Henry Aaron
Forty-six years ago, on April 8th, 1974, Henry
Louis Aaron hit his 715th Major League home run in his home stadium
in Atlanta, officially beating the long-standing record set years before by
Babe Ruth. He finished the 1973 season
one run shy of tying the record, actually tied the record on the road in the
team’s first series of the season against the Cincinnati Reds, then hit number
715 at home against LA Dodgers pitcher Al Downing in the fourth inning. ‘Hank’ went on to retire in 1975 with a total
of 755 home runs, a record that stood until Barry Bonds beat it in 2007.
Henry Aaron was born in 1934 to a boilermaker’s helper in
a ship-building company, one of six children.
He described his childhood as strict – with childhood chores and Sunday attendance
at the local Baptist church as an absolute must. His father worked hard and didn’t often have time
to spend with his family, but when he did, he tried to make certain it was
meaningful.
As a young teenager, already a noted baseball talent,
Henry skipped school one day to go to a pool hall where he knew he could listen
to a baseball game featuring his hero, Jackie Robinson. For some reason, his father had been let off work
early and happened to walk by the establishment and saw him. Saying nothing, dad beckoned him with his
finger and they walked home together.
Instead of punishing him, he spent the afternoon speaking with Henry. Henry voiced his desire to drop out of school
and take up baseball. He remembers his father
saying, “Son, I quit school because I had to…you don’t have to. I put fifty cents on that dresser every
morning for you to take to school to buy your lunch and whatever else you
need. I only take twenty-five cents to
work with me. It’s worth more to me that
you get an education that it is for me to eat.
So, let’s hear no more about dropping out of school.”
At age 17, in 1951, Henry was offered $200 a month to
play for an all-black team called the Indianapolis Clowns. He had to promise his parents that he would continue
his education later (a promise he kept) before they consented. He was placed on a bus with two dollars, two
sandwiches, and two extra pairs of pants to Charlotte, NC, where his new team
was conducting spring training. He
roomed with a tall, lanky pitcher named Jenkins who shared Henry’s faith and served
as an example and mentor for the younger Henry.
He noticed in Jenkins the same kind of self-sacrifice he had seen in his
father, observing the lack of waste and watching his roommate put one of the two
dollars he got for his daily food allowance and putting it into an envelope to
mail to his wife.
Henry followed closely the career of his hero, Jackie
Robinson. It fascinated him that Jackie
dealt with so much and kept his cool during it all. Dealing with overt racism throughout his career,
he leaned on Robinson’s example. Reading
about him, Henry learned the secret of Jackie’s self-control: prayer. Henry wrote about him, “I learned that he
prayed a lot for help, and he also had a sense of destiny about what he was
doing, so much so that he felt God’s presence with him. He learned to put aside his pride and quick
temper for the bigger thing he was doing.”
From Jackie Robinson, Henry learned the quiet strength of humility. Henry remarked once, “The best way to lick
this racial thing is to play well. Play
so well that the fans forget your color.”
As a result of his play with the Indianapolis Clowns,
Henry received two offers to play for Major League teams, the New York Giants
and the Milwaukee Braves. The Braves
offered fifty dollars a month more, and he later remarked that fifty dollars
was the only thing that kept him from being teammates with Willie Mays.
Henry faced much overt racism during his career. He remembered eating at a restaurant in
Washington DC while playing with the Indianapolis Clowns and hearing the staff literally
breaking the plates in the back rather than reuse them. While on the Braves’ farm team, he was one of
three black players. The white players
stayed in hotels when they traveled, the three black players had to find their
own lodging, often staying in private homes.
He faced heckling and hate mail. While
still in the minor leagues, one sports writer noted, “Aaron led the league in
everything but hotel accommodations.”
At the end of the 1973 season, when he was one home run
shy of tying Babe Ruth’s record, Aaron received a plaque from the US Postal
Service for receiving more mail than any person not holding public office in
the country – over 930,000 pieces of mail that year. The Braves had to hire a secretary to sort
the fan mail, which was forwarded to Aaron, from the hate mail and death
threats, which were forwarded to the FBI.
Aaron was confident he would beat the record the following season, but
was privately worried he might not live to get there. The editor of the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution quietly had an obituary drafted in the event it was
needed.
After his baseball career, including his last two years playing
for the Milwaukee Brewers, Henry returned to Atlanta to accept a senior
management position with the Braves. At
age 86 today, he continues to serve in that capacity in a limited sense, but
devotes much more time to charitable work, having established a foundation to provide
scholarships and grants to historically black colleges and universities. One of many examples is called the “4 for 4 Scholarship
Program”, which provides $4,000 a year for four years for twelve students. Why those numbers? Twelve times in his career, Henry went
4-for-4 (four hits in four at-bats) in a single game.
Henry Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
in 1982, the first year of eligibility. He
received a higher percentage of votes for inclusion than any other person, with
the exception of Ty Cobb. His number,
44, was retired by the Atlanta Braves in 1977 and also by the Brewers. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 2002 by President George W. Bush.
He has been the recipient of numerous other accolades, both for his achievements
in baseball and for his philanthropic work.
Henry Aaron’s accomplishments and noted humility, as well
as his remarkable dedication to service and sacrifice, were first modeled by
his father, then his baseball roommate and mentor, Jenkins, and then by his
hero, Jackie Robinson. In reflecting on his
career, he remarked, “I need to depend on Someone who is bigger, stronger and
wiser than I am. I don’t do it on my own
strength. He gave me a good body and
some talent and the freedom to develop it.
He helps me when things go wrong.
He forgives me when I fall on my face.
He lights the way.”
