[Alberta's Child]

Aaron had quite a strange career for an all-time home run king. He hit 755 home runs in his career but never hit 50 in a season.

He wasn't a slugger in the classic sense, and benefitted a lot from playing in small ballparks. I always thought his career home run total made it easy to overlook other parts of his game. He had a higher lifetime batting average than Pete Rose, and would have had more than 3,000 career hits even if you never counted any of his 755 home runs!

[fungoking]

Aaron could also bunt and hit behind the runner, an exaggerated shift like they use on today's 1 dimensional hitters wouldn't have worked on him. He pulled the ball more in Atlanta but he was a great all around hitter.

[kabar]

Willie Mays would have beat Aaron if he played his entire career in the Polo Grounds. And Willie missed two years when he was in the Army. For my money, Willie Mays is the greatest player I have ever seen. It is not even close.

[Rockpile]

Rose hit .303 and Aaron hit .305. Just had to look that up.

[The Antiyuppie]

“Aaron had quite a strange career for an all-time home run king. He hit 755 home runs in his career but never hit 50 in a season.”

Some of those numbers come from longevity, durability, and consistency. IMO it’s a surprisingly accurate measurement of the overall “greatness” of a player. Ernie Banks (a thin, lanky first baseman!) is on the rarefied “over 500 list” for quietly and consistently knocking out home runs in the Friendly Confines.

And then, there was his glove.