One of my childhood heros, Hank Aaron, collected 6,856 total bases, which is the all-time MLB record. (I always think about Aaron's record when I watch the film "Moneyball" because of its emphasis on the metrics of players just getting on base.) But then I got to wondering how many other MLB records does Hank Aaron still hold?
It turns out that Hank Aaron still holds the record for the most All-Star selections (25), while sharing the record for most All-Star Games played (24) with Willie Mays and Stan Musial. He also holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (RBIs) (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), and total bases (6,856). Aaron is also in the top five for career hits (3,771) and runs (2,174). He is one of only four players to have at least 17 seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron is also in second place in home runs (755), though some, myself included, still cling to the belief that Barry Bonds record should not count. He also holds the record for most at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298).
He spoke often about his ability to keep strikeouts to a minimum (and indeed, he never struck out 100 times in any single season) and his ability to get runners home from third base
Over his career, Aaron hit for a .305 lifetime batting average. But as we observed above, Aaron is the lifetime leader in RBI with 2,297. Babe Ruth is next at 2,217 and Albert Pujols 3rd at 2,100. Only 2 others are over 2,000.
Aaron was right, of course: he was at his best when there was a chance for his team to score, but it’s fascinating to see just how much he elevated his own game in those situations:
Runner on 3rd (alone): 183 RBI in 433 plate appearances. Avg. .363/OPS 1.047. 78 BB, 34 SAC Flies.
Runners on 2nd/3rd: 97 RBI in 230 PA. .364/1.280 OPS. 107 BB(!), 12 SAC Flies.
Runners on 1st/3rd: 232 RBI in 475 PA. .321/.827 OPS. 36 BB, 44 SAC Flies.
Bases loaded: 231 RBI in 269 PA. 316/.904 OPS. 12 BB, 28 SAC Flies with 16 grand slams.
In 1956, a rather indolent-looking young man showed up on the first day of spring training at Bradenton, Florida, sauntered casually to the plate in the gray road uniform of the Milwaukee Braves, swished a borrowed bat back and forth a couple of times, and then hit the first three pitches out of the park.
"Ol' Hank," he then pronounced, "is ready."
Perhaps the most unusual part of that Aaron story is the fact that no one got very excited about it. Turns out sometimes it was easy to forget that Henry Aaron was around. Without the physical proportions or explosive speed of a Mickey Mantle, without the breathtaking color of a Willie Mays, without the long and brilliant career of a Ted Williams, Aaron seemed to hardly have a personality at all. He said practically nothing, stayed out of nightclubs, and never lost his cap running the bases.
But what made him such a great hitter?
First of all you've got to talk about his wrists. The wrists were good and they were fast. They were almost eight inches around, and his forearms rippled with little knots of muscle whenever Henry curled his big, oversized hands around the handle of a bat. And despite the trim, 31-inch waist, it took a size 42 uniform shirt to cover the sloping, powerful shoulders and muscular back and chest.
But there is more to it than wrists and forearms and muscles and size. He also had exceptional eyesight and a natural rhythm and sense of timing unsurpassed in all baseball. "It's fantastic," said Warren Spahn, "how long he can look at a pitch before he decides whether to swing. It's as good as giving him an extra strike."
I'll close with a couple of stories from his early days with the Braves, "The most relaxed kid I ever saw," says Ben Geraghty, who managed the Braves Triple-A farm club at Wichita "From the time he got on the bus until we got to the next town, Hank was asleep. Nothing ever bothered him."
And no one ever attempted to alter his batting style. Paul Waner, the famed Milwaukee hitting coach, once sent word up through the organization that everyone was to keep hands off when Aaron walked to the plate. "He's got a perfect swing now," warned Waner. "Don't anyone try to change him. Just let him alone."
"The most natural hitter I ever saw," says Geraghty. "He would go out to hit—you couldn't keep him out of the batting cage—and he would pick up the first bat he came to. Didn't seem to make any difference. His second year in spring training, after he won the batting championship, I asked him what kind of bat he was using now. Figured he'd say 'a Babe Ruth handle with a Hornsby barrel' or something like that. He said 'I've got me two bats now. A long one and a short one. I use the long one when they're pitchin' me outside and the short one when they're pitchin' me inside.'
"And I'll never forget when we changed our signs in the middle of the season. Henry came up and I gave him the take sign. He hit a home run. 'Why didn't you take that pitch like I signaled, Henry?' I asked him. 'I thought that was the hit sign,' he said. I told him that was the old hit sign. 'Heck, Ben,' he said. 'I just learned it the other day.'
"The rest of the year I didn't give him any signs at all. When you have a player that is as gifted as Aaron, you just set 'em free."
