On this day in 1934, Henry Louis Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama, and went on to become one of the most productive hitters in Major League Baseball history.
Nicknamed “Hammer” and “Hammerin’ Hank,” Aaron played 23 big league seasons from 1954 to 1976, spending 21 of them with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, then finishing with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Aaron grew up in a poor family and learned the game with whatever he could find, practicing by hitting bottle caps with sticks and making bats and balls from scrap materials. He attended Mobile schools that did not offer organized baseball, so he played for semipro and independent teams. Before reaching the majors, he spent time in the Negro American League, then moved through the Braves’ farm system, where he quickly proved he could hit for both average and power.
He debuted in 1954 and became an immediate fixture in the Braves lineup. Over the next two decades, Aaron delivered elite production year after year. He hit 24 or more home runs every season from 1955 through 1973, and he is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times. He won the 1957 National League MVP Award and helped Milwaukee win the World Series that year. He was a three-time Gold Glove winner, and he earned All-Star recognition across 21 seasons, including a record 25 All-Star selections.
Aaron’s career is often summarized by the chase that ended on April 8, 1974, when he hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth as the all-time leader. That pursuit came with a heavy cost. Aaron and his family received extensive racist threats, and the hostility only intensified as he closed in on Ruth’s record. He broke it anyway, in front of a packed crowd in Atlanta, then continued to add to his total.
When he retired, Aaron held most of the sport’s key career power-hitting records. He finished with 755 home runs, a mark that stood as the MLB record for 33 years, until Barry Bonds passed it in 2007. He also retired as the career leader in RBIs with 2,297, extra-base hits with 1,477, and total bases with 6,856. His 3,771 hits rank third all time, and his 2,174 runs scored rank fifth. One simple measure of his consistency is that he still topped 3,000 hits even if you remove every home run.
Aaron was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and after his playing career he held front office roles with the Braves. MLB created the Hank Aaron Award in 1999, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
Aaron died January 22, 2021, at 86, of natural causes at his home in Atlanta.
