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Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron, born 1934
"Hammering" Hank Aaron is one of the greatest baseball players in major league history. He was scouted at sixteen and played in the Negro leagues before signing with the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves, for whom he debuted in 1954. A perennial All-Star and the league MVP in 1957, Aaron was remarkably consistent: in a twenty-three-year major-league career he never hit more than fifty homers in a season but always ranked near the top of the hitting statistics. A compact six-footer, Aaron generated tremendous bat speed with his extraordinary reflexes. In 1974 he broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs; Aaron's chase of Ruth's record was widely celebrated as a sign of racial progress in the New South. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982, Aaron has had an estimable post-baseball career doing charitable and civic work in Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Ross Rossin, 2010 |