The Atlanta Braves signed Aaron to a $200,000-per-year contract.
Photo: Dan Levine/AFP/Getty Images
On April 23, 1954, Hank Aaron hit the first home run of his major league career. Twenty years later, Aaron becomes baseball’s new home run king when he broke the long-standing record for Babe Ruth’s 714 career home runs.
A native of Mobile, Alabama, Aaron began his professional baseball career in 1952 in the Negro League and joined the major league Milwaukee Braves in 1954.
He was the last Negro League player to compete in the majors, his first game with the Braves being on April 13, and he went hitless in all five of his at-bats. Two days later, he got his first hit, a single, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and on April 23, 1954, he hit his first major league home run off Cardinals pitcher Vic Raschi.
Aaron quickly established himself as a major player for the Braves and won the National League batting title in 1956.
The following season, he took home the league’s Most Valuable Player award. In 1959, Aaron won his second league batting title.
Season after season, he put up strong hitting performances: “Hammerin’ Hank” batted .300 or better over 14 seasons and hit at least 40 home runs in eight separate seasons
In May 1970, he became the first baseball player to record 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. However, his greatest accomplishment was breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs, which he did on April 8, 1974 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, when he hit his 715th home run in the fourth inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On February 29, 1972, the Atlanta Braves signed Aaron to a three-year, $200,000-a-year contract, which made him the highest-paid player in baseball.
Two years later, the Braves traded Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers, where he spent the final two seasons of his career.
He retired from baseball in 1976 with 755 career home runs.a, a record that stood until August 7, 2007, when it was broken by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants.
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