Aaron's first collectible?
 

This is going up on my blog on Thursday

Attachment 70880

I don’t know if this is actually the first time Henry Aaron was mentioned in a national sports publication, but the earliest such mention that I can recall seeing was this item in the June 18, 1952, issue of The Sporting News.

Under the headline “Clowns Sell kid Shortstop flash to Boston Braves,” Chicago baseball writer Russ J. Cowens, who frequently covered Negro Leagues goings-on for TSN, wrote, “The pace-setting Indianapolis Clowns lost a promising young infielder last week, but came up with two recruits who loom as potential stars.

“The Clowns, who added to their lead in the Negro American League by splitting four games while the Kansas City Monarchs were dropping three, sold Henry Aaron, 17-year-old rookie shortstop, to the Boston Braves, who are to assign him to a farm club. Aaron was slugging the ball at a .427 pace, led the league in doubles with seven, and in homers with eight. He also was the top man for runs batted in with 26.”

The two “potential stars” that the Clowns signed to replace Aaron were Tom Cooper, “a former student at West Virginia State College, and Herbert Benson, a first baseman.”

On the morning of June 9 that season, the Clowns had played to a 17-8 record to lead the NAL.

This early mention of Henry Aaron reminded me that I have squirreled away in my “archives” what I now realize may be the first collectible item ever issued of Aaron.

Attachment 70881
It is an 8” x 10” black-and-white team-issued glossy photo of the 1952 Eau Claire Bears.
Aaron is shown seated at the left end of middle row. The Bears were a Boston Braves farm team and Aaron’s first club in Organized Baseball.

Three other future Major Leaguers are shown in the team photo – two of them managers. Aaron’s future outfield teammate Wes Covington is pictured in the back row, third from right. Also in the photo are Bears manager Bill Adair, who had a 10-game stint as manager of the Chicago White Sox, and Johnny Goryl, who played for the Cubs 1957-59 and the Twins 1962-64, managing the Twins in 1980-81.

The 1952 Eau Claire Bears finished third in the Class C Northern League in 1952. Aaron led the team (and was third in the league) with a .336 batting average. His nine home runs in 87 games were only fourth best on the team (Covington led with 24).

Some people claim that Aaron is pictured in an earlier program of the Indianapolis Clowns. I have seen a picture, but I don’t believe it to be Aaron.

That's a fun piece. Thx

Very cool item, Bob but I believe that this one pre-dates yours. It is a 1952 Indianapolis Clowns postcard (I do not own it).

That's the image I've seen, I don't think it is Aaron.

More major league ties in this picture:

Back row, far left is Charles "Chet" Morgan Jr., son of Chet Morgan Sr., an outfielder briefly with the Tigers in the 1930s.

And in the second row, third from the left, is Chuck Doehler, who just passed away a month or so ago. Though he never made it far professionally (he was a late-season fill in for the injured "John" Covington in 1952) as a player, Doehler has one of the most unique baseball connections you could ever imagine. Chuck was one of the last to see the earthly remains of Babe Ruth (long story, but Claire had the casket re-opened so that Chuck and his late-arriving teammates could place a ball with Babe), and one of the first to welcome the new HR King, Henry Aaron.

Several years ago, I purchased an original Bears team photo, complete with the mailing envelope. Alas, it's from 1951.

An off topic tidbit is the U of Wisconsin Eau Claire supposedly is the coldest winter campus in the U.S.

Anyone who claims that has definitely crossed the foot bridge in the wintertime, and anyone who questions it definitely hasn't.

I've never been to UW-Superior, though.

Are you joking that it's not Aaron on the Clowns postcard, or being serious? It's funny, when you guys have an item with random white guys on some town team, suddenly they're all Joe Jackson. If they're black guys, they're all Josh Gibson. But then if another item with an easily identifiable player (say, Hank Aaron, for example) would make it so your "earliest collectible" of that player turn out not to be the earliest, suddenly you're skeptical.

The Hank Aaron postcard is absolutely 100% Hank Aaron. Not 99%. 100%. Sorry to ruin this big discovery, i.e. jackpot.

The wishful thinking of people on this board is way more annoying than any of the childish bickering or silly arguments. Mainly because it's always about greed. It's strange that no one makes great discoveries by identifying the "earliest collectible" of a player on an item they don't themselves own.

And for the record, I don't own the Aaron postcard. I did at one time. Because it's Aaron and it's awesome.

The Eau Claire premium is also super cool, btw. It's just not a postcard of Hank Aaron in the Negro Leagues.

-Ryan

Sorry, Ryan, I just don't see Aaron in that face.

Anybody else care to chime in?

I know, Bob. Maybe you should buy it and it will become crystal clear.

-Ryan

Here's a better scan. You can see they did some touch-up outlining to the original picture, as was common. Maybe that's what's making it look not quite right to you. Still not seeing it?

-Ryan

here it lists it in print, not just handwritten in.

http://www.mearsonlineauctions.com/L...spx?lotid=3053

That Mears piece seems to nail it down. The touched-up postcard by itself, with the hand notation of "HANK AARON" was too much of a stretch.

Thanks for posting the larger image, Ryan. It was those touch-ups that made it look like the batter was not Aaron. I can envision without those, it would be a very recognizable image.

I'll edit my blog post accordingly.

Similar looking guy, but the chin is different, and the lips are much farther below the nose.
Plus, Aaron batted cross handed till sometime during the 52 season while playing for the Bears. The player shown is batting with his hands in the correct position.

It wouldn't be the first time a company got the wrong name on the wrong picture.

Steve B

That is definitely Hank Aaron on that Clowns postcard.

It is Aaron

If it is, then it's not Aaron in the team photo. They're just different.

And why would they show a cross handed batter batting normally?

I just don't see it.

Steve B

They both look like Aaron to me.
JimB

Bob
 

Anyway, that is a great photo. I love the old Eau Claire Bears and Braves stuff. Thank you for showing it, Bob.

Anyone who is interested in the Eau Claire Bears should pick up a copy of Jason's book that covers Eau Claire baseball.

Rick

Steve,

I know you're stuck on the cross-handed batting thing, but did you take a minute to think about this? We've all heard the legend of Aaron who learned to bat with his hands crossed, thereby giving him superhuman power in his wrists, enabling him to later on change his grip but retain the bionic wrist strength and hit all kinds of home runs. I believe he did learn to hit this way, and did so well into his teenage years. But do you honestly believe a cross-handed batter was successful in the Negro Leagues or minor leagues? Also, did you really need the Eau Claire photo to compare the Clowns postcard to? You don't know what Hank Aaron looks like from memory?

Anyway, the Clowns postcard originates from the estate of Clowns owner, Syd Pollock. Not that there should need to be even further proof, but here's the image of Aaron as it appears in the biography of Syd Pollock, written by his son. Noteworthy is the part where it says "Prior to joining the Clowns, he had batted cross-handed:

Also, here's how they used the Aaron image in their 1956 promotional program. The would also use the image on broadsides and many other items over the years since, you know, Aaron was kind of big deal.

I talked with Jerry Poling, author of Summer Up North, the story of Aaron's '52 season in Eau Claire. He said he is pretty sure Aaron's cross-handed batting style was corrected by a Braves scout (Billy Southworth, perhaps) while Aaron was still with the Clowns. Jerry estimates that could have been in May--perhaps late May. Aaron debuted with Eau Claire on June 14.

Neither Jerry nor I have seen anything to indicate Aaron batted cross-handed in Eau Claire.

Hope that helps out a bit.

Ok, I'm convinced. Wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong.

I started paying atention to baseball late in 73, and the two erliest things I recall are the 73 series and #715 so the image stuck in my head of Aaron is more the older more filled out Aaron.
Plus, I'm not that great at faces for some reason. You'd have laughed a lot at my couple autograph hunting trips I went on with an aquaintance. He'd run off and come back with something signed and I'd be asking where was that guy? right over there? who? you're kidding?! I pretty much couldn't recognize most players without the uniform.


I think the picture shows him with an odd expression that makes him look very different. Whatever, the distance between the nose and the top of his upper lip is almost double and there's not much delineation between the lower lip and chin.
I looked at a bunch of pictures of him loking for older ones, and his look did seem somewhat variable.

The info about the cross handed thing seems unclear, although the two sources seem pretty solid. I first read about it in a 70's biography I think written with input from Aaron. I'll have to find it, I don't remember the title. That one said he got to the minors and was still hitting cross handed. It also claims the manager wanted to wait till he was settled before fixing it since he thought too many changes at once wouldn't be good.

Steve B

How many of these are known to exist? Have any been graded?
Thx