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Hank Aaron Biography by Baseball Almanac

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Although Aaron ranked among baseball's superstars, he received less publicity than other players. In part this was due to Aaron's quiet personality and the continuing prejudice against African American players in the majors. Moreover, playing with the Milwaukee Braves (who became the Atlanta Braves in 1966) denied Aaron the publicity received by major league players in cities like New York or Los Angeles. During Aaron's long career the Braves only won two National League pennants and one divisional title. The Braves won the World Series in 1957, the year Aaron's 44 homers helped him win his only Most Valuable Player award. The following year Milwaukee repeated as National League champions but lost the World Series. Hank Aaron: Biography from Answers.com
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Born in a poor black section of Mobile called "Down The Bay," Aaron and his family moved to the middle class Toulminville neighborhood when he was a young boy. When he got to high school, Aaron played shortstop and third base on his school's team. Aaron, perhaps sensing he had a bigger future ahead of him, quit school in 1951 to play in the Negro Leagues for the Indianapolis Clowns. Hank Aaron Biography - life, family, children, name, story, history, school, old, information, born, contract, house
Hank Aaron Biography - life, family, children, name, story, history, school, old, information, born, contract, house

By this time Hank was posting, season after season, the consistent great numbers that were to become his trademark. Another batting title was won in 1959 (.355), and he also led the league in slugging (.636) and had his only lifetime three home run game versus the Giants. As his career moved into the sixties he again just missed winning the Triple Crown in 1963 with league leading totals in HR (44) and RBI (130), while settling for third in batting average (.319). That year he also joined baseball's exclusive 30/30 club (30 home runs, 30 stolen bases) by stealing 31 bases. Keeping himself in peak physical condition, a typical Aaron season for 19 years was to average 33 HR, drive in and score 100 runs or more, and hit .300. Hank often attributed his remarkable consistency to something Jackie Robinson had said to him early in his career. "He said, baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week," said Aaron speaking of Robinson. While many times being overlooked by fans and media when compared to other flashy stars in the 1960's, such as Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, Aaron was often given his due praise from his competitors. Once after Dodger Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax had struck out young Brave's hitting star Rico Carty three times in one particular game, the shook up youngster confronted Koufax. "You mad at me, Koufax?" asked Carty. Sandy replied "Young man, I don't even know you, but as long as you're hitting in front of Henry Aaron, you're going to have a tough time with me." In 1966 the Braves moved to Atlanta and Hank didn't disappoint his new fans as he clubbed 44 HR and drove in 127 runs. 1969 saw baseball introduce divisional play and Aaron and the Braves were the first winners of the National League's Western Division. Hank put up his usual consistent great numbers for the season and, despite his team being swept by the eventual World Champion Mets, he homered in all three games of the first National League Championship Series, and batted .357 with seven RBI against the young, hard throwing New York pitching staff.

Height: 6â²0â³; Weight: 180; Bats: right; Throws: right First game: April 13, 1954; Final game: October 3, 1976 Team(s): Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1954â1974); Milwaukee Brewers (1975â1976) MVP: National League MVP in 1957; 5.45 career shares Hall of Fame: inducted in 1982 162-game avg.: .305 batting, .374 on-base, .555 slugging, 37 home runs, 337 total bases, 107 runs scored, 113 runs batted in, 185 hits, 73 extra-base hits, 69 BB, 68 K, 12 SB Career P/E: 1.140; Postseason P/E: 1.297 The Good. With 755 career home runs to his name, Henry Aaron reigned as baseball's king of the long ball until 2007. Aaron also ranks number one in RBI (2,297), extra-base hits (1,477), and total bases (6,856), as well as third in hits (3,771) and fourth in runs scored (2,174). He compiled those one-of-a-kind totals over 23 seasons, during which time Aaron also made 21 consecutive All-Star teams ('55â'75) and earned MVP votes in 19 straight seasons ('55â'73). Year after year, he was a strong run producer with excellent batting averages. From 1955 through 1970, he scored at least 100 runs each year except one, and he knocked in more than 105 runs 11 times. Aaron retired as a .305 lifetime hitter, batting as high as .355 in 1959. In '57 Aaron won the National League MVP. He hit 44 homers, one of eight times he'd hit 40 or more in a season, and knocked in 132 runs, the highest total ever in his career. With a P/E Average of 1.241, Hank led his Milwaukee Braves into the World Series against the Yankees. Batting .393 with three homers and seven RBI, Aaron led the Braves to the championship in seven games. The Yanks got their revenge in '58, but Aaron was again a solid hitter, with a .333 average and a .419 on-base mark in defeat. When the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves in 1969 to capture the pennant, it was in spite of Aaron's heroics to derail New York. The righty slugger hit .357 with three homers and seven RBI in only 14 plate appearances. Henry Aaron was a complete ballplayer. He hit for high averages, stole bases, and played tremendous defense. Playing in Milwaukee, he won three consecutive Gold Gloves from 1958 to 1960, with more than twice as many assists as errors each season. On the bases, Aaron was a smart runner with good speed. In '63 Hank stole 31 bases and was caught only five times. For his career, Aaron was successful 76 percent of the time, finishing with 240 stolen bases. The Bad. Probably the biggest knock against Aaron's career is that he won only one MVP in almost a quarter of a century. In fact, Aaron never finished as runner-up in the league balloting, although he did finish third six times. His career total of 5.45 MVP shares is outstanding but would look even more impressive had he been able to win another individual honor. Aaron's career P/E score doesn't rank in the all-time top 25. The Verdict. While he didn't homer at the rate of Ruth or win as many MVPs as Mantle, Hank Aaron was nevertheless a tremendous ballplayer. A case for him as the greatest right fielder ever will be made in this chapter's top-three analysis. Aaron's an easy choice for C5. See also the main entry on Right Field.

After the 1974 season Aaron left the Braves and went to play for the Milwaukee Brewers until his retirement in 1976. At the time of his retirement as a player, the forty-two-year-old veteran had raised his all-time homer output to 755. When he left the Brewers he became a vice president and director of player development for the Braves, where he scouted new team prospects and oversaw the coaching of minor leaguers. He later went on to become a senior vice president for the Braves. Overall, his efforts contributed toward making the Braves one of the strongest teams in the National League. In 1982 Aaron was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York, and in 1997 Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile was dedicated to him.
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Quotes: "I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it." "It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course." "I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat."

Aaron â¢ Ashburn â¢ Averill â¢ Bell â¢ Brock â¢ Brown â¢ Burkett â¢ Carey â¢ Charleston â¢ Clarke â¢ Clemente â¢ Cobb â¢ Combs â¢ Crawford â¢ Cuyler â¢ Dawson â¢ Delahanty â¢ DiMaggio â¢ Doby â¢ Duffy â¢ Flick â¢ Goslin â¢ Gwynn â¢ Hafey â¢ Hamilton â¢ Heilmann â¢ Henderson â¢ Hill â¢ Hooper â¢ Irvin â¢ Jackson â¢ Kaline â¢ Keeler â¢ Kelley â¢ Kelly â¢ Kiner â¢ Klein â¢ Mantle â¢ Manush â¢ Mays â¢ McCarthy â¢ Medwick â¢ Musial â¢ O'Rourke â¢ Ott â¢ Puckett â¢ J. Rice â¢ S. Rice â¢ Robinson â¢ Roush â¢ Ruth â¢ Simmons â¢ Slaughter â¢ Snider â¢ Speaker â¢ Stargell â¢ Stearnes â¢ Thompson â¢ Torriente â¢ L. Waner â¢ P. Waner â¢ Wheat â¢ B. Williams â¢ T. Williams â¢ Wilson â¢ Winfield â¢ Yastrzemski â¢ Youngs

[dubious – discuss] of the season came on August 6. This was Hank Aaron Day in Wisconsin and the Braves played the Milwaukee Brewers in an exhibition game. The guests in attendance included Aaron's first manager with the Braves, Charlie 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-then manager of the Brewers.
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During the 2006 season, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth and moved into second place on the all-time home run list, attracting growing media coverage as he drew closer to Aaron's record. Playing off 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.
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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; at that time, however, the National League prohibited use of the DH even in scrimmages. Because National League president Chub Feeney could not be contacted, it was left to the umpire, Bruce Froemming to make the decision. Froemming ignored the rule, allowing Aaron to be the DH for the Braves. Later on, National League officials ignored the infraction.
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Aaron • Ashburn • Averill • Bell • Brock • Brown • Burkett • Carey • Charleston • Clarke • Clemente • Cobb • Combs • Crawford • Cuyler • Dawson • Delahanty • DiMaggio • Doby • Duffy • Flick • Goslin • Gwynn • Hafey • Hamilton • Heilmann • Henderson • Hill • Hooper • Irvin • Jackson • Kaline • Keeler • Kelley • Kelly • Kiner • Klein • Mantle • Manush • Mays • McCarthy • Medwick • Musial • O'Rourke • Ott • Puckett • J. Rice • S. Rice • Robinson • Roush • Ruth • Simmons • Slaughter • Snider • Speaker • Stargell • Stearnes • Thompson • Torriente • L. Waner • P. Waner • Wheat • B. Williams • T. Williams • Wilson • Winfield • Yastrzemski • Youngs
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Among the 930,000 pieces of mail Aaron received in 1973 were numerous hate letters. One, printed in Sports Illustrated, read: "Dear Hank Aaron, I got orders to do a bad job on you if and when you get 10 from B. Ruth record. A guy in Atlanta and a few in Miami Fla don't seem to care if they have to take care of your family too." Many others contained similar threats. A few threatened Aaron's college-age daughter. Under siege, Aaron hired a personal bodyguard. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated many of the threats and uncovered still other plots to harm the ballplayer.
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"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."
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As if he didn't have enough distractions in his pursuit of Ruth's mark, Aaron faced another controversy as the Braves announced at the start of the 1974 season that Hank would not play in any of the games of the their opening series against the Reds in Cincinnati in hopes of Aaron tying and breaking the record in Atlanta the following week. Then MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn intervened and ordered the Braves, "in the best interests of baseball", to play Aaron in at least two of the three games versus the Reds. So Hank was in the lineup for the opener against the Reds on April 4. 1974 and rose to the occasion in the first inning, lining a Jack Billingham pitch over the left field fence to join the Babe at 714. Aaron played one of the other two games in Cincinnati and did not homer, so the stage was set for the record breaker to be hit at home. On Monday night, April 8, 1974, against the Dodgers before a National TV audience, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Hank stroked a 1-0 Al Downing pitch over the left field fence for his 715th career homer and baseball history was made.
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As the 1974 season began, Aaron's pursuit of the record caused a small controversy. The Braves opened the season on the road in Cincinnati with a three-game series against the Cincinnati 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 had 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 did not hit another home run in the series.
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Aaron's full schedule includes duties for the Braves, where he is now a senior vice president, and appearances on the behalf of national charities. He rarely takes part in the lucrative autograph-signing business that provides income for other retired baseball superstars, preferring to spend his spare time at his well-guarded estate near Atlanta with his wife, children, and grandchildren. "I wonder if I really need baseball anymore ... and if it really needs me," Aaron concluded in his autobiography, I Had a Hammer. "But whenever I wonder about it, I usually come to the conclusion that I do, and it does--at least for the time being. Baseball needs me because it needs somebody to stir the pot, and I need it because it's my life. It's the means I have to make a little difference in the world."
Professional baseball may never see another slugger as great as Hank Aaron. Aaron's career record of 755 home runs in 23 years is by far the best in the history of the game. He also holds top honors for runs batted in and total bases and has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1982. Aaron was a highly regarded but relatively unknown star of the Atlanta Braves (prior to 1966, the Milwaukee Braves) for nearly two decades before he became an American hero in 1973 and 1974. It was during those seasons that he chased, and finally surpassed, Babe Ruth's famed career home run record. When Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, amidst a near-melee in the Braves' home ballpark, he achieved a "superhuman accomplishment, as mysterious and remote as Stonehenge, and certain to stand forever," to quote Tom Buckley in the New York Times Magazine. Remarkably, that milestone came not at the end, but rather in the middle of an extraordinary baseball career.
American History (Bryan Ethier, June 1999 Issue) magazine once did an interview with Hank Aaron and asked, "You've sometimes alluded to how difficult the 1973 season was for you." Aaron cooly replied, "The only thing I can say is that I had a rough time with it. I don't talk about it much. It still hurts a little bit inside, because I think it has chipped away at a part of my life that I will never have again. I didn't enjoy myself. It was hard for me to enjoy something that I think I worked very hard for. God had given me the ability to play baseball, and people in this country kind of chipped away at me. So, it was tough. And all of those things happened simply because I was a black person."
Aaron began his major league career in 1954 (he was the last Negro League player to play in the major leagues) when a spring training injury to Bobby Thomson opened up a spot on the Braves roster. After going 0-5 in his debut on April 13, he settled in and connected for his first career home run off Vic Raschi ten days later. He finished the season with a respectable .280 average. In 1955 he blossomed into one of the game's best players batting .314 with 27 home runs and 106 runs batted in. He won his first of two National League batting titles in 1956 with a .328 mark and reached the 200 hit plateau for the first time. It all came together for Aaron and the Braves in 1957 as Milwaukee won the NL pennant (with Aaron homering to clinch it.) Hank claimed the Leagues MVP Award and just missing out on winning the Triple Crown, leading in HR (44) and RBI (132), while finishing third in batting with a .322 average. Then it was on to the World Series, Aaron's first appearance on the national scene, and the now star player didn't disappoint. Playing against a superstar he was to be compared with in future years, Mickey Mantle, Hank responded with a .393 average, three home runs and seven RBI as the Braves upset the mighty Yankees in seven games to claim baseball's world championship. 1958 saw the Braves once again win the pennant, but despite another fine World Series performance by Aaron (he batted .333), Milwaukee fell to the Yankees in a seventh and deciding game.
As if he didn't have enough distractions in his pursuit of Ruth's mark, Aaron faced another controversy as the Braves announced at the start of the 1974 season that Hank would not play in any of the games of the their opening series against the Reds in Cincinnati in hopes of Aaron tying and breaking the record in Atlanta the following week. Then MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn intervened and ordered the Braves, "in the best interests of baseball", to play Aaron in at least two of the three games versus the Reds. So Hank was in the lineup for the opener against the Reds on April 4. 1974 and rose to the occasion in the first inning, lining a Jack Billingham pitch over the left field fence to join the Babe at 714. Aaron played one of the other two games in Cincinnati and did not homer, so the stage was set for the record breaker to be hit at home. On Monday night, April 8, 1974, against the Dodgers before a National TV audience, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Hank stroked a 1-0 Al Downing pitch over the left field fence for his 715th career homer and baseball history was made.
Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934), nicknamed "Hammer," "Hammerin' Hank," and "Bad Henry," is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned the years 1954 through 1976. Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players".
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, which established a National League record for most seasons with 40 or more home runs (seven). At age 37, he hit a career-high 47 home runs during the season (along with a career-high .669 slugging percentage) and finished third in MVP voting for the sixth time.