Aaron, Hank (1934—)

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Aaron, Hank (1934—)

Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron was thrust onto the national stage in 1973 and 1974 when he threatened and then broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs, one of the most hallowed records in all of American sports. In the mid-1970s, Ruth's legend was as powerful as it had been during his playing days five decades earlier and his epic home runs and colorful antics lived on in the American imagination. As Roger Maris had discovered when he broke Ruth's single season home run record in 1961, any player attempting to unseat the beloved Ruth from the record books battled, not only opposing pitchers, but also a hostile American public. When a black man strove to eclipse the Babe's record, however, his pursuit revealed a lingering intolerance and an unseemly racial animosity in American society.

Henry Louis Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama, in the depths of the Great Depression in 1934. One of eight children, Aaron and his family lived a tough existence like many other Southern black families of the time, scraping by on his father's salary as a dock worker. As a teenager, Aaron passed much of his time playing baseball in the neighborhood sandlots, and after short trials with two all-black teams Aaron attracted the attention of the Boston Braves, who purchased his contract in May of 1952.

Although Aaron faced several challenges in his introduction to organized baseball, he quickly rose through the Braves system. He was first assigned to the Braves affiliate in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and he later wrote that "the middle of Wisconsin felt like a foreign country to [this] eighteen-year-old black kid from Mobile." After a successful season in Eau Claire, however, Aaron was moved up to the Braves farm team in Jacksonville, Florida, for the 1953 season, where, along with three other African-American players, he was faced with the unenviable task of integrating the South Atlantic League. Throughout the season, Aaron endured death threats, racial epithets from players and fans, and Jim Crow accommodations, yet he rose above the distractions and was named the SALLY League's Most Valuable Player.

By 1954, only two years removed from the sandlots of Mobile, Aaron was named to the opening day roster of the, now, Milwaukee Braves as a part-time player. The next year he won a starting position in the Braves outfield and stayed there for the next 19 years in Milwaukee and then in Atlanta as the franchise moved again. From 1955 until 1973, when he stopped playing full time, Aaron averaged nearly 37 home runs per year and hit over.300 in 14 different seasons.

As the years went by conditions began to improve for African-American players: by 1959 all major league teams had been integrated; gradually hotels and restaurants began to serve both black and white players; by the mid-1960s spring training sites throughout the South had been integrated; and racial epithets directed at black ball players from both the field and the grandstand began to diminish in number. Throughout the 1960s Americans, black and white, north and south, struggled with the civil rights movement and dealt with these same issues of desegregation and integration in their every day life. By the mid-1970s, however, African-Americans had achieved full legal equality, and the turbulence and violence of the sixties seemed to be only a memory for many Americans.

It was in this atmosphere that Hank Aaron approached Babe Ruth's all-time career home run record. By the end of the 1973 season, Aaron had hit 712 career home runs, only two shy of the Babe's record. With six months to wait for the opening of the 1974 season, Aaron had time to pour over the reams of mail he had begun to receive during his pursuit of Ruth's record. "The overwhelming majority of letters were supportive," wrote Aaron in his autobiography. Fans of all stripes wrote their encouragements to the star. A young African-American fan, for instance, wrote to say that "your race is proud." Similarly, another fan wrote, "Mazel Tov from the white population, [we've] been with you all the way. We love you and are thrilled."

Hidden in these piles of letters, however, were a distinct minority of missives with a more sinister tone. For the first time since integrating the South Atlantic League in 1953, Aaron was confronted with a steady stream of degrading words and racial epithets. "Listen Black Boy," one person wrote, "We don't want no nigger Babe Ruth." Many "fans" of the game just could not accept an African-American as the new home run champion. "I hope you don't break the Babe's record," one letter read. "How do I tell my kids that a nigger did it?" Even more disturbingly, Aaron received thousands of letters which threatened the lives of both himself and his family. In response, the Atlanta slugger received constant protection from the police and the FBI throughout his record chase.

As sportswriters began to write about the virulent hate mail that Aaron was receiving, his supporters redoubled their efforts to let him know how they felt. One young fan spoke eloquently for many Americans when he wrote, "Dear Mr. Aaron, I am twelve years old, and I wanted to tell you that I have read many articles about the prejudice against you. I really think it is bad. I don't care what color you are."

Hank Aaron would eventually break Babe Ruth's all-time record early in the 1974 season, and he would finish his career with a new record of 755 home runs. In 1982 he received the game's highest honor when he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Aaron's lifetime struggle against racism and discrimination served as an example for many Americans, both white and black, and he continued his public struggle against inequality after retiring from baseball.

Hank Aaron's relentless pursuit of the all-time home run record in 1973 and 1974 forced America to realize that the civil rights movement of the 1960s had not miraculously solved the longstanding problem of racial animosity in the United States. The prejudice and racism that had been pushed underground by the successes of the 1960s were starkly revealed once again when a black man attempted to surpass the record of a white American icon.

—Gregory Bond