Celebrating a Slugger's Birthday

Happy (belated) birthday to one of the purest sluggers ever to walk the earth: Hank Aaron. Aaron, 80 years old (@HenryLouisAaron on Twitter [good for him for being on Twitter]), is obviously known for his massive towering home runs, but here are some other things that make his career shine:

•       Career leader in RBI’s: with 2,297 steaks he likely will stay comfortably atop the leaderboard. Only two other players have eclipsed two grand (Babe Ruth, Cap Anson), and the closest actives are A-Rod with 1,969, but given his off-field shenanigans, it will be significantly harder to reach, ManRam with 1,831, and then all the way down to 34-year old Pujols with 1,498.
• ·      Career leader in total bases: an underrated stat, if you ask me. Aaron has 6,856 total bases. Pick up your jaws, folks, it gets better: he averaged 337 through 22 years of playing, and he leads the next player (Stan Musial) by 700 bases, almost two seasons worth. He also hit 400 in a year; we haven’t seen that since Derrek Lee’s 2005 season. Last year, Chris Davis, even with his breakout 53 home run season, got to 370.
• ·      Career .305 hitter: Typically, it’s hard for pure sluggers to be great average hitters as well, by the likes of Adam Dunn (440 home runs, .238 hitter) or Ryan Howard (311 home runs, .271 hitter). He struck out so rarely, 1,383 in 23 seasons to be exact (average of 68 K’s per season), and his average floated all the way up to .355 in 1959.
• ·      25 All-Star Game selections: need I say more?
• ·      Class: Hank Aaron is just a class act. When I worked at the Hall of Fame last summer, I heard nothing but amazing things about him; he remembers people’s names, he’s ready to donate something from his collection (hence the Hank Aaron room on the 3^rd floor), and will go head over heels for the Hall (I’m sure in his shape he could literally do that). He comes back for Induction every year and is always the fan favorite.

Many happy returns to you, Mr. Aaron. Thank you so much for you’ve done for the game, before, during, and after your career.

Other fun facts about Hank:

• ·      He never hit more than 47 home runs in a season.
• ·      He and his brother Tommie, also a Brave for smatterings 1962-1971, hold the record for most home runs between siblings at the Major League level.
• ·      He made the 1973 All-Star Team as a first basemen.

If you want chills, listen to one of these. Compilation of the three calls when Aaron hit his record breaking 715^th home run (can you ever go wrong with Vin Scully?).

https://archive.org/details/HankAaron-715thHomeRun-ThreeDifferentCalls