Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934), nicknamed "Hammer," or "Hammerin' Hank," is a retired American baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1954 through 1976. Aaron spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) before playing for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American League (AL) for the final two years of his career. Aaron is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Aaron fifth on their "100 Greatest Baseball Players" list.

After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his major league career in 1954. In his final season, he was the last Negro League baseball player on a major league roster. His most notable achievement was breaking the career home run record set by Babe Ruth. During his career, Aaron performed at a consistently high level for an extended period of time. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times.

Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 through 1975 and won three Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series. Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records. He holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (RBI) (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856). Aaron is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. He also is in second place in home runs (755) and at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298).

At the time of his retirement, Aaron held most of the game's key career power hitting records outright.