Hank Aaron through the Ages

Hank Aaron has worn a lot of uniforms over a career that spanned more than two decades. Today, on his 82nd birthday, we take a look back at some of the threads that the man whom many consider the real home run king trotted out on the field. Below are most of the home uniforms Aaron wore in his 23 Major League Baseball seasons, plus a few others of note.

In 1951, the man who would become Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader played three months as a member of the Negro Leagues’ Indianapolis Clowns.

In 1953, Aaron played for the Single-A Jacksonville Braves, whose sleeve logo of a Native American in profile mirrored that of the Milwaukee Braves at the time.

Hammerin’ Hank made his MLB debut in 1954 wearing number 5 for the Milwaukee Braves.

Starting in 1955, Aaron wore the number 44 for the rest of his career. From 1955 to 1965, the biggest change to the team’s uniform, which featured the Braves Indian head on the sleeve, was that it would lose the tomahawk under the script.

When the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, the block M for Milwaukee on the cap became a script A for Atlanta, but the uniform remained largely unchanged.

From 1968 to 1971, the Braves wore probably their worst uniform of the modern era, this stripey number above. They wore a red-brimmed cap in 1968 and 1969, then the solid blue in 1970 and 1971.

Perhaps the look that Aaron is best known for, he wore the classic lower-case A above for three seasons, including, of course, in 1974, when he hit his record-breaking 715th career home run.

Aaron played his final two seasons in 1975 and 1976 back in Milwaukee, this time with the Brewers. His batting average languished in the low .200s during those seasons, but at least he got to don these sweet duds.

Obviously, Hank Aaron wore a lot of other uniforms over the years, but this progression certainly gives a sense of how uniform sensibilities changed over the course of a lengthy and illustrious career. Happy 82nd, Hank Aaron!