If Shohei Ohtani ever decides to try carrying the $700 million he’ll earn over the next 10 years in a cardboard suitcase, he can say he has two things in common with Braves legend Hank Aaron.
Ohtani, of the Los Angeles Dodgers is now baseball’s highest-paid player. More than 50 years ago, it was Aaron’s paycheck that made headlines.
Upon inking a new contract with the Atlanta Braves on Feb. 29, 1972 for $200,000 annually over three years, Aaron became the man with the richest deal in Major League Baseball history. It was a long journey for a guy whose first signing with the team brought him the aforementioned suitcase.
“Henry Aaron could have used that old cardboard suitcase,” the Journal’s Ron Hudspeth wrote. “To carry away the loot.”
“The new contract represents a sizable increase in salary,” Hudspeth told readers. “Reportedly, Aaron made $250,000 the past two seasons. But Aaron’s stock is up as the 38-year-old slugger begins in earnest the countdown to (breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record).”
Aaron hit No. 715 on April 8, 1974, breaking the Babe’s mark of 714. The Braves haven’t announced specifics for any celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Aaron’s historic moment, but there will be a commemorative bobblehead giveaway this April 8 when the team hosts the Mets.
Aaron died Jan. 21, 2021 at age 86. The Baseball Hall of Famer ended his career in 1976 with 755 home runs.
Journal sportswriter Frank Hyland detailed Aaron’s hefty new contract for readers — as much as possible, since the Braves’ brass wasn’t saying much.
“All (Braves president Bill Bartholomay) would say when pressed for specifics was, ‘It is a contract befitting the greatest player in the game,’” Hyland wrote, noting that Aaron’s deal was still slightly inferior to that of the “reported $300,000-plus given to Wilt Chamberlain of the basketball Los Angeles Lakers.”
There were no complaints from Aaron, however.
“It was what I expected and what I asked for,” he told the paper. “There was never any real problem. The only problem was finding a time when Bill and I could get together.”
When the mammoth deal was signed, Aaron stood at 639 homers over 18 seasons.
“(Aaron is) 75 behind Ruth and only seven behind Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants,” Hyland wrote. “He should catch and pass Mays this year and Ruth within the next three.”
Heading into the 2024 season, the 29-year-old Ohtani has 171 career homers in six seasons.
In his profile of the slugger, Hudspeth revealed that “a homesick Aaron almost quit baseball at 17 and went home to Mobile (Ala.).” Aaron told the Journal he’d have “probably wound up being a school teacher” had that happened.
And what of Aaron’s fabled suitcase from his first Braves deal? Forget about it being in the Hall of Fame, Hudspeth told readers.
“I really don’t know what happened to it,” Aaron said. “It probably fell apart.”
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