Photos: Baseball great Hank Aaron turns 80

Sports

Photos: Baseball great Hank Aaron turns 80

Photos from the career of Hank Aaron, baseball's home run king who spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Atlanta Braves.

Take a look at photos from the career and life of former Braves great Henry Aaron. Henry Aaron made history and was an icon for the Atlanta Braves and an emerging Sun Belt region while becoming baseball's home run king in 1974 and establishing 22 other major league records.

Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth's home run mark with his 715th homer at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on April 6, 1974 against Al Downing of the Dodgers. Even well into his career, Aaron possessed strong wrists and arm strength that once prompted the legendary Ted Williams to wonder "who it was that could make a bat sound that way when it hit a baseball."

Two young fans attempted to accompany him around the bases, but Aaron kept them out of his way. "I'm not as aware of the moment as I used to be," Aaron said in a 2006 interview.

His welcoming committee at home plate included his teammates and his mother Estella. Aaron endured racist hate mail on the way to 715. During the 1973 offseason, the FBI probed death threats against him, and he was given personal protection.

"It was terrible, but he was still carrying himself with honor and dignity," former Braves teammate Dusty Baker said of Aaron. "If he had any bitterness, which I didn't really see, he had plenty of reason to be."

Aaron grew up in racially segregated Mobile, Ala., and played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League.

Even after Aaron led the Braves to the World Series championship in 1957, he and other black players endured indignities off the field. During spring training in Florida in the early 1960s, Braves manager Charlie Grimm ordered the rest of the team back on the bus after a restaurant would serve black players only in the kitchen.

But when the major leagues arrived in Atlanta with the Braves' relocation from Milwaukee, Aaron was quickly treated as a local sporting hero. After leading the National League with 39 home runs in 1967, he visits with former mayor Ivan Allen (center) and Al Thompson at the Atlanta-based 100 Percent Wrong Club banquet.

"His coming here opened up the town significantly," former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young said of Aaron. "I've always said that Hank Aaron made a huge contribution to the successful desegregation of Atlanta. He did so very effectively and very quietly."

The city was ecstatic as Aaron gradually closed in on Ruth's record. But privately, others weren't so happy about his impending feat. Angry letters started with "Dear Black Boy" and far worse epithets Aaron didn't disclose until years later.

Herbert Aaron, Hank's father, jumped a railing to rush to his son's side after the historic 715th homerun. "A fox was chased by a hound all day, but at the end of the day he ran up a hill and looked back," the elder Aaron said. "The fox saw the sunset and said, 'Hey, it don't matter if anyone catches me now --- I've set the world on fire.' That's what Hank did tonight."

Said late Braves announcer Ernie Johnson Sr.: "A Los Angeles writer said it best when he wrote that Hank Aaron does everything Willie Mays does, but his cap doesn't fall off."

Aaron, who retired from playing in 1977, became active in the black political scene in Atlanta. Here he celebrates Young's mayoral victory in 1981 with Jesse Jackson (center) and Reginald Eaves, who would later become Atlanta's first black public safety commissioner and a Fulton County commissioner.

After twice declining offers by then-owner Ted Turner to manage the team on the field, he also served as the Braves director of player development for 13 years. The Braves farm system at the time produced All-Star Dale Murphy and other players who won a division title in 1982.

When Aaron dived into the business world, owning 19 restaurants and two car dealerships, he encountered plenty of skeptics. "I remember that and I said, 'If I have to crawl at night, I won't fail. I'm going to make all these people eat their words.' I'll do anything not to fail and that's why I kept pushing."

He was continuously feted by the baseball world, here with Pete Rose at the 1999 World Series after being voted to the major league All-Century team.

On a 1996 visit to Cuba, Aaron gives a copy of the TBS documentary, "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream" to president Fidel Castro, a baseball fanatic.

Then-president Bill Clinton was among the guests at Aaron's 65th birthday gala at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta in 1999.

Aaron visits with comedian Bill Cosby after receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom Award at the White House in 2002.

Aaron throws out the ceremonial first pitch in 1997 in Mobile at a minor league baseball stadium named after him.

The Hank Aaron Award goes to the best overall hitter in each league. In 2005, its namesake presented the awards to then-Braves outfielder Andruw Jones and David Ortiz of the Red Sox.

Hank Aaron Drive in southwest Atlanta is dedicated to the slugger in 1997 by then-mayor Bill Campbell right, with (from left) Aaron's wife, Billye, his 18-month-old granddaughter, Emily Haydel and Davetta Johnson Mitchell.

Aaron's community activism included the creation of the "Chasing the Dream" foundation to help 755 underprivileged youths -- matching his final homerun total -- get an education.

While Aaron warmed up publicly in his post-retirement years, he admitted he kept his personality shielded for a long time. "I'm actually kind of a loner, a guy that has stayed to himself. A lot of people thought they knew me, but they really didn't. . . I would just want to be remembered as somebody who just tried to be fair with people."

"I never saw him angry," former Braves pitcher Phil Niekro said. "I never even saw the man get upset. I'm sure it had to have happened, but if he ever was angry, he kept it to himself."

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Take a look at photos from the career and life of former Braves great Henry Aaron. Henry Aaron made history and was an icon for the Atlanta Braves and an emerging Sun Belt region while becoming baseball's home run king in 1974 and establishing 22 other major league records.

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