Henry Aaron in Eau Claire

A young Henry Aaron with the 1952 Eau Claire Bears. Top row from left to right: Chester Morgan, Richard Engquist, Elmer Toth, Gordon Roach, Wes Covington, Robert MccConnell, Kenneth Reitmeier. Middle row: Henry Aaron, Donald Auten, Chuck Doehler, Bill Adair, Lantz Blaney, George Kornack, Julie Bowers. Bottom row: Bill Conroy, Johnny Goryl, Robert Brown, Don Jordon, Joe Subbiondo. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

Speaking to an audience in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on August 17, 1994, Henry Aaron said, “You gave me my start. You made me realize I had a dream and all I had to do was go out and play baseball as hard as I could.”1

Aaron had come to the small city east of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul to witness the unveiling of a statue in his honor. That statue stands in a plaza outside of Carson Park, Eau Claire’s WPA-era ballpark that has hosted baseball since 1937.

In 1952 Aaron began his journey through the Braves farm system on his way to the Hall of Fame via Milwaukee and Atlanta. He played in Eau Claire for only 2½ months, but during his brief tenure he showed flashes of the greatness that would take him to the Hall of Fame.

The Eau Claire Bears, members of the Class-C Northern League, had been a farm club of the Boston Braves since 1947. After a successful campaign in 1951 in which the Eau Claire topped the regular-season standings, Bears fans were cautiously optimistic at the start of the 1952 season. Second-year manager Bill Adair thought he might have a pennant contender on his hands but admitted he had little idea how his club would stack up against the other seven members of the league. He expected “some turnover of players before his club becomes a strong contender (and) looks for help at catching, the left side of the infield, and in the outfield.”2

Starting the season at home on May 4, the Bears got off to a rocky start as the Superior Blues swept them in the opening three-game series. Throughout May and into June, the Bears hovered around the .500 mark, despite the batting heroics of their star slugger, Wes Covington, who sported a batting average of .316 to go with 6 home runs and 29 RBIs by June 10.

Aaron had originally signed with Indianapolis on November 20, 1951. Early in the 1952 season, Clowns owner Syd Pollack touted Aaron in a letter to Boston’s farm director, John Mullen, and after a favorable report from Braves scout Dewey Griggs, Boston offered Indianapolis $10,000 to purchase Aaron’s contract.4 The New York Giants also expressed an interest, but according to Aaron, the Braves offered to pay Aaron $350 per month to play in Eau Claire, while the Giants offered $250 per month to play for their Sunbury, Pennsylvania, affiliate in the Interstate League. Aaron accepted the Braves offer both for the higher monthly salary and because he thought he had a better shot to make the Braves’ big-league roster.5

Aaron arrived in Eau Claire after playing a doubleheader for the Negro League Clowns in Chicago, taking a train to Milwaukee, and finally an airplane flight to his new baseball home. He unpacked his bags at the Eau Claire YMCA. “It was the first flight of my life, and the worst flight,” noted Aaron in later years.6

The Bears were scheduled to return home to Carson Park on June 13, although rain postponed the start of the homestand until the following day. On the 14th the Telegram noted, “Tonight’s game with St Cloud marks the close of the first one-third of the 1952 playing dates and finds the Bears still trying to get above the .500 mark. They hold fourth place by a margin over Duluth.” (At the time, the Bears’ record stood at 17-19, 12 games behind league-leading Superior and only one game ahead of the fifth-place Dukes.)7

During the afternoon of June 14, Aaron signed the contract that would pay him $350 per month ($200 from Eau Claire and $150 from Evansville of the Three-I League. The portion from Evansville presumably was to keep the Bears from exceeding the Northern League’s roster salary cap of $3400 per month).8 The young shortstop was set to make his debut on a hot and humid evening. Aaron wrote that he was “more nervous that it was my first time at bat against a white pitcher” than he was about playing his first minor-league game.9

Batting seventh, Aaron came to bat for the first time in the bottom of the second inning with the Bears trailing 2-0. After Collins Morgan doubled to deep center field, Aaron stroked a hit off left-hander Art Rosser to score Morgan but was thrown out at second base trying to leg out a double, so his first minor-league at-bat went into the books as a single with an RBI. The same combination of a Collins double and Aaron single tied the ballgame in the bottom of the fifth. Two subsequent walks put Aaron on third as the tying run, but the Bears were unable to bring him home.

Although Aaron handled seven chances in the field, he did muff a potential double-play ball in the top of the sixth. With a man on first and one out, Aaron bobbled a ball hit by Rollie Thomas, which put runners on the corners. The Rox went on to score two runs in the inning and sent the Bears to defeat, 4-3.10

After that respectable debut, Adair moved Aaron to the second spot in the Bears batting order, where the youngster fashioned a seven-game hitting streak.

Aaron later admitted he was somewhat wary of his Eau Claire manager. Like Aaron, Adair hailed from Mobile, Alabama, and Aaron was initially unsure how his White manager would treat him. Looking back in his autobiography, I Had A Hammer, Aaron credited Adair with being a “fair and good manager” who “gave me every chance to prove myself.”11

Likewise, Aaron noted he had some trepidation about playing in an overwhelmingly White city like Eau Claire. “Eau Claire was not a hateful place for a black person – nothing like in the South – but we didn’t exactly blend in,” he noted.12 Fortunately for the young player, Eau Claire had developed a history of welcoming African American players. Bill Bruton and Roy White had integrated the Bears in 1950, and Bruton won over the local fans with stellar play that earned him the Northern League Rookie of the Year Award that season. The following year, another Black player, Horace Garner, won the same award.13

Eau Claire’s 1952 roster included two other African Americans besides Aaron: John “Wes” Covington, a 20-year-old outfield prospect, and William Julius “Julie” Bowers, a 26-year-old veteran catcher who “was the type of black player you always found on minor-league teams back then – an older guy who was there to provide company for the younger players and keep them out of trouble.”14 The three teammates all stayed at the local YMCA.

Aaron by his own admission “wasn’t much of a talker anyway, but in Eau Claire, you couldn’t pry my my mouth open.”15 Covington noted that “Hank was a very private individual. I don’t think at that time we were really trying to be close. We were trying so damned hard to make the team.”16 The quiet Aaron apparently was content to let his play do the talking for him,

On the field, Aaron ended his first week of play in style, when he stroked a bases-clearing triple that capped a five-run sixth inning and provided the winning margin as Eau Claire notched an 8-5 victory for their first win in seven games against Superior.

Aaron was hitless in the second game of the series, but bounced back with two hits and an RBI in the series finale on June 20. He also made two errors in the contest, one of which injured Superior catcher, Chuck Wiles. Wiles had walked in the top of the eighth to put runners on first and third. The next batter grounded to Bears second baseman Bob McConnell, who threw to shortstop Aaron to force Wiles, but Aaron’s relay throw to first struck Wiles in the head, allowing the tying run to score as the ball rolled into right field. Alfredo Ibanez, a pitcher who was forced to substitute at catcher for the injured Wiles, allowed the Bears to score the winning run on a passed ball in the bottom of the ninth.17

Wiles was hospitalized with a severe concussion and was even in a coma for three days. He was released after a two-week hospital stay, but the impact of the ball had damaged his inner ear to such an extent that his sense of balance was destroyed. He never played professional baseball again. Reflecting on the incident, Aaron wrote, “I felt horrible, and on top of everything else, they booed me in Superior every time I came to bat for the rest of the season.”18

Despite sweeping the league leaders, Eau Claire still occupied fourth place. The Bears moved one game above .500 at 23-22 and were riding a six-game winning streak as they embarked on a road trip to the Northern League’s North Dakota cities, Fargo and Grand Forks.

In Fargo on June 22 Aaron swatted his first Northern League home run. With the teams tied, 4-4, in the top of the 10th, Bears center fielder Collins Morgan blasted a two-run homer to give Eau Claire the lead. Aaron then faced Twins pitcher Reuben Stohs. Stohs recalled that the “count went to 3-and-2 and I threw a high fastball. I could see his eyes get wide. He went up on his toes to get that ball, and just whipped it out of the park.”19 The Bears shut down Fargo-Moorhead in the bottom of the inning to notch an 8-4 victory.

The next day, in the second game of a doubleheader with Fargo-Moorhead, Aaron hit his second home run, although it showcased his speed rather than raw power. According to the Eau Claire Telegram, Aaron “opened the fourth with an inside-the-park home run to deepest center field. It was the first inside circuit clout for the Bears this season.”20 Eau Claire swept that four-game series with the Twins to extend its winning streak to nine and moved up to third place.

Eau Claire ran its winning streak to 10 games before the Grand Forks Chiefs cooled off the Bears in the first game of a doubleheader on June 25. Aaron scored the Bears’ run in the 2-1 defeat by again showcasing his speed. He singled in the seventh inning, took second on a wild pitch, went to third on an infield out, and scored on another wild pitch to prevent Stan Burkholder from tossing a shutout. The Bears won the nightcap and headed home to Carson Park six games above .500.21

After dropping two out of three to Fargo-Moorhead, Eau Claire recovered to sweep a three-game set with Grand Forks and Aaron closed out June on a high note by hitting a home run, driving in three runs, and kicking off a six-run rally in the eighth inning with a leadoff single and a stolen base.22

Aaron kept right on going as the calendar turned to July. In the final game of a homestand on July1, according to the Telegram, he “sparked the Eau Claire attack for the second straight night. He drove in one run with a tremendous double to center field, scored twice and stole two bases.”23 The Bears completed another sweep of Grand Forks, 4-2.

In the same issue the Telegram reported on a visit by Billy Southworth, former Boston Braves manager, who was then serving as a roving scout for the organization. While the paper quoted Southworth as saying the Eau Claire infield was “pretty good defensively,” he made no particular mention of Aaron.24 (In his scouting report, Southworth did remark that “for a baby-face kid of 18 years his playing ability is outstanding.”)25

The Bears then traveled to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where Aaron would have the biggest game of his budding career.

After the Bears split the first two games with the Rox, the teams squared off in a morning/evening doubleheader on the Fourth of July, and the Bears shortstop provided plenty of fireworks. The Bears scored 10 runs in each game, with Aaron getting a combined six hits in 10 at-bats. His grand slam in the eighth inning of the morning contest powered the Bears to a 10-7 win. For an encore, he was 4-for-5 with two doubles in the nightcap, which Eau Claire won 10-3.26

The Bears returned home for a two-game set (which was reduced to a single game after a July 5 rainout). An overflow crowd of 3,770 filed into Carson Park to watch the Bears take on the Dukes (and to enjoy postgame fireworks). Dukes pitcher Vern Belt handcuffed the Bears for the most part, until Aaron doubled in the seventh inning and later scored to knot the score, 1-1. Duluth rallied for two runs in the eighth inning, but Aaron had a golden opportunity for some heroics in the bottom of the frame as the Bears loaded the bases with two outs. Instead, he lined directly to left fielder Dick Getter for the third out and Duluth went on to top the Bears, 3-2.27

The Bears continued inching up the standings, and their record stood at 40-28 on July 10. They trailed first-place Superior by 5½ games and second-place Sioux Falls by 2½. That day, Aaron joined four of his teammates in being named to an all-star squad that would take on the league-leading Blues. Aaron joined his skipper Adair, along with pitcher Bobby Brown, catcher Julie Bowers, and left fielder Covington on the all-star roster.28

Before the all-star break, the Bears faced a pair of three-game series with second-place Sioux Falls and fourth-place Aberdeen.

After Eau Claire and the Sioux Falls Canaries split the first two games at Carson Park, the rubber game on July 13 came down to an exciting finish. Aaron led off the eighth inning with a double to left field and scored the first run in a two-run rally to give the Bears a 4-2 lead. Eau Claire starter Bobby Brown gave up a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to Dick Wright and the game moved to the bottom of the ninth tied, 4-4. Back-to-back scratch singles by Dick Engquist and John Goryl chased Sioux Falls reliever Ray Grund. The Canaries brought Gordon VanDyke to the mound and Aaron launched a 350-foot homer over the fence in left-center to give the Bears a 7-4 walk-off win and move them only 2½ games out of second place.29

Aberdeen came to Eau Claire the following night and Aaron’s two-run homer to right field staked the Bears to a 2-0 lead after one inning en route to a 7-2 victory over the Pheasants. The Bears dropped a doubleheader to Aberdeen on the 15th but still held third place at the break.

The all-star game took place in Superior on July 16. Aaron started at shortstop for the league all-stars and batted second. He singled in the first inning in what turned out to be his only at-bat in the game. While sliding into second in an attempt to break up a double play, he twisted his ankle. After a visit to a Superior hospital, Aaron was diagnosed with a slight ankle sprain and was expected to miss two days to a week. Superior went on to win the game, 8-6 taking advantage of seven errors by the all-stars.30

As it turned out, Aaron missed only one game for the Bears and returned to the lineup on July 18 at Sioux Falls. His bat showed few ill effects from his injury, although he did commit several errors in the subsequent games. Eau Claire continued to hold third place and managed to creep slightly closer to Superior and the second-place Canaries.

At Grand Forks on July 28, Aaron clouted a three-run homer in the top of the third to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. The wallop must have kick-started the Bears offense, as they went on to rout the Chiefs in a 26-3 laugher and inched closer to second place.31

On August 5 the Bears swept seventh-place Fargo-Moorhead in a doubleheader that combined with a Sioux Falls loss, moved Eau Claire past the Canaries and into second place. (Eau Claire was still 8½ games behind Superior.) The next day the Bears tightened their grip on second with another win and a Canaries doubleheader loss, but disaster struck the Bears. Late in the game, Covington was hit in the head by a pitch and knocked unconscious. He was hospitalized in Eau Claire and expected to miss at least 10 days just as the Bears were heading into the home stretch.32

Eau Claire had a brief respite from league play on August 6 and met the House of David, a talented barnstorming team, for an exhibition game at Carson Park. The Bears dropped the contest, 5-2. Aaron was restricted to pinch-hitting duty by a sore hand, but he slapped a single in the ninth inning and later stole third, but was stranded there when the final out came.33

Still, Aaron was in the lineup the next day in Sioux Falls and contributed a double as the Bears whipped the Canaries 10-5 to keep their hold on second place. Sioux Falls won the next two games of the series, however, and the Bears moved on to Aberdeen, where the fourth-place Pheasants swept a three-game set and bumped the Bears back into third. The second game of the Aberdeen series, on August 11, would also mark Aaron’s most ignominious moment of the season, at least since his errant throw struck Superior’s Chuck Wiles in June.

This time, one of Aaron’s own teammates, first baseman Dick Engquist, was the victim; he was struck in the face by Aaron during batting practice. As Aaron described the incident, “I was taking batting practice left-handed, toying with the idea of becoming a switch-hitter, when the bat slipped out of my hand and broke the nose of one of my teammates. After that, I never again tried to bat left-handed. I regret that now, because after batting cross-handed for so long, I would have been a natural switch-hitter.”34

More injuries piled up for the Bears in August. As one writer noted, “Third baseman Johnny Goryl lost a pop fly in the sun; it hit him on the top of the head and knocked him out.” The Bears became so shorthanded that not only was Adair forced into action, the skipper also was forced to use three pitchers as infielders.35

After the disastrous trip to South Dakota, the Bears returned home to face Duluth on August 13. Aaron helped set the table in the seventh inning with a single ahead of Julie Bowers’ home run as the makeshift Bears snapped a five-game losing skid and won their 60th game of the season.36

Aaron went 3-for-4 at Superior on August 18, but the Bears dropped the rubber match of a three-game set. That day, Covington worked out for the first time since his injury, so Eau Claire still had hopes of salvaging second place.37

Covington returned to action to open a key series at home with Superior on August 22. Aaron contributed an RBI single as the Bears shut out the Blues 4-0 and moved Eau Claire back within a game of second place.38

In the second game of a doubleheader against Aberdeen in Carson Park on August 28, Gordon Roach tossed a seven-inning no-hitter with Aaron credited for turning a sharp double play in the sixth inning to help out his pitcher.39 The win gave the Bears a split and set up a final confrontation with Sioux Falls. Both the Bears and Canaries were nine games behind Superior, although Sioux Falls held second by percentage points.

Aaron was hitless in the three-game set, and Sioux Falls swept Eau Claire to take the season series, 11-7 and put a lock on second place, three games ahead of Eau Claire.

Eau Claire ended the regular season on Labor Day with a sweep of the St Cloud Rox. The Bears walked off both games, with Aaron contributing to both rallies. In the first game, his sacrifice moved Covington into scoring position, and Covington eventually tallied the winning run. In the nightcap, Aaron tripled in the bottom of the ninth with one out. With runners on the corners after an intentional walk, Aaron scampered home with the winning run as the Rox were unable to turn a double play on a grounder.40 Aaron’s final batting average stood at .336, second in the league to the .342 of Duluth’s Joe Caffie. Aaron finished with 9 home runs and 61 RBIs.41

Finishing the season 72-53, the Bears earned a date with pennant-winning Superior in the first round of the league playoffs. The series opened in Superior on September 3, and 1,600 fans saw both starters (Bobby Brown for Eau Claire and Alfredo Ibanez for the Blues) pitch the distance as Superior topped the Bears 5-4 in 12 innings. Aaron contributed two RBIs when he launched a two-run homer in the sixth.42

The action moved to Carson Park for the remainder of the best-of-three series. In the second game, Aaron had two hits, including a double, although he did not have a role in the Bears’ five-run winning rally in the eighth inning. Julie Bowers’ three-run home run provided the final fireworks to tie the series and set up a decisive game three.43

Aaron was hitless in the finale, although Bowers scored when Aaron reached on an error in the bottom of the first.44 Superior won the third one-run game of the series, 4-3, to advance to the Northern League finals, where they swept Sioux Falls.

For his stellar first season in Organized Baseball, Aaron was named the Northern League Rookie of the Year and the league all-star shortstop.45 The same day he was announced as an all-star, the Telegram reported that Aaron had been recalled by Evansville. As it turned out, Aaron would not spend the 1953 baseball season in Indiana. For the next step on his road to the majors, he would return to his native South for an eventful season in Jacksonville, Florida, on his way to the major leagues.

POSTSCRIPT

Wes Covington joined Aaron in Milwaukee in 1956. Eau Claire infielder Johnny Goryl also made it to the major leagues in 1957, making his debut playing for the Cubs against Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves. Goryl later played for and managed the Minnesota Twins. Bears skipper Bill Adair had a long career managing the minor leagues for several organizations and had a cup of coffee with the Chicago White Sox, for whom he served as an interim manager for 10 games in September 1970 (the White Sox went 4-6.)

TIM RASK has been a member of SABR since 1992. He is a former umpire-in-chief of the FIeld of Dreams (Iowa) Chapter, and has contributed to several SABR publications. He currently resides in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During the summer months, he attends many games at Eau Claire’s Carson Park, the same ballpark where Henry Aaron played his first season in the minor leagues.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, fourth edition (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2024).

 

NOTES

1 Thomas B. Pfankuch, “Aaron Swings Through Town,” Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader-Telegram, August 18, 1994: 2A.

2 “Bears Tie Appleton, Arrive Here,” Eau Claire Leader, May 1, 1952: 18.

3 “Bears Return Tomorrow for 11-Game Stand,” Eau Claire Telegram, June 11, 1952: 16.

4 Dan Schlossberg, Home Run King: The Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron (New York: Sports Publishing, 2024), 48-49,

5 Henry Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 52-53.

6 Aaron, 54.

7 “Adair Must Cut Player to Make Room for Aaron,” Eau Claire Telegram, June 14, 1952: 8.

8 Jerry Poling, A Summer Up North (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), 18.

9 Aaron, 58.

10 “Brown Takes Loss, Blaney Hits Homer,” Eau Claire Telegram, June 16, 1952, 11.

11 Aaron, 61.

12 Aaron, 55.

13 Poling, 34.

14 Aaron, 55.

15 Aaron, 57.

16 Poling, 38.

17 “Bears Win in Ninth, 5-4 to Sweep Series,” Eau Claire Telegram, June 21, 1952: 10.

18 “Aaron, 59-60.

19 Aaron, 59.

20 “Bears Win Two Behind Robinson, Brown,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, June 24, 1952: 10.

21 “Bears Split as Chiefs Snap Streak at Ten,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, June 26, 1952: 10.

22 “Bears Score Six in 8th, Beat Chiefs, 11-6,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 1, 1952: 14.

23 “Brown Hurls 4-2 Win, Bears Sweep Series,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram July 2, 1952: 10.

24 “Southworth Predicts Bears Will Soon Be in Flag Fight,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 2, 1952: 10.

25 Schlossberg: 49.

26 “Bears Slam St. Cloud Twice, 10-7, 10-3,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 5, 1952: 8.

27 “Bears’ Rally Falls Short, Dukes Win, 3-2,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 7, 1952: 8.

28 “Five Bears on Star Team,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 11, 1952: 9.

29 “Brown Hurls Win for Edge in Series,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 14, 1952: 10.

30 “Superior Cops Error-Studded Contest, 8-6,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram July 17, 1952: 18.

31 “Bears Batter Chiefs, 26-3; Take Series,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, July 29, 1952: 12.

32 “Bears Win, 8-7, Sweep Series From Twins,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 6, 1952: 14.

33 “Bears Lose to House of David, 5-2,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 7, 1952: 18.

34 Aaron: 60. Aaron recounts the incident as taking place earlier in the season and implies that it took place at roughly the same time as the throwing incident with Wiles.

35 “Patch-Work Bears Lose to Pheasants, 4-3,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 12, 1952: 8.

36 “Bears Break Losing String; Tip Dukes, 7-4,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 14, 1952: 18.

37 “Superior Tops Bears, 5-2, to Take Series,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 19, 1952: 10.

38 “Conroy Hurls Bears to 4-0 Win Over Blues,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 23, 1952: 8.

39 “Roach Hurls No-Hitter, Bears Split,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, August 29, 1952: 8.

40 “Bears Edge Rox, 4-3, 10-9; Finish Third” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 2, 1952: 8.

41 “Caffie Tops Aaron for Batting Crown,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 6, 1952: 11.

42 “Superior Cops in 12th, For Playoff Win,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 4, 1952: 14.

43 “Bears Rally to Win, 8-7, Square Series,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 5, 1952: 8.

44 “Blues Knock Bears Out of Playoffs, 4-3,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 6, 1952: 10.

45 “Three Bears Place on All-Star Squad,” Eau Claire Daily Telegram, September 26, 1952: 8.