America recently lost a beloved baseball icon, Henry Aaron, known for breaking records and overcoming racism. Henry got a start on both of those quests right here in Jacksonville. In 1953, the future home run king arrived in town as a 19-year-old second baseman with a potent swing. He and two teammates would integrate the notorious and venerable South Atlantic League. Known as the Sally League, the South Atlantic had teams throughout the Deep South and was little prepared for the new players.
The events that brought Aaron here are perhaps as interesting to local readers as the events themselves. Before the 1953 season, Sam Wolfson of Wolfson Children’s Hospital fame bought the hapless Jacksonville Tars or Tarpons. He then affiliated the team with the Milwaukee Braves and moved his new Jacksonville Braves into the Sally League. The Braves had just left Boston for the more diverse climate of Milwaukee and were looking to add African-American players. Wolfson, the son of a Lithuania Jewish immigrant and a life-long champion of the poor, was of a like mind and so, in 1953, Jacksonville featured three African-Americans, including a young hitter named Henry who would go on to be one of the greatest players of all time.
Aaron was phenomenal that year, leading the league in hits, batting average, doubles, triples, RBIs and runs scored. He won the MVP Award and led the league in pretty much everything but home runs or, as one wag put it, “in everything but hotel reservations.” The South was still firmly segregated at that time. Aaron and his two dark-skinned teammates ate on the bus and stayed in boarding houses on the road, rather than the hotels their white teammates enjoyed. The team played its home games out in Durkeeville. The mayor of Jacksonville, Aaron remembered, warned him he would hear racial slurs from fans and suggested he should “suffer quietly.”
Ironically, although the playing field was integrated, the stands were not. Fans in the white section booed and heckled. It was popular for disgruntled white fans to wear mops on their heads and release black cats on the field. The “colored” section, which was typically in the left field bleachers, was a different story. Hank remembered that whenever he or one of his black teammates so much as caught a pop fly, fans in the left field bleachers would holler and stamp their feet like “they had just won the World Series.” One night on the road, so many African-American fans turned out to see their new heroes that the stands collapsed.
Manager Ben Geraghty shepherded his black players through their trial by fire. He would often visit the players at their boarding houses to make sure they were al right. He also frequently took meals with them on the road, inside the bus. Geraghty would bring the meals out to his players and then eat with them. For the rest of his long, illustrious career, Aaron thanked both Wolfson and Geraghty for their help and mentorship.
Aaron’s ties to Jacksonville go deeper than just that one season. He got married here to a local girl. She and her family lived near the stadium. Her name was Barbara Lucas. Henry Aaron purportedly stopped in for the home-cooked meals and stayed for the romance. They were married just days after the season ended. They remained married for 19 years and had five children. Barbara is remembered for teaching school here.
The next season, Hank was in the big leagues with Milwaukee. If the Braves intended his stay in Jacksonville to be a test of his hitting skills and his ability to withstand the slings and arrows of racism, he had passed both tests. Aaron’s first baseball card lists Jacksonville as his hometown and not Mobile, Alabama, where he was born. It also contains the following tidbit: During his single season at Jacksonville, it reads, “Aaron won 13 watches and 12 jackets for his feats at bat!” In the adjoining box it goes on to say that he gave the watches to friends, but kept the sports jackets making him “the best dressed player in the league.”
Scott A. Grant is a local historian and regular contributor to the Recorder. By day he is president of Standfast Asset Management. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.
