Mel M sent this 1973 Hank Aaron card to me just in time for today’s Monster Card Monday. I don’t think I’ve had an Aaron card featured on this blog and this is a great card to do it. Mel told me when he opened the 1973 set, Aaron was the first card on top. As well he should be!
By 1973, Aaron was 39 years old and it’s probably safe to say it was his last truly great year. He slammed 40 homers in 465 plate appearances while hitting .301 and driving in 96 runs.
1973 was the year that Aaron was making the run for Babe Ruth’s all-time record of 714 homeruns. He didn’t quite make it, ending the year with 713. He had to settle for tying and eventually breaking Ruth’s record following year. For those interested, you can find a log of all of Hank Aaron’s homeruns on Baseball-Reference.com.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Totals | 120 | 465 | 392 | 84 | 118 | 12 | 1 | 40 | 96 | 1 | 1 | 68 | 51 | .301 | .402 | .643 |
It’s not Aaron’s best card to be sure. However it’s a testament to the man when you can say that a card with power numbers 1-1-1-6 is not his best.
Another piece of common trivia… In 1973, Aaron was joined by two other Braves who also hit 40-plus homers. Darrell Evans hit 41 that year and Davey Johnson was a one-year power wonder and actually led the team with 43. That would be the only year Johnson would hit more than 20 in his 13 year career.
I’ll have to dig out my 1957 set sometime. His card with the Milwaukee Braves is something else if I remember correctly.
Triple 1’s?
Definitely deserving of a place of prominence on the “Moster Card Monday Mantle”
This is the kind of card I picture for the “Hammer”
I was in college, U of I, and a group of us took a field trip to Cincinnati to see him hit 714. Awesome memory. Also my first exposure to Skyline Chili.
hey Tom, I was looking thru the ’57 set last week. There are quite a few monsters in it.
The ’73 Braves were always an offensive dream team for me. On top of Aaron, Evans and Johnson you also had Dusty Baker (.288 21 99) Mike Lum (.294 16 82)and Ralph Garr (.299 35sb) and a few decent pitchers. But in my replay of the 1973 season they sucked.
Wow, I never really saw Lum as a regular player, only at the tail end of his carreer when he was used as a pinch hitter, so to see him with a 16 homer season is a suprise to me. If I remember his brother also made it to the show.