A Humble Man Who Let His Bat Do the Talking

“Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life.” – Hank Aaron

“Hammer’ Hank” Aaron was born on February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama and made his professional baseball debut while still a junior in high school with the Prichard Athletics, an independent Negro League team. Aaron then played for another independent Negro League team, the Mobile Black Bears, who paid him $3 per game (the equivalent of $40 today).

On November 20, 1951, Hank signed a contract with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League, for whom he played shortstop for three months before signing with the Boston Braves. The New York Giants had also offered him a contract, but Hank chose the Braves for monetary reasons.

“I had the Giants' contract in my hand,” Aaron said later. “But the Braves offered fifty dollars a month more. That's the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates – fifty dollars.”

During his two years in the minor leagues, Hank was named Rookie of the Year with the Eau Claire Bears in the Class-C Northern League and MVP with the Jacksonville Braves in the Class-A Southern League. While in the minors, Aaron was moved from the infield to the outfield and learned to hit to all fields instead of simply pulling the ball. He also stopped batting cross-handed and earned the nickname “pork chop” because, according to Hank, “it was the only thing I knew to order off the menu.” A teammate later said, "the man ate pork chops three meals a day, two for breakfast."

Despite his minor league success, Hank experienced many instances of racism that continued throughout his Major League career. In fact, as he closed in on Babe Ruth’s hallowed home run record, Aaron received multiple death threats and thousands of pieces of hate mail. Undaunted, Hank tied Ruth’s record on April 4, 1974, and broke it four days later with home run #715 off Dodgers pitcher Al Downing.

After 21 highly productive years with the Braves (12 in Milwaukee and 9 in Atlanta), Hank returned to Milwaukee for his final two seasons as a DH for the Milwaukee Brewers. He ended his career with a then-record 755 home runs and a still-record 2,297 RBIs with 6,856 total bases. And yet, as Hank pointed out in today’s quote, he didn’t always succeed at the plate. His lifetime batting average of .305 means that for every 10 at bats, he made seven outs. He also struck out 1,383 times.

A humble man who let his bat do the talking for him, Aaron was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 on the first ballot with 97.8% of the vote.

“…humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 18:12 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President