One of my all-time favorite all-time photos I haven’t posted in a while – the great Hank Aaron in 1951 as he is about to leave home to play with the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns.

During his short stint there (26 games), Aaron hit .366, belted five home runs, knocked in 33 runs and stole nine bases.Aaron would then make two minor league stops, the first in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where he hit .336 and was named the Northern League’s Rookie of the Year.

His second minor league stop, Jacksonville, Florida, very well might have been Aaron’s toughest year in pro ball when he and several other Black players broke the color line in the South Atlantic League (SAL or “Sally” League). Aaron, along with Horace Garner and Felix Mantilla, joined the Jacksonville Tars in 1953.

But despite putting up the slurs and being barred from restaurants and hotels in the land of Jim Crow, Aaron would not only lead the Tars to the league title, but he would be crowned MVP after leading the league in hitting with a .362 average. He also smacked 22 home runs, 36 doubles, scored 115 runs and knocked in 135 runs.

He tore it up.

The following year Aaron at the tender age of 20 would play his rookie season for the Braves. He would hit 13 home runs with 69 runs batted in while hitting .280 and finishing fourth for Rookie of the Year. The rest, of course, was history.

It occurred to me how Boston missed out, once again, to watching one of the great sluggers of any era hitting in their fair city when the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, one year before Aaron’s rookie year.