Hank Aaron

Speaker Bio

The third of eight children, Aaron was the son of a river bicker for a shipbuilding company in Mobile, Alabama. Aaron didn't even play high school baseball, because his school didn't have a team. He was a star football player, though, and began playing semipro baseball for the Mobile Black Bears during his junior year. The Bears played a game against the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro League team on a barnstorming tour, and the visitors were impressed by the 17-year-old Aaron. The next year, the Clowns signed him for $200 a month. Aaron had gone to Dodgers tryout camp first, but when someone said he was too small to play, he left before even taking the field.

He departed Mobile to join the Clowns in 1952. To show how raw Aaron was when he started his pro-career, he actually batted cross-handed, with the left hand above the right on the handle. Braves scout Dewey Griggs convinced him to change, in the middle of a game, no-less, and Aaron went on to lead the Negro American League with a .467 average until he signed with Boston. Aaron was playing shortstop then, and both the Giants and the Braves wanted him. Griggs won the battle, signing him for $350 a month. The Braves paid the Clowns $10,000 for Aaron's contract, and Clowns owner Syd Pollack gave Aaron a suitcase for his first plane trip from Charlotte, North Carolina to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, home of the Braves' Class C team.

Just 18 years old and far from home in a white mans world, a white man's profession, Aaron played as if he were still in the Mobile sandlots. Two weeks after his arrival, he was named to the Northern League All-Star team, and at the end of the year he was selected the league's Rookie of the Year for batting .336 with nine home runs and 61 RBI's in 87 games. The Braves still felt Aaron wasn't ready for the majors despite two highly productive seasons in the minors. During the off-season, they converted him to an outfielder in the Puerto Rican Winter League. And when the Braves obtained outfielder Bobby Thompson in a trade with the Giants, it appeared the club was determined to keep Aaron in the minors for another season. During spring training, though, Thompson broke his ankle sliding into second. Thus, on March 14, 1954, Aaron became Milwaukee's starting left fielder, and he never looked back.

Aaron's career has many highlights, and after two seasons with the Brewers, Aaron retired with 755 home runs and more major league batting records than anyone else in history. Thus, the title "all-time home run king" came to describe Aaron. His career records include most RBI's (2,297), total bases (6,586), and long hits (1,477). He's also second at lifetime at bats and runs, third in games and hits, ninth in doubles, 11th in singles and tied for 14th in years of service.

In 1989, Aaron was appointed a senior vice president and assistant to Braves president Stan Kasten. He's also a vice president and board member of Turner Broadcasting and is active with various community organizations.

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