Two numbers will be forever linked to Hank Aaron. The 715, the number of home runs it took to dethrone to Babe Ruth as the home run king in 1974, in one of the most iconic moments in the sport. And the 755, his home run total and a record that stood for 31 years.
Aaron, built a legacy that goes beyond his numbers. But even focusing solely on the stats, the 715 and 755 are just the tip of the iceberg of what he accomplished in his long and legendary career.
1. No bad years: Twenty 20-homer seasons
One surprising aspect of Aaron’s 755 home runs is that he did so without breaking the 47 mark in a single year. A total of 47 players have had a higher total in a season – 15 of them did it multiple times – but Aaron is second all-time on the home run list, behind Barry Bonds.
Aaron got it thanks to his consistency. He is one of five players to have at least eight 40-homer seasons, one of two (along with Alex Rodriguez) to have 15 30-homer seasons and is the only one to hit 20 or more in 20 different years. Those times were back-to-back, between 1955 and 1974. Aaron failed to reach that mark only in his rookie season at age 20 and at age 41 and 42, in 1975 and 1976, respectively.
2. Built to last
You can’t hit 755 homers if you’re not a representation of durability and longevity. Aaron’s 3,298 games are 10 fewer than Carl Yastrzemski had, for second place in history. The first is Pete Rose with 3,562. Aaron played at least 150 games 14 times and at least 120 games 21 times; tying with Rose for the most such seasons in history. Aaron is third in times at bat with 13,941.
3. Age is just a number: Productive in your 20s and 40s
One thing that stands out about Aaron is how good he was both in his youth and late in his career. He is one of 24 position players to have a 6.0 WAR (wins above replacement) age 21 or younger, according to Baseball-Reference, and ranks 10th all-time in total WAR (38.8) for a player through age 25. . But he’s also seventh in WAR for a player 35 and older (31.4). Aaron’s best two seasons in OPS came at ages 37 (1,079) and 39 (1,045, albeit in just 120 games). In the five seasons between 1969 and 1973, when Aaron was 35-39 years old, he led the Majors in slugging (.601) and OPS (.997).
4. Legend Among Leaders: Ranked in the top five in multiple categories
In addition to home runs, games played and times at bat, Aaron ranks third all-time in hits (3,771), fourth in runs scored (2,174), first in total bases reached (6,856), first in extra-base hits (1,477) , first in RBIs (2,297), fourth in intentional walks (293) and fifth in WAR among position players (143.1). He is one of six to reach 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.
5. A machine: 3,000 hits with no home runs
Look again at the total hits: 3,771. You don’t have to be a math expert to know what it means. If you take away Aaron’s 755 home runs, he still would have surpassed 3,000 hits – one of the most important figures in baseball. In addition to homers, his 3,016 hits would have been the 29th most in history. The player who would have been left behind? Wade Boggs, a Hall of Famer who hit .328 in 18 seasons, with a total of 3,010 hits.
Andrew Simon MLB.com
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