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On Tuesday, April 13, 1954, a young Jim Greengrass, batting 5th and playing leftfield for the Cincinnati Reds, hit four doubles that led his team to victory.
Twenty year old Hank Aaron made his major league debut in that game, also batting 5th and playing leftfield, for the Milwaukee Braves. He failed to get a hit in five trips to the plate.
The very first thing Mr. Aaron taught us about life is it’s not how you start—it’s how you finish!
The first time I saw him play was at old Sportsman Park in St. Louis in August of 1959. Hank was in centerfield that night. And he was already a certified superstar, having won the NL batting title, an MVP award and the World Series just a couple of years before.
Here’s what I remember about that game. The Cardinals had put it out of reach by scoring a parcel of runs early. Hank was on first in the eighth or ninth inning. Most guys by then would be just playing out the string—let’s get the game over. Joe Adcock bounced a single up the middle. Hank took off like a flash, flew around second and slid into third just ahead of the throw.
Most players would have jogged down to second and let it be. I was twelve years old but I got the message…..
The second thing Hank Aaron taught us about life, we’re not going through the motions here!
Hank played with us in those days. We’d choose up sides. And we didn’t take the field as Kesley Colbert, John Ingram or Jackie Burns. Heck no! We were Stan the Man Musial, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and Hammering Hank Aaron! And when you consider it was the Deep South in the late’50’s, it was even more of a tribute to Mr. Aaron than we realized.
The last time I saw him play was in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. This was late in his career, around 1972 or ’73. He was back in leftfield. In the second inning someone hit a long fly down the leftfield line that fell into foul territory about five rows into the bleachers.
Hank couldn’t have caught it but he only took a step to his right and stopped. I went to coaching from the grandstands. “He’s got to get over there! You’ve got to hustle over in case there is a play!” I gave everyone around an earful of my outstanding baseball knowledge.
A few innings later, another ball was hit, I’m telling you, about the exact same place down the leftfield line as the first one. This time Hank took off with everything left in his aging body, he flew across the foul line, put his right hand on the wall and leaned two rows into the stands and made a fabulous backhanded catch.