Hank Aaron Totally Explained

Everything about Hank Aaron totally explained

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama), nicknamed "Hammer", "Hammerin' Hank”, or "Bad Henry”, is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned from 1954 through 1976. After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his Major League Baseball career in 1954. He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975-1976) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. Throughout his career, Aaron had many accomplishments and records. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. During his professional career, Aaron performed at a consistently high level for an extended period of time. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times. He is one of only four players to have at least 17 seasons with 150 or more hits.. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957 he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Milwaukee Braves won the World Series. It was Aaron's one World Series victory during his career as a player.
   Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856). He is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (3rd) and runs with 2,174 (tied for 4th with Babe Ruth). He also is in second place in At-bats (12,364) and in third place in Games (3,298).
   To honor Aaron's contributions to Major League Baseball, MLB created the Hank Aaron Award, an annual award given to the hitters voted the most effective in each respective league. He is the last Negro league baseball player to play in the major leagues. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, his first year of eligibility.
   In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron 5th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named Aaron to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Early life

Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama to Herbert and Estella Aaron. By the time his parents were finished having children, Aaron had seven siblings; Tommie Aaron, one of his brothers, also went on to play Major League Baseball. By the time Aaron retired, he and his brother held the record for most career home runs by a pair of siblings (768). They were also the first siblings to appear in a League Championship Series as teammates.
While he was born in a section of town referred to as 'Down the Bay', he spent most of his youth in Toulminville. Aaron grew up poor and his family couldn't afford baseball equipment so he'd to hit bottle caps with sticks. Aaron attended Central High School as a freshman and a sophomore. There he played outfield 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. His success on the football field led to several football scholarship offers. However, Aaron turned these down to pursue a career in major league baseball. Although he batted cross-handed (that is, as a right-handed hitter, with his left hand above his right), a somewhat unconventional batting method, Aaron had already established himself as a top power hitter. After the tryout, Aaron returned to school to finish his secondary education. His last two years were spent at the Josephine Allen Institute, a private high school in Alabama. During his junior year, Aaron joined the Mobile Black Bears, an independent Negro league team. While on the Bears, Aaron earned $10 per game.

Negro league career

After relocating to Indianapolis, 18-year-old Aaron helped the Clowns win the 1952 Negro League World Series.
   1953 also proved notable to Aaron off the field. Aaron met a woman by the name of Barbara Lewis. The night he met her, Lewis decided to attend the Tars' game. Aaron singled, doubled, and hit a home run in the game. On October 6 1953, Aaron and Lewis married.
   Aaron nearly won the triple crown in 1963. He led the league with 44 home runs and 130 RBI and finished third in batting average. In that season, Aaron became the third player to steal 30 bases and hit 30 home runs in a single season. Despite that, he again finished third in the MVP voting.
   The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta, Georgia after the 1965 season.

Home run milestones

During his days in Atlanta, Aaron reached a number of milestones. He was only the eighth player ever to hit 500 career home runs. At the time, he was the second youngest player to reach that plateau.
   On July 31, 1969, Aaron hit his 537th home run, passing Mickey Mantle. This moved him into third place on the career home run list behind Willie Mays and Babe Ruth. At the end of the season, Aaron again finished 3rd in the MVP voting.
   The next year Aaron reached two career milestones. On May 17, 1970 Aaron collected his 3,000th hit. This was done in a game against the Cincinnati Reds, the team against which he played his first game. He was the first player to get 3,000 career hits and 500 career home runs. Also during that year, Aaron established the record for most seasons with 30 or more home runs in the National League.
   On April 27, 1971, Aaron hit his 600th career home run, the third player ever to do so. On July 31, Aaron hit a home run in the All-Star Game (played at Detroit's Tiger Stadium) for the first time. He hit his 40th home run of the season against the Giants' Jerry Johnson on August 10. This established 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).
   While many expected Aaron to break Ruth's home run record in 1973, a key moment of the season came on August 6. This was Hank Aaron Day in Wisconsin and the Atlanta Braves played the Milwaukee Brewers in an exhibition game. The guests in attendance included Aaron's first manager with the Braves, "Jolly Cholly" Grimm, his teammate from Jacksonville, Felix Mantilla, Eau Claire president Ron Berganson, and Del Crandall, the catcher for the 1957 World Champion Braves and the current manager of the Brewers.
   The only position that the Braves wanted Aaron to play was as the Designated Hitter because the game was held in an American League park. However, at that time the National League prohibited use of the DH even in scrimmages. Due to the fact that National League president Chub Feeney couldn't be reached, it was left up to the umpire, Bruce Froemming to make a decision. Froemming ignored the rule and allowed Aaron to be the DH for the Braves. Later on, National League officials ignored the infraction.

Breaking Ruth's record

Although Aaron himself downplayed the "chase" to surpass Babe Ruth, baseball enthusiasts and the national media grew increasingly excited as he closed in on the home run record. During the summer of 1973 Aaron received thousands of letters every week; the Braves ended up hiring a secretary to help him sort through it.
At the age of 39, Aaron managed to slug 40 home runs in 392 at-bats, ending the season one home run short of the record. He hit home run number 713 on September 29, 1973, and with one day remaining in the season, many expected him to tie the record. But in his final game that year, playing against the Houston Astros (led by manager Leo Durocher, who had once roomed with Babe Ruth), he was unable to hit one out of the park. After the game, Aaron stated that his only fear was that he might not live to see the 1974 season.
Over the winter, Aaron was the recipient of death threats and a large assortment of hate mail from people who didn't want to see a black man break Ruth's nearly home run record. The threats extended to those providing positive press coverage of Aaron. Lewis Grizzard, then editor of the Atlanta Journal, reported receiving numerous phone calls calling them "nigger lovers" for covering Aaron's chase. While preparing the massive coverage of the home run record, he quietly had an obituary written, scared that Aaron might be murdered. Sports Illustrated pointedly summarized the racist vitriol that Aaron was forced to endure:

"Is this to be the year in which Aaron, at the age of thirty-nine, takes a moon walk above one of the most hallowed individual records in American sport...? Or will it be remembered as the season in which Aaron, the most dignified of athletes, was besieged with hate mail and trapped by the cobwebs and goblins that lurk in baseball's attic?"

Aaron received an outpouring of public support in response to the bigotry. Babe Ruth's widow, Claire Hodgson, even denounced the racism 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 against the Reds. Braves management wanted him to break the record in Atlanta, and were therefore going to have Aaron sit out the first three games of the season. But Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ruled that he'd to play two games in the first series. He played two out of three, tying Babe Ruth's record in his very first at bat off Reds pitcher Jack Billingham, but didn't hit another home run in the series.
   The team returned to Atlanta, and on April 8, 1974, a crowd of 53,775 people showed up for the game — a Braves attendance record. In the 4th inning, Aaron hit career home run number 715 off L.A. Dodgers pitcher Al Downing. Although Dodgers outfielder Bill Buckner nearly went over the outfield wall trying to catch it, the ball landed in the Braves bullpen, where relief pitcher Tom House caught it. While cannons were fired in celebration, two white college students sprinted onto the field and jogged alongside Aaron as he circled the base paths. As the fans cheered wildly, Aaron's mother ran onto the field as well.
   A few months later, on October 5, 1974, Aaron hit his 733rd and final home run as a Brave, which stood as the National League's home run record until it was broken by Barry Bonds in 2006. 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, he was able to extend his career by taking advantage of the designated hitter rule. On May 1, 1975, Aaron broke baseball's all-time RBI record, previously held by Ruth with 2,217. That year, he also made the last of his 24 All-Star appearances; it, like his first in 1955, was before a home crowd at Milwaukee County Stadium.
   On July 20, 1976, Hank Aaron hit his 755th and final home run at Milwaukee County Stadium off Dick Drago of the California Angels.

Post-playing career

On August 1, 1982 Hank Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and received votes on 97.8 percent of the ballots, second to only Ty Cobb, who received votes on 98.2% of the ballot in the inaugural 1936 Hall of Fame election. Aaron was then named the Braves' vice president and director of player development. This made him one of the first minorities in Major League Baseball upper-level management.
   Since December 1989, he's served as senior vice president and assistant to the Braves' president.
   On February 5, 1999, at his 65th birthday celebration, Major League Baseball announced the introduction of the Hank Aaron Award. The award was set to honor the best overall offensive performer in the American and National League. It was the first major award to be introduced in more than thirty years and it was also the first award named after a player who was still alive. 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 July 2000 and again in July 2002, Aaron threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, played at Turner Field and Miller Park, respectively.
   In June 2002, Aaron received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
   His autobiography I Had a Hammer was published in 1990. The book's title is a play on his nickname, "The Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", and the title of the folk song If I Had a Hammer. Aaron now owns Hank Aaron BMW of south Atlanta in Union City, Georgia, where he gives an autographed baseball with every car sold. Aaron also owns Mini, Jaguar, 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 McDonough in 2007.
   Statues of Aaron stand outside the front entrance of both Turner Field and Miller Park. Aaron also has a statue of him as an 18-year-old shortstop outside of Carson Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he played his first season in the Braves' minor league system.
   In April 1997, a new baseball facility for the AA Mobile Bay Bears constructed in Aaron's hometown of Mobile, Alabama was named Hank Aaron Stadium.
   In 2006, a recreational trail in Milwaukee connecting Miller Park with Lake Michigan along the Menomonee River was dedicated as the "Hank Aaron State Trail." Hank Aaron was on hand for the dedication along with Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, who at the ceremony described himself as a boyhood fan of Aaron's.

Home run record eclipsed by Barry Bonds

During the 2006 season, S.F. Giants slugger Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth and moved into 2nd place on the all-time home run list, attracting growing media coverage as he drew ever closer to Aaron's record. Playing off of the intense interest in their perceived rivalry, Aaron and Bonds made a television commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLI, shortly before the start of the 2007 baseball season, in which Aaron jokingly tried to persuade Bonds to retire before breaking the record.
As Bonds began to close in on the record during the 2007 season, Aaron let it be known that, although he recognized Bonds' achievements, he wouldn't be present when Bonds broke the record.(External Link

) There was considerable speculation that this was a snubbing of Bonds based on the widespread belief that Bonds had used performance-enhancing steroids to power his achievement. However, some observers looked back to Aaron's personal history, pointing out that he'd downplayed his own breaking of Babe Ruth's all-time record and suggesting that Aaron was simply treating Bonds in a similar fashion. In a later interview with Atlanta sportscasting personality Chris Dimino, Aaron made it clear that his reluctance to attend any celebration of a new home run record was based upon his personal conviction that baseball isn't about breaking records, but simply playing to the best of your potential.(External Link

) After Bonds hit his record-breaking 756th home run on August 7, 2007, Aaron made a surprise appearance on the JumboTron video screen at AT&T Park in San Francisco to congratulate Bonds on his accomplishment:

Career statistics

Season	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg.	SLG
1954	122	468	58	131	13	69	28	39	.280	.447
1955	153	602	105	189	27	106	49	61	.314	.540
1956	153	609	106	200	26	92	37	54	.328	.558
1957	151	615	118	198	44	132	57	58	.322	.600
1958	153	601	108	196	30	95	59	49	.326	.546
1959	154	629	116	223	39	123	51	54	.355	.636
1960	153	590	102	172	40	126	60	63	.292	.566
1961	155	603	115	197	34	120	56	64	.327	.594
1962	156	592	127	191	45	128	66	73	.323	.618
1963	161	631	121	201	44	130	78	94	.319	.586
1964	145	570	103	187	24	95	62	46	.328	.514
1965	150	570	109	181	32	89	60	81	.318	.560
1966	158	603	117	168	44	127	76	96	.279	.539
1967	155	600	113	184	39	109	63	97	.307	.573
1968	160	606	84	174	29	86	64	62	.287	.498
1969	147	547	100	164	44	97	87	47	.300	.607
1970	150	516	130	154	38	118	74	63	.298	.574
1971	139	495	95	162	47	118	71	58	.327	.669
1972	129	449	75	119	34	77	92	55	.265	.514
1973	120	392	84	118	40	96	68	51	.301	.643
1974	112	340	47	91	20	69	39	29	.268	.491
1975	137	465	45	109	12	60	70	51	.234	.355
1976	85	271	22	62	10	35	35	38	.229	.368
Career Statistics	3,298	12,364	2,174	3,771	755	2,297	1,402	1,383	.305	.555

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