Guest presenter Brig Owens, former defensive captain of the Washington Redskins, 

discusses a 2010 painting of Hank Aaron by Ross Rossin.

 

“Hammering” Hank Aaron was one of the greatest players in major league history. He was scouted at sixteen and played Negro League baseball before signing with the Milwaukee (later, Atlanta) Braves, for whom he debuted in 1954. A perennial All-Star and the league MVP in 1957, Aaron was remarkably consistent: in a twenty-three-year major-league career he never hit more than fifty homers in a season but always ranked near the top of the hitting statistics. 

 

A compact six-footer, Aaron generated tremendous bat speed with his extraordinary reflexes. In 1974 he broke Babe Ruth’s seemingly impregnable record of 714 career home runs. Aaron’s chase of Ruth’s record generated some hate mail but was widely celebrated as a sign of racial progress in the New South. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982, Aaron has had an estimable post-baseball career doing charitable and civic work in Atlanta.

 

Filmed at NPG, September 2014.