Hank Aaron is born
On this day in 1934 Henry Louis Aaron Jr.the baseball slugger who broke Babe Ruths legendary record of 714 homers is born in Mobile Alabama.Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 in the Negro League and joined the Milwaukee Braves of the major league in 1954 eight years after Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball.Aaron was the last Negro League player to compete in the majors.
He quickly established himself as an important player for the Braves and won the National League batting title in 1956.The following season he took home the leagues MVP award and helped the Braves beat Mickey Mantle and the heavily favored New York Yankees in the World Series.In 1959 Aaron won his second league batting title.Season after season Aaron turned in strong batting performances.
Hammerin Hank hit .300 or higher for 14 seasons and slugged out at least 40 homers in eight separate seasons.In May 1970 he became the first player in baseball to record 500 homers and 3000 hits.Aaron is best known however for breaking Babe Ruths record of 714 career home runs which he established in 1935.
On April 8 1974 in front of a crowd of over 50000 fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium Aaron hit his 715th career home run in the fourth inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.Sadly in the months leading up to the new record Aaron received piles of racist hate mail and death threats from those unhappy about seeing the Babes record broken especially by a black man.Aaron who played for the Milwaukee Braves from 1954 to 1965 and the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 1974 spent the final two seasons of his 23 years in the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers.When he retired in 1976 he left the game with 755 career home runs a record that stood until August 7 2007 when it was broken by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants.
Aaron still holds the records for most career runs batted in (2297) most career total bases (6856) and most career extra base hits (1477).After retiring as a player Aaron became one of baseballs first black executives with the Atlanta Braves.He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.
