This week, I’m thankful that Hank Aaron won the MVP Award in 1957. It would have been a shame for Hammer to go through his career without at least one.
It’s appropriate that he won it with the 1957 Braves. It’s one of my favorite Braves teams of all time. Teammates Schoendienst hit .310 and Mathews homered 32 times and scored 109 runs. 1957 was the year Bob Hazle hit .403 and 7 homers in limited play got his crazy APBA card. And with Spahn, Burdette and Buhl leading the way, their pitching was second to none.
That year, Hank Aaron cracked an apropos 44 homers which led the NL. He also paced the league with 132 rbis and 118 runs. He followed up his .328 1956 batting championship year with a .322 average in 1957.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 Totals | 151 | 675 | 615 | 118 | 198 | 27 | 6 | 44 | 132 | 1 | 57 | 58 | .322 | .378 | .600 |
With Aaron’s 1-5-5-5 power numbers, Aaron becomes Mr Clutch with runners on base. It’s a pretty rare combination to dole out by the Company. Along with his two 7s, Aaron also gets four 8s so his last 9 ends up at 42.
Aaron struck out about as much as he walked (58 to 57). He gets three 14s and two 13s.
Fun numbers: 22-5, 33-5, 55-7
Looking at his splits, I notice that in 1957, manager Fred Haney batted him second in the lineup approximately one-third of the season. He actually hit better and with more power in the second spot.
By the way, the above card is from the second reprint of the 1957 season. Some others may have different versions to report in. Also, this is Hank Aaron’s second visit to the Monster Card Monday column. Here is his card from 1973.
Tom:
The triple-5 combo is rare. It may involve generating the right number of triples.
Here’s a link to a similar discussion:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/discussionFrameset.asp?webtag=apbabtl&ctx=&cacheTag=31-0&msg=38437.4
Tom
I have the 1986 reprint of the ’57 season. The Aaron card from that set is pretty close to this, the only real difference being that the earlier card has an additional 32 and one less 27 than the one pictured here. Perhaps exhaustive research during the eight intervening years indicated that Bad Henry grounded to third more than originally thought!
Other than that, the 12 is on 26 which means some of the out numbers are shuffled around a bit.
How many others earned three first-column 5s?
Mike Pagliarulo on 1987 NY Yankees has three first column 5s, but I believe it’s in error; his home run percentage per plate appearances was only 5.5, enough for two 5s and maybe a 6 on 22.