Welcome to our collection of quotes by Hank Aaron
Wikipedia Summary for Hank Aaron
Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history, he spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL).
His 755 career home runs broke the long-standing MLB record set by Babe Ruth and stood as the most for 33 years; Aaron still holds many other MLB batting records. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Aaron fifth on its list of the "100 Greatest Baseball Players". In 1982, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Aaron was born and raised in and around Mobile, Alabama. Aaron had seven siblings, including Tommie Aaron, who played major-league baseball with him. He appeared briefly in the Negro American League and in minor league baseball before starting his major league career. By his final MLB season, Aaron was the last Negro league baseball player on a major league roster. During his time in MLB, and especially during his run for the home run record, Aaron and his family endured extensive racist threats. His experiences fueled his activism during the civil rights movement.
Aaron played the vast majority of his MLB games in right field, though he appeared at several other infield and outfield positions. In his last two seasons, he was primarily a designated hitter. Aaron was an NL All-Star for 20 seasons and an AL All-Star for one season, and he 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 was a three-time Gold Glove winner, and in 1957, he won the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award when the Milwaukee Braves won the World Series. Aaron 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 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.
After his retirement, Aaron held front office roles with the Atlanta Braves, including the senior vice president. In 1988, Aaron was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1999, MLB introduced the Hank Aaron Award to recognize the top offensive players in each league. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was named a 2010 Georgia Trustee by the Georgia Historical Society in recognition of accomplishments that reflect the ideals of Georgia's founders. Aaron resided near Atlanta until his death.
It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.
I think what separates a superstar from the average ballplayer is that he concentrates just a little bit longer.
Some people resented the fact I was trying to break a white man's record.
The first thing baseball wants to do is make you a superstar and then say that you owe baseball something. I don't owe baseball anything. Baseball owes me.
Most of all, I pray that no one ever again, in any walk of life, has to go through what I did.
History has a way of doing that. People appreciate it more the longer it lasts.
We are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record. If you think that, you are fooling yourself.... The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.
We were losers. We were baseball players. Baseball executives were businessmen. When you went into talk about a contract, they always had the upper hand. No matter if you hit 350 or 250, you were going to get what they wanted you to have.
It used to be the players were here (lowering his arm) and owners were here (raising his arm). Now, it's the other way. There's so much money.
You've got to remember, the older you get the slower you get. I've seen a lot of players get old ... if I can have a good season in 1972 and come back with another good one, well, that's different. I might not quit. But two bad ones back to back and staying home would be written on the wall.
I got a thrill out of the home run that won the pennant, and when I hit No. 500, and I thought this would mean something extra special to me ... I felt good all day long, until Rose tied the game. Losing just took the edge off of it. It's just another home run.
Look around the stadium. There's not one memento of what I did. There's nothing about what I did in this stadium, but they've got a statue of Ty Cobb sliding into a base.
There's only one way to break the color line. Be good. I mean, play good. Play so good that they can't remember what color you were before the season started.
My father didn't make much money, and I tell a lot of people, you know, I was a vegetarian before people knew what a vegetarian was. That's all I ate was vegetables.
No matter what happens the rest of my life, I don't think I'll ever hit another home run. So wherever people want to rank me is fine.
I tell young people -- including my granddaughter -- there is no short cut in life. You have to take it one step at a time and work hard. And you have to give back.
The most important thing in my career out of the 23 years I played is I never struck out 100 times. Getting the base hits was the greatest thrill of my life.
I would like people not to think in terms of the 755 home runs I hit but think in terms of what I've accomplished off the field and some of the things I stood for.
I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week.
I had many, many, many death threats. I couldn't open letters for a long time, because they all had to be opened by either the FBI or somebody.
Roger Maris lost his hair the season he hit sixty-one, I still have all my hair, but when it's over, I'm going home to Mobile and fish for a long time.
I think about how a guy mentally prepared himself to do battle, to go out and face the pitcher. I think so many hitters do not know how to get themselves prepared to play or hit against a pitcher. You have to mentally be prepared to hit against all pitchers.
Baseball needs me because it needs somebody to stir the pot, and I need it because it's my life. It's the means I have to make a little difference in the world.
I can't recall a day this year or last when I did not hear the name of Babe Ruth.
I don't want people to forget Babe Ruth. I just want them to remember Henry Aaron.
Maybe the day will come when I can sit back and be content....But until that day comes, I intend to stay in the batter's box -- I don't let the big guys push me out of there anymore -- and keep hammering away.
Does Pete (Rose) hustle? Before the All-Star game he came into the clubhouse and took off his shoes and they ran another mile without him.
You visualize pitches. You see it in your head; you think it...I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started getting ready for ever game the moment I woke up.
Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.
I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success.
I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious.
I thought my chances to make the Braves were better and that they were being fairer to me, paying me more money to play in a lower classification ... Besides, the Giants spelled my name Arron on their telegram.
In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.
I need to depend on Someone who is bigger, stronger and wiser than I am. I don't do it on my own. God is my strength. He gave me a good body and some talent and the freedom to develop it. He helps me when things go wrong. He forgives me when I fall on my face. He lights the way.
You know what the hardest thing is? What nobody wants to understand -- is me. People want their memories of me to be my memories of me. But you know what? They're not.
People were not ready to accept me as a baseball player. The easiest part of that whole thing, chasing the Babe's record, was playing the game itself. The hardest thing was after the game was over, dealing with the press. They could never understand.
There wasn't much white people would allow us to do in those days. You could be a schoolteacher or an athlete to get away from the manual labor and servant-type jobs, but there wasn't much else they were going to allow you to do.
Too bad integration didn't come sooner, because there were so many ballplayers that could have made the major leagues. That's why, you look back, and -- not to take away anything from Babe Ruth or some of those other guys -- they didn't play against the greatest ballplayers in the world.
I've tried a lot of things in the off-season, but the only thing I really know is baseball.
Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated.
For many years, even after Jackie Robinson, baseball was so segregated, really. You just didn't expect us to have a chance to do anything. Baseball was meant for the lily-white.
I tell young people -- including my granddaughter -- there is no shortcut in life. You have to take it one step at a time and work hard. And you have to give back.
In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time.
I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and running 99 yards for a touchdown.
Jackie was speaking at a drugstore, and I said, 'I'm not going to get this opportunity again, so I better take my chances and listen to Jackie Robinson now.' Little did I know, I got front row seats, and next to me was my father.
What you do with your life and how you do it is not only a reflection on you, but on your family and all of those institutions that have helped to make you who you are.
It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course.
To this day, whenever I'm in Milwaukee, which is often, I'm reminded that the people there still haven't gotten over the Braves leaving ... If it helps, they should know the players haven't either.
Last year, I was sort of a kid and I was a little scared, I ain't scared any more.
Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution.
I am very proud to be an American. This country has so much potential, I'd just like to see things better, or whatever, and I think it will be.
I never thought we'd ever have a black president. President Obama has done such a tremendous job... He just has been unable to get what he needs to be moved at the level it should be moved.
I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
I don't see pitches down the middle anymore -- not even in batting practice.
The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one. You stand up there alone, and if you make a mistake, it's your mistake. If you hit a home run, it's your home run.
I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.
I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.
I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him.
Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being a successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution.
It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.
The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.
The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.