Happy 79th Birthday, Henry Aaron

Today is Hank Aaron‘s 79th birthday. To celebrate here are 44 random facts about him.

1. Henry Louis Aaron was born on February 5, 1934. In Aaron’s first season in the majors he wore uniform #5 (and made $5,000 in salary)
2. Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama, the same city as Willie McCovey.
3. Both Aaron and McCovey wore uniform #44.
4. Aaron hit 44 homers four times in his career.
5. Three of the four times he hit 44 homers, Aaron led the league in homers (1957, 1963, and 1966).
6. In 1963, he tied for the league lead with Willie McCovey.
7. Aaron hit 45 homers in 1962 and hit his career high, 47, in 1971.
8. Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs, the most by any player not implicated with PEDs.
9. Aaron drove home over 100 runs 11 times in his career.
10. He led the league in RBI four times (1957, 1960, 1963, 1966).
11. His high was in 1963 when he drove home 132 runs.
12. Aaron drove him 2297 runs in his career, more than any other player in MLB history. Babe Ruth is next with 2213 RBI.
13. Aaron started his career on April 13, 1954 with the Milwaukee Braves.
14. In his first game, played at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Aaron went 0-for-5.
15. In his first at bat, facing Joe Nuxhall, he grounded out to third.
16. In his first game, Aaron played left field. Andy Pafko was the Braves right fielder, the position that Aaron was most famous for.
17. In his major league career, Aaron played left, right, and centerfield. He also played first, second, and third base; he was also a DH (and a PH).
18. Aaron played his last game on October 3, 1976, at Milwaukee’s County Stadium as a member of the American League Milwaukee Brewers.
19. Aaron went 1-for-3 with one RBI in his final game.
20. He picked up an infield single in his final at bat, which drove home a run. He hit off the Tigers’ Dave Roberts.
21. Aaron finished his career with 3771 hits.
22. Aaron is third on the all-time hits list, trailing only Ty Cobb 4189, and Pete Rose 4256.
23. Aaron had 3600 hits as a member of the Braves and 171 as a Brewer.
24. While RetroSheet is missing details on 133 of Aaron’s hits, at this point we do know that he picked the most hits off of Larry Jackson (64).
25. Aaron had 2294 singles.
26. He had 624 doubles.
27. He had 600 doubles with the Braves. It’s still a team record, Chipper Jones finished his career with 549.
28. He hit 98 triples.
29. His 1477 extra-base hits are the most by any player all-time.
30. He had 18 walkoff hits, nine of which were walkoff homers.
31. Hank hit 16 grand slams.
32. He hit 390 bases empty homers.
33. He hit 14 extra-inning homers.
34. He hit 124 1st inning homers (the innings of 17 of his homers are unknown)
35. Aaron hit 195 homers at Milwaukee’s County Stadium.
36. He hit 190 homers at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.
37. He hit 733 homers as a member of the Braves and 22 as a Brewer.
38. Aaron hit 398 homers as a Milwaukee Brave, he hit 335 homers as an Atlanta Brave.
39. Aaron finished his career with 2174 runs scored, tied with Babe Ruth for fourth all-time.
40. Hank finished his career with 6856 total bases, the most in MLB history. Stan Musial is next n the all-time list with 6134.
41. There were 14 times in Aaron’s career he hit .300 or better. He finished with .305 lifetime average.
42. He led the league in hitting in 1956 (.328) and in 1959 (.355).
43. Hank was an All-Star 21 times, every year from 1955 through 1975
44. The one-time MVP was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982 on the first ballot with 97.8% of the vote.
45. BONUS: He shares a birthday with HOF-er Roberto Alomar, born on this date in 1968.

Tagged as: Andy Pafko, Babe Ruth, Chipper Jones, Dave Roberts, Hank Aaron, Joe Nuxhall, Larry Jackson, Pete Rose, Roberto Alomaer, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb, Willie McCovey