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Tommie Lee Aaron
Milwaukee Braves
First Base
Born: August 5, 1939, Mobile, AL
Signed: Signed by the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent, May 28, 1958
Major League Teams: Milwaukee Braves 1962-1963, 1965; Atlanta Braves 1968-1971
Died: August 16, 1984, Atlanta, GA (age 45)
The younger brother of Hank (#170), Tommie Aaron played in parts of seven seasons with the Braves, appearing in 437 games and hitting .229 with 13 career home runs. He best season in the majors was his first, as he appeared in 141 games for the Braves in 1962 hitting .231. He started 39 games at first base and 35 games in left field that season while his brother Hank patrolled center field.
Aaron was the International League MVP in 1967 for the Richmond Braves, where he hit .309 with 11 home runs and 56 RBIs. The Aaron brothers hold the distinction of having the top home run total in the majors for two brothers with 768, with older brother Hank contributing 755 of that total. Following his playing days, the younger Aaron managed in the Braves minor league system between 1974 and 1978 compiling a record of 354-337. He was a coach for the Braves between 1979 and 1984 for managers Bobby Cox and Joe Torre (#200). Aaron passed away from leukemia in August 1984 at the age of 45.
Building the Set
January 30, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #49
Some January days are longer than others, and on a particularly long January day at work a few months ago, I decided I needed a few more 1965 Topps cards for our set. I've been familiar with Greg Morris Cards for a while now, as I've been using a lot of the images of old Topps cards scanned for their eBay auction listings in these posts and within the posts over at my 1956 Topps blog. The images are always centered and clear and for all the help Greg Morris has indirectly provided me, I thought I'd browse his eBay store.
I won 10 of the 20 auctions I originally bid on, and I've previously published a post for each of those cards. This Aaron card was part of a lot ending a week later than the other cards I had bid on, and I won this card for $3.33. It traveled from Los Angeles by itself, and upon arrival I announced to Doug I had won us "the Aaron card" for our set, which is a cruel, but expected Dad joke to play on a son. He was thrilled and asked how much I had paid for the card. I showed the card to him, he realized it wasn't that Aaron, and he returned to his PS4.
The Card
The write-up on the back is very interesting as it reflects the in-season transaction of Aaron's demotion to the Atlanta Crackers of the International League on May 8th. Given this card is part of the seventh and final series of the set, Topps had the ability to report on events that had happened earlier in the 1965 season. I'm curious to find out how many other high series cards refer back to earlier events in the season.
Braves Team Set
1965 Season
Aaron appeared in only 8 games for the Braves, all before his May 8th demotion. He hit .188 (3 for 16) with one RBI. With the Crackers, Aaron appeared in 114 games, hitting .284 with 4 home runs and 36 RBIs. He moved around the field quite a bit, starting 16 games at first, 69 games at second, 10 games at third and 13 games in the outfield.
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #46
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1963-1965, 1968-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2010 Tristar Obak #61
31 - Aaron non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/10/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year. Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.
Prior Card: #566 Yankees Rookie Stars
Next Card: #568 Ron Taylor - St. Louis Cardinals
Never has someone received so many cards with so little playing time. (ok, maybe Aurelio Monteagudo lol)
ReplyDeleteAaron got a card in the 1968 set despite not playing in MLB for years.
And a pretty bad 1968 card at that. It would have looked better had Topps just left the M on his hat instead of blacking out the entire hat.
ReplyDelete