Hammerin' Home College Basketball's Impact on Hank Aaron's MLB Career

On historic day commemorating sports icon Hank Aaron, it should be pointed out he was surrounded by hoopers his entire 23-year MLB career. The majority of Milwaukee Braves' starting infield was comprised of former college basketball players on April 23, 1954, when Aaron contributed his first big-league RBI and homer (against St. Louis Cardinals). Aaron was outhomered in his rookie campaign by 1B teammate Joe Adcock, 23-13, eight years after Adcock set SEC Tournament record with 15 field goals for Louisiana State's basketball squad in 1946. Did you also know that ex-Texas A&M hooper Wally Moon (averaged 4.3 ppg in 1948-49 and 1949-50) earned National League Rookie of the Year acclaim over Aaron when the Cards CF led league in plate appearances (716) and ranked among top six in hits (193), triples (9), runs (106) and stolen bases (18)? Twenty years later in Atlanta, Aaron's 715th round-tripper surpassing Babe Ruth on April 8, 1974, was hit off Los Angeles Dodgers lefthander Al Downing, who attended Muhlenberg (Pa.) on a basketball scholarship but left school before ever playing to turn to Organized Ball and his ultimate date with sports history while also donning uniform #44.

Opposing catcher adjacent to Aaron for historic homer was Downing's batterymate Joe Ferguson, who played for Pacific against eventual NCAA basketball champion UCLA in 1967 West Regional final. LA's manager was Walter Alston, a basketball letterman with Miami of Ohio from 1932-33 through 1934-35. The winning hurler in historic baseball game was Atlanta's Ron Reed, who led Notre Dame in rebounding as a junior (17.7 rpg in 1963-64) and scoring as a senior (21 ppg in 1964-65). Reed played more seasons (nine) with Aaron than any ex-college cager. Former hoopers Darrell Evans (Pasadena City College under coach Jerry Tarkanian) and Davey Johnson (Texas A&M) combined for 40 homers with the Braves in Aaron's final campaign with them in 1974. Johnson, who tied Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby's record for most single-season round-trippers by a second baseman the previous year, became a regular with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966 by succeeding slick-fielding Jerry Adair, a top three scorer for Oklahoma State in 1956-57 and 1957-58 under legendary coach Hank Iba.

Aaron led the entire majors in homers in a single season only once (44 in 1957) before pacing N.L. three more times (1963, 1966 and 1967). Former college hooper contemporaries swatting more circuit clouts than Aaron in a season when he registered at least 20 round-trippers included Adcock (38 in 1956 and 35 in 1961), Bob Cerv (attended Nebraska/38 in 1958 with Kansas City Athletics), Evans (41 in 1973 and 25 in 1974), Gil Hodges (St. Joseph's IN & Oakland City IN/32 in 1956 with Brooklyn Dodgers), Frank Howard (Ohio State/44 in 1968, 48 in 1969 and 44 in 1970 with Washington Senators), Johnson (43 in 1973), Don Lock (Wichita/28 in 1964 with Senators), Graig Nettles (San Diego State/22 in 1974 with New York Yankees) and Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner (Tuskegee AL/31 in 1964 with Cleveland Indians). Johnson, Evans and Aaron comprised the first trio of teammates to each hammer at least 40 homers in a single season.

Aaron's 755th and final homer came against the California Angels on 7/20/76 (hit none in his final 23 games covering 2 1/2 months). In Aaron's next-to-last MLB game, his final extra-base hit was a sixth-inning double vs. Baltimore Orioles on 9/29/76 before scoring eventual winning run on a single by Eastern League MVP/Triple Crown winner/September call-up Dan Thomas in the Milwaukee Brewers' 6-3 victory. The tally was Aaron's final of 2,174 runs scored. His successor as the Brewers' principal DH early in 1977 was Thomas before career for "The Sundown Kid" unraveled under Bud Selig's stewardship prior to becoming MLB commissioner. Believe it or not, Thomas died in Aaron's hometown of Mobile, Ala., under distressing circumstances. If you need to win a sports trivia bar bet, please be aware that Thomas' high-school basketball coach at Dupo, Ill., in the St. Louis Metro East area was Cal Neeman Sr. (catcher with Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Washington Senators for seven years from 1957 through 1963 after leading Illinois Wesleyan hoops in scoring in 1947-48 and 1948-49).

Adding to hoop connection, the college baseball coach for Thomas, 6th pick overall in 1972 MLB June amateur draft following Southern Illinois' runner-up finish in 1971 College World Series, was Richard "Itchy" Jones, an ex-Salukis hooper averaging 8.9 ppg in 1956-57. Moreover, Thomas was runner-up to Sixto Lezcano in batting average in 1973 with the Shreveport Captains' AA Texas League club managed by Gene Freese, the captain of West Liberty State WV hoop squad participating in 1952 NAIA Tournament. On 5-1-75, Lezcano scored record-setting run on Aaron's third-inning single when Aaron passed Ruth in career RBI (2,210).

It's a small sports world, after all. In 1950, Neeman was a minor-league teammate of New York Yankees farmhand Mickey Mantle for Joplin (Class C Western Association). Mantle earned his second of three A.L. MVP awards in 1957. In Neeman's MLB debut with the Cubs on opening day 1957 against the Braves, he got his first big-league safety off Cy Young Award winner Warren Spahn (single to right-center; Aaron was RF). One week later on 4/23/57, Aaron was a firsthand witness early in his lone MVP campaign to Neeman's first MLB homer (decisive 10th-inning blast off World Series MVP Lew Burdette of the Braves). Coincidentally, Aaron (fractured left ankle sliding into third base) and Neeman (fractured little finger of right hand) both had their regal rookie seasons stall the first week in September because of injuries. For the record, Thomas' first big-league homer came at Yankee Stadium off Catfish Hunter. Eventual Hall of Fame shortstop Robin Yount went 2-for-18 with Milwaukee in the four games Thomas hit a round-tripper in September of 1976. Yount, the Brewers' top June amateur draft pick (3rd overall) the year after Thomas, wound up with 3,140 other safeties. Thomas' third HR came off Yankees lefthander Ken Holtzman. Unbelievably, Thomas' high school baseball coach was Bill Schlueter, Holtzman's batterymate while attending Illinois and son of MLB catcher Norm Schlueter, who played in A.L. same decade (1930s) as none other than Yankees legend Babe Ruth.

Aaron went deep against Downing (three times), Holtzman (four) and 308 other hurlers over the course of his celebrated career. Victims of Aaron's blasts included All-Americans Joe Gibbon, Johnny O'Brien and Dick Ricketts among the following alphabetical list of former college hoopers: Steve Arlin (Ohio State/yielded two HRs), Curt Barclay (Oregon/one), Joe Black (Morgan State/one), Ray Burris (Southwestern Oklahoma State/one), Danny Coombs (Seton Hall/one), Roger Craig (North Carolina State freshman team/10), Gibbon (Mississippi/two), Bob Gibson (Creighton/eight), Dave Giusti (Syracuse/two), Dallas Green (Delaware/one), Don Gross (Michigan State freshman/two), Paul Hartzell (Lehigh/one), Jim Hearn (Georgia Tech/one), Bill Henry (Houston/two), Jay Hook (Northwestern/eight), Ken Hunt (Brigham Young/one), Don Kaiser (East Central OK/one), Cal Koonce (Campbell/two), Sandy Koufax (Cincinnati freshman/seven), Lindy McDaniel (Oklahoma freshman/four), Joe Niekro (West Liberty State WV/two), O'Brien (Seattle/one), Steve Renko (Kansas/two), Ricketts (Duquesne/one), Robin Roberts (Michigan State/nine), George Stone (Louisiana Tech/two), Jim Todd (Parsons IA & Millersville PA/one), Bob Veale (Benedictine KS/three) and Ray Washburn (Whitworth WA/six).

Getting back to Neeman, he coached Thomas in Southern Illinois high school hoops in 1968-69 against Gary Simpson (Pistol Pete's backcourt successor with Louisiana State in 1970-71), Rick Suttle (Kansas' 1974 Final Four team) and Dave Taynor (Kansas captain). Eerily, Thomas and Simpson both passed away in 1980 at the age of 29. Thirteen winters apart, Neeman and Thomas played baseball in Venezuela within a year of each of them concluding their MLB careers. Curiously, the aforementioned Johnson was Thomas' first-year skipper in 1979 with the Miami Amigos franchise in short-lived AAA Inter-American League. Earlier that decade, Johnson gained distinction as the only player to hit behind both Aaron and Japan's all-time home-run king (Sadaharu Oh). Adcock, Evans, Johnson and Reed are among the following list of Aaron's baseball teammates with the Braves and Brewers who previously played college basketball (14 from current power-conference members):

NOTE: A couple of Aaron's MLB managers - Birdie Tebbetts (1961 and 1962/Providence) and Harvey Kuenn (1975/Wisconsin) - also were former college hoopers. Tebbetts, while skipper of the Cincinnati Reds, gushed about the lanky Neeman's power: "That big catcher can hit a ball a mile (but 725 fewer than Aaron)." Neeman's baseball impact continues as a grandson, Kevin Graham, belted a three-run homer in his first start with Ole Miss and was named Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball in 2019. Graham, an INF/OF, led the NCAA Regional host Rebels in homers during 2021 regular season and finished campaign with NCAA-high 60 consecutive contests reaching base.