrance of both Turner Field and Miller Park, where the Braves and Brewers currently play. (Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and Milwaukee County Stadium, which were Aaron's home parks for his entire career, were demolished in 1997 and 2001, respectively. A parking lot occupies the site where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium used to stand and a youth baseball field (named Helfaer Field) occupies the site where Milwaukee County Stadium used to stand (next to Miller Park)).
The Braves have honored Aaron by giving Turner Field the address 755 Hank Aaron Drive SE, in honor of Aaron's 755 career home runs as well as by retiring his jersey number 44. The Milwaukee Brewers have also retired his number.
Trivia
* Hank Aaron is second behind Japanese baseball player Sadaharu Oh (868) as the all-time home run hitter in recorded baseball history.
* Tommie Aaron and Hank Aaron combined for the most major league home runs by brothers (Tommie hit 13 career home runs).
* Aaron has played himself in an episode of Futurama called "A Leela of Her Own", and in an episode of the sitcom "Happy Days".
* American rapper MC Hammer was given his nickname after initially trying to become a baseball player, and some of his colleagues noted similarities between him and Aaron, who was nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank".
* The Mobile BayBears, the Class AA minor league team in Aaron's hometown, play in Hank Aaron Stadium.
* His jersey number during his rookie year was #5, stemming from the fact his birthday was on the 5th of February. The following year, he was given the jersey number he is best remembered for, #44.
* Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax registered his first career strike out against Aaron. However, Aaron hit seventeen career home runs off Don Drysdale, Koufax's future team member. No other pitcher gave up more home runs to Aaron.
* On September 20, 1965, Aaron hit the last home run by a Milwaukee Braves player at Milwaukee County Stadium.
* He is the last Negro League player to play in the Major Leagues.
Articles source : WikiPedia
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