Ranked among the greatest baseball players in the world, Hank Aaron is best known for holding the American Major League Baseball (MLB) record for career home runs and offensive records for decades!
Henry Louis Aaron, or Hank Aaron for brevity, is a renowned American Major League Baseball (MLB) player. He was born on February 5, 1934, and was raised in Mobile, Alabama. He first debuted in MLB for the Milwaukee Braves on April 13, 1954. Before that, he gained a brief experience playing in the Negro American League. Eventually, he last appeared for the Milwaukee Brewers on October 3, 1976. Throughout his baseball career, Aaron has demonstrated amazing records!
So, if you are interested to know what makes him one of a kind, let’s check out the amazing facts about Hank Aaron.
Hank Aaron Fun Facts
1. Hank Aaron played in 25 All-Star Game
For 2 decades, from 1955 to 1975, Aaron was American League (AL) Major League Baseball All-Star Game player for 25 seasons! Also referred to as the “Midsummer Classic”, MLB All-Star Game is a yearly competition between the All-Stars players from the American League and National League.
True to his title as the “Hammerin’ Hank”, Aaron currently has the records for the most seasons as an All-Star player. Further, he is among the All-Star players with the most All-Star Games played, together with Willie Mays and Stan Musial.
2. Aaron received the United States’ highest civilian honor.
In June 2002, Hank Aaron was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President George W. Bush, a fun fact about Hank Aaron. This Medal recognizes the great contribution of civilians to the nation’s interest, world peace, among other essential endeavors. Further, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is considered the United States’ highest civilian award.
Apparently, Aaron was recognized to be among the most accomplished players in baseball history. With his 23-year career as a professional baseball player, he holds the record of 755 for home runs! Indeed, Aaron exhibited the passion and success worthy of such honor.
3. Aaron is known for many nicknames
Due to his popularity in the baseball community, Aaron has earned several nicknames! Interestingly, he is known to be the “Hammer”, the “Hammerin’ Hank” or the “Bad Henry”,
4. Aaron is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame
1982, Hank Aaron was chosen to take part in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. An interesting fact about Hank Aaron is that he almost received a unanimous decision of 97.8 percent of votes!
Basically, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is an American history museum. Located in Cooperstown, New York, this museum serves as the main site for the study of the baseball history of the United States.
The images and memorabilia of Hank Aaron are found in the Hall of Fame’s third floor, tagged as “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream”.
5. Aaron also received three Gold Glove awards
In 1958, despite losing to a seven-game World Series to the Yankees, Aaron was able to rank 3rd in the Most Valuable Player race. This led him to receive his first Glove Awards!
Rawlings Gold Glove Award, or more commonly known as the Gold Glove, is an annual award given to Major League Baseball (MLB) players who had demonstrated excellent fielding performances.
The 1958 match was followed by Aaron’s best seasons as a major basketball league player. Eventually, he was further awarded two more Gold Glove Awards in the next two succeeding years – 1959 and 1960 respectively.
6. Aaron was an NL batting champion twice!
In 1955, Aaron had successfully .314 with 27 home runs and 106 runs batted in (RBI)! This earned him his first NL All-Star roster award. A year later in 1956, Aaron did it again by his successfully hit of .328! This led him to grab his second NL batting award!
Further, these successes enable Aaron to be named as the Sporting News NL Player of the Year.
7. Aaron is a philanthropist
In 1994, Hank Aaron and his wife Billye Suber Williams founded Chasing the Dream Foundation. This particularly aimed to provide scholarship opportunities to the underprivileged youth in the United States.
Dream Foundation started with 755 scholarship awards. However, such a number has increased since then. Recently, the spouses Aarons also donated about $USD 3 million to the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
8. Aaron set out numerous records
Indeed, Hammerin’ Hank is among the greatest players in history. As a badge of excellence, he has captured the following records: 2,297 in runs batted in, 1,477 in extra-base hits, 6,856 in total bases, and 25 All-star appearances, an interesting fact about Hank Aaron.
Further, Aaron ranks 2nd in all-time in home runs, 3rd in hits, 3rd in games played, and 4th in runs scored. With his over 2 decades of a professional baseball career, he was able to bring home to two batting titles, three Gold Gloves, and the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (RBI).
Throughout his career, Hank definitely did not stop swinging.
9. Aaron passed his home runs records to Bonds
For over three decades, Hank Aaron held the Major League record with his career home runs totaling to 755! No wonder why he was referred to as legendary. However, in 2007, Barry Bond exceeded him when he had his 756th dinger at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.
Nonetheless, a man of humility, Aaron congratulated Bond with this achievement.
10. Aaron suffered from racism
Apparently, when Hank Aaron was about to reach his 714th home run, racial tensions arose!
During such time, numerous letters were received in the Braves offices – as much as 3,000 letters a day for Aaron. Although some were congratulating him for his impending record, many were hate letters. Due to racism, many could not accept that a black man is about to break baseball’s revered record. Thus, due to his race, Aaron ate death threats for breakfast!
Conclusion
With hard work and passion, Hank Aaron rose from the Negro Leagues up to becoming a Major League Baseball legend.
Even years after his retirement, Aaron is still considered as one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
I hope that this article on Hank Aaron facts was helpful. If you are interested, visit the Historical People Page!