Hank Aaron, 23, at bat in 1957, the only year of his Hall of Fame career in which he won the MVP award, and the only year he played for a World Series champion.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Over the course of a 23-season career filled with milestones that other ballplayers only dream about, Henry Aaron retired as a first-ballot Hall of Famer and, most famously, as the all-time major-league home run king. Today, for most fans, he’s still the all-time home run king — Barry Bonds’ thoroughly tainted 762 round-trippers notwithstanding. So many other numbers that Aaron put up over the course of his career, meanwhile, cement his reputation as one of the very greatest ballplayers who ever lived.
[Check out the cool, old-school multiple exposure shot of Aaron’s hair-raising 715th, hit off of Al Downing in Atlanta on April 8, 1974, at the bottom of this post — a joint effort by LIFE photographers Ralph Morse and Henry Groskinsky.]
To cite just a few of his eye-popping stats: Aaron was a 25-time All Star (from 1959-1962, he played in both of the All-Star games held each summer back then) and a .305 lifetime hitter. He hit 755 home runs, of course; had more than 3,700 hits, including a major-league record 1,477 for extra bases; drove in 2,297 runs (another record); won a World Series ring; won a couple of batting titles; and, perhaps most incredibly, he still holds the major-league record of 17 consecutive seasons with 150 or more hits.
Take a moment to digest that: 17 years in a row with 150 or more hits. Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that it’s hard to get 150 hits in one season. To hit 150 or more, year after year for almost two decades, while routinely launching 30 or more home runs every year, speaks to a talent, a competitive drive and a consistency that borders on the superhuman.
Henry Aaron spoke with LIFE.com about some of the players — teammates as well as rivals — who made his playing days so satisfying, and so much fun, for so many years. Now 80 years old (he was born Feb. 5, 1934, in Mobile, Ala.), he is both gracious and insightful in his praise of his old friends and foes — a man of quiet, unmistakable dignity.
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Aaron. Thanks for everything.
— Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com
Hank Aaron, 23, at bat in 1957, the only year of his Hall of Fame career in which he won the MVP award, and the only year he played for a World Series champion.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWillie Mays: "Willie was the complete ballplayer. He was everything that everyone else wanted to be. He was exciting. He did things that fans loved seeing. You looked at him and you said, 'I wanna be like him. I wanna be better than him.' You just felt like he played the game the way it was supposed to be played."George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWarren Spahn: "Warren was such a control freak, in the best possible way. When we sat down before a game he would say, 'I'm gonna pitch this guy outside and I want everyone to play him the opposite way,’ and that is exactly the way he would pitch him. And, you know, I believe if he wasn’t pitching he probably could have been a fourth outfielder. He was a very good hitter, and a fierce competitor. He was good. He was about as good as anybody I’ve ever seen."Stan Wayman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesJackie Robinson: "Jackie is the reason I am where I am. And he was a player's player. He did everything for his teammates and his team to help win championships. He knew how to rile other teams up, how to get them thinking about anything other than winning the ball game. I was in school in Mobile, Alabama, when I heard that he signed with the Dodgers, and I was so happy. I wanted to be a ballplayer, and while I knew that what he was doing was a long way off from where I was, I also knew somebody had to do it before I got there. Before I could get there."Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesStan Musial: "I got to know Stan pretty well when we visited the troops together during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and he was just the most gracious, dignified man you'd ever want to meet. A great, great ballplayer — and a man I really admired. When I got my 3,000th hit [in Cincinnati in May 1970], Stan was there, to offer congratulations. That meant so much to me."Joseph Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesLeroy "Satchel" Paige was a Negro League star who, in 1948 at the age of 41, became the oldest rookie in major league history. "If he had come up into the majors when he was younger, he probably would have broken all the pitching records. You've heard the stories about him telling the infielders and outfielders to go sit down in the dugout, 'cause he's going to strike out the next three batters? And then goes ahead and it? I didn’t see that, but I heard it from so many guys who played with him that I gotta believe that it's true."George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSandy Koufax pitching in 1963. "What can you say? You'd go out there and your guy would pitch a one-hitter, Sandy would pitch a no-hitter. You'd give up one run, he'd throw a shutout. For a few years there, I don’t know if anybody — in that era or any other — was a better pitcher than Koufax."Robert W. Kelley—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesTom Seaver: "Seaver should have been a Brave. He was scouted, but something happened and the commissioner put his name back in the hat and the Mets drafted him. We might have won a couple of pennants with him on our team, but instead he went with the Mets — and won a couple of pennants there. Same category as Juan Marichal, really. He threw hard, man, and he would be the first to say, ‘Well, I made a few mistakes out there, but because I threw so hard I was able to get away with them.' I tell you, he had a fastball that moved like Kofaux's."Co Rentmeester—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesFrank Robinson is the only player in baseball history to be named MVP in both the National and American leagues. "Frank was gifted in so many ways. He could go 0-4 at the plate and still beat you. He could make a hell of a play in the outfield. He didn’t have the strongest arm in the world, but he was the most accurate, and he didn’t make too many mistakes. He dominated the league for a few years. Both leagues, in fact! He even won the Triple Crown [in 1966, the year after the Reds traded him to Baltimore because he was 'an old 30']—something I was never able to do. And I sure tried!"Bob Gomel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesErnie Banks: "When Ernie and I were playing it was very unusual to find a shortstop who could do all the things that he could do. Play his position well, and hit with a lot of power. You don’t look at a shortstop and say you'd like to get 30 or 40 home runs out of him every season, but Ernie wasn't your average player. And the thing about Ernie is, what you see is what you get. He's no different off the field than he is on the field. A joy to be around."John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesJuan Marichal in 1966. "When people talk about great pitchers from the Sixties and Seventies they usually say, 'Koufaux, Gibson, Drysdale and Seaver,' and they might mention Marichal at the end. But I'm telling you, when he was at his best, Marichal was as great a pitcher and as hard to hit as any of those other guys."Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCharlie Grimm: "My first manager in the majors. Had it not been for Charlie, I probably would have spent a couple more years in the minors. He gave me a chance to play without putting any restrictions on me or telling me what to do. He said, 'Go play the game how you're supposed to play it, and we'll be behind you.' Oh, that was great. So I came in straight from Class A ball, and I did a lot of things that I shouldn’t have done. But he was a great manager, and he stood by me and just helped me so much. I don’t know if I could have played for anybody else. I wasn’t very polished in the beginning, you see, but it was all right."Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesLew Burdette (left) with Milwaukee Braves manager Fred Haney and a reporter, after the Braves beat the Yankees in the 1957 World Series. "Lew Burdette is one of my favorites. Not just because he beat the Yankees three times in the World Series, but because he was accused of a lot of things, they always said he threw spitballs, but nobody ever caught him. He could pitch in the clutch, was a pitcher's pitcher, and he didn’t mind protecting his teammates. If a pitcher threw at one of our players, you just knew Lew was going to knock somebody else down later on in the game."George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesJoe Adcock: "Joe Adcock was so strong. He set the record at Ebbets Field when he hit those four home runs, back to back to back to back. [On July 31, 1954, Adcock homered four times in one game against the Dodgers, and set a record for most total bases in a game with 18.] That was thrilling for us, but the Dodgers didn’t like it. I think they went out there the next day and hit him in the head and started a big fight. But he was a hell of a hitter. If he knew what was coming, he could hit that ball as far as anybody, and farther than most."Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
