A50: Atlanta Braves Throwback Thursday Special – The Right Fielders

#44 – Henry Aaron

Jul 25, 2015; Cooperstown, NY, USA; Hall of Famer Hank Aaron waves after arriving at National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Gregory J. Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

I could probably talk about Hammerin’ Hank and call it a day. We all know that Hank Aaron means a lot to not only the Braves franchise, but all of baseball.

755 home runs, 2,297 RBIs, 6,856 TBs, 3,771 hits … the list goes on, and on, and on. 21 time All-Star, 3 time Gold Glover, and MVP of the 1957 season.

Career lines of .305/.374/.555/.928 are phenomenal numbers for a season, let a lone a career. Aaron owns a career 142.6 WAR and .526 162WL%. He also leads all Braves with games played in right field with 2,174 games.

Hank Aaron stands for everything that is pure in this wonderful game. Then, to have the first major award in 30 years, when was introduced, to be named after him just goes to show how much he means to the game. The Hank Aaron Award is given to the best overall hitter in each league.

"“The Hank Aaron Award was introduced in 1999 to honor the 25th Anniversary of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth‘s all-time home run record. It was the first major award to be introduced in more than thirty years and it recognizes the best overall hitter in each league”. – baseball-almanac.com"

The only Brave to ever win the Hank Aaron Award was Andruw Jones way back in 2005; his 51 HR season.

Heck, even the address for the current home of the Braves, Turner Field, is 755 Hank Aaron Drive. The AA team known as the Mobile Bay Bears named their stadium after The Hammer as Mobile is Aaron’s hometown.

His autobiography – I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story was a New York Times Best-Seller, published in 1990, and I highly recommend it!

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