Henry Aaron Found Hitting in New Orleans to His Liking
This article was written by Richard Cuicchi
This article was published in Henry Aaron book essays (2026)
Henry Aaron hit home runs in most of the major-league cities during his illustrious 23-year career. He homered 755 times by the time his playing days ended in 1976, surpassing the legendary Babe Ruth in 1974. Yet one city that wasn’t on his major-league schedule, New Orleans, became the site of three unique Aaron home runs in three different decades.
New Orleans was long considered a “baseball town,” despite never having a major-league franchise located there.
Going back to the 1880s, the city had been the home of the minor-league New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans’ last season in New Orleans was 1959. Before Florida and Arizona became the primary sites for major-league spring-training camps, eight major-league teams conducted their camps in the city from 1900 to 1939.1
New Orleans also hosted teams in the Negro Leagues, through entries in national, regional, and local semipro leagues. In the 1930s, the New Orleans Black Pelicans and New Orleans Crescent Stars competed in the Negro Southern League. The New Orleans-St. Louis Stars were a shared entry between the two cities in the Negro American League in 1940 and 1941.2
New Orleans area high schools produced their share of professional players from the 1920s to the 1960s. Major leaguers like Mel Ott, Mel Parnell, Howie Pollet, Connie Ryan, Putsy Caballero, Al Jurisich, Jack Kramer, George Strickland, and Rusty Staub were signed out of high school by major-league teams. A New Orleans Times-Picayune article in 1939 reported that 100 professional players that season had ties to the city.3
The city’s attempt to attract a major-league team was triggered by the construction of the Louisiana Superdome in the early 1970s. Following the lead of Houston, which built the Astrodome as the home of its major-league baseball Astros and NFL Oilers teams, Louisiana state officials and local businessmen wanted to build a multisport domed stadium in New Orleans. It was their intention to accommodate baseball in addition to the existing NFL Saints and NBA Jazz franchises.4
Aaron played his first big game in New Orleans decades earlier. He began his major-league career with the Milwaukee Braves as a 20-year-old in 1954. By 1956 he had established himself as a legitimate star, as he led the National League in hits (200), batting average (.328), and total bases (340). He finished third in the National League MVP voting, behind Dodgers pitchers Don Newcombe and Sal Maglie.
After the 1956 regular season, Willie Mays hand-picked a barnstorming team of Black players who toured Southern cities and played exhibition games against a team of Negro American League players. Aaron was one of the players featured on Mays’ team, called the Major League All-Stars. Cincinnati Reds outfielder Frank Robinson, the 1956 National League Rookie of the Year, and New York Yankees outfielder-catcher Elston Howard were also on the team.5
With the city’s past history with Negro League baseball, the exhibition games on November 4 and 6 between the two teams were highly anticipated events within the Black community. The games were scheduled at Pelican Stadium, the ballpark of the hometown minor-league Pelicans, as well as the Negro League teams when the Pelicans played out of town. The first game, on a Sunday, drew over 5,300 fans. After the major leaguers scored once in the first inning, Aaron hit a two-run home run in the third. The Negro Americans tied the score in the fourth, and it remained even until the ninth inning. The Major League All-Stars finally prevailed, 4-3, on an RBI single by Al Smith.6 The second game scheduled for two days later was canceled because of rain.7
Aaron followed his barnstorming stint with an MVP season in 1957 in which he led the National League with 44 home runs and 132 RBIs and helped propel the Braves to their first World Series championship since 1914.
He went on to amass 713 home runs by the end of the 1973 season. The offseason and spring training for Aaron in 1974 were defined by overwhelming requests for interviews and autographs, but also hate mail and death threats from bigots who didn’t want a Black player to break Ruth’s record.
As the Braves wrapped up spring training in Florida, the team made a stop in New Orleans on April 1, 1974, to play the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game. The Superdome building commission wanted to use the contest to demonstrate the city’s support for attracting a major-league team upon completion of construction in 1975.
With Pelican Stadium having been razed after its final season in 1959, the Braves and Orioles squared off at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium, a facility normally used by local college and high-school teams. The game served as Aaron’s final tune-up for the regular season that was to begin on April 4 in Cincinnati.8
In two at-bats against Orioles star pitcher Jim Palmer, Aaron struck out in the first inning and walked in the third. He walked again in the fifth against Jesse Jefferson. With back-to-back home runs by Dusty Baker and Davey Johnson in the second inning and another home run by Johnson in the sixth, the Braves had the game well in hand, since its pitching staff limited the Orioles to three hits.9
With rain threatening throughout the game, the fans were anxious to see Aaron get another at-bat before a possible rainout. With the Braves leading 4-0 in the eighth, Aaron faced Bob Reynolds and, after seeing two curveballs, smacked a fastball for the much-anticipated homer into the parking lot in left field. Then a light rain began to fall, but New Orleans fans got what they wanted. The Braves won, 7-0.10
Aaron tied Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs on Opening Day, April 4, 1974. Four days later, he broke the vaunted home-run record in Atlanta against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing.
Hammerin’ Hank retired after the 1976 season with 755 home runs, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007. In October 1976 Aaron began a lengthy career in the Braves’ front office.
New Orleans remained in the hunt for a major-league team into the late 1980s. Numerous major-league teams had considered relocation to the city to play in the Superdome. But the lack of a financial backer ultimately became the primary reason the city was unsuccessful.11
One of the promotions New Orleans city officials used in trying to keep the Superdome in the forefront of major-league franchise decision-makers occurred on June 2, 1984. An old-timers’ game, billed as the All-Time All-Stars Game, was played in the Superdome. Aaron, then 50 years old, suited up for the Nationals team that also included Mays, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Orlando Cepeda, and Warren Spahn. They opposed the Americans, who featured Bob Feller, Luke Appling, Brooks Robinson, Tony Oliva, and Whitey Ford.12
Before an estimated crowd of 10,000, Aaron gave the fans a reminder of his former self, as he hit a home run in the first inning off Feller, the former Cleveland Indians fireballer. Aaron’s blast, which went deep into the left-field seats, came after Mays had singled with two outs. Aaron said after the game, “I could see in the warmups that the ball was carrying pretty good. I had no doubt I could reach the seats.”13
Henry Aaron returned to New Orleans for a 1984 Old-Timers game in the Louisiana Superdome and hit a two-run homer off Bob Feller in the first inning. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Aaron‘s home run was the only one in the game and one of 11 hits by the Nationals. The Americans managed only four hits. The scheduled seven-inning game ended in a 7-0 Nationals win.
Aaron provided countless thrills for baseball fans throughout his career, not only for his home runs but for his overall play. New Orleans provided the backdrop for three unique games that typically aren’t highlighted in the iconic slugger’s career history.
RICHARD CUICCHI joined SABR in 1983 and is an active member of the Schott-Pelican Chapter in New Orleans. After his retirement as an information technology executive, Richard authored Family Ties: A Comprehensive Collection of Facts and Trivia about Baseball’s Relatives. He has contributed to numerous SABR BioProject and Games Project publications. He does freelance writing and blogging about a variety of baseball topics on his website, TheTenthInning. com. Richard is a regular contributor to CrescentCitySports. com, where he writes about New Orleans baseball history. Richard lives in New Orleans with his wife, Mary.
SOURCES
In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted:
“Mays’ Stars Here Sun. & Tues.,” Louisiana Weekly, November 3, 1956: 9.
Aaron, Hank, and Lonnie Wheeler. I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991).
Bialas, Michael. “Boys of Summer Long Past Return Youth to Sparse Crowd,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 3, 1984: 6, 2.
NOTES
1 Kevin Saldana,” MLB Spring Training Locations by Franchise Since 1900,” https://baseballguru.com/ksaldana/analysisksaldana03.html. Accessed May 28, 2024.
2 Ryan Whirty, “Negro Leagues of Louisiana,” 64 Parishes. https://64parishes.org/entry/negro-leagues-of-louisiana. Accessed May 28, 2024.
3 N. Charles Wicker, “New Orleans Represented by 100 Youngsters in Pro Baseball Loops This Year,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 9, 1939: 4, 2.
4 Richard Cuicchi, “Superdome (New Orleans, LA),” SABR BioProject. https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/superdome-new-orleans/. Accessed May 28, 2024.
5 Bill Keefe, “Young Negro Stars Coming,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 3, 1956: 20.
6 “Mays All-Stars Win in 9th, 4-3,” New Orleans States, November 5, 1956: 26.
7 An interesting sidebar about the second scheduled game was that Charley Pride, the future Black country singer, was slated to pitch for the Negro American League team. Pride had pitched briefly in the low minors in 1953 and 1955. “Sam Jones Hurls for Mays Stars in Game Tonight,” New Orleans States, November 6, 1956: 18.
8 Peter Barrouquere, “Hank Homers; Braves Rip Birds, 7-0,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 2, 1974: 3,1.
9 “Hank Homers; Braves Rip Birds, 7-0.”
10 “Hank Homers; Braves Rip Birds, 7-0.”
11 Cuicchi, “Superdome (New Orleans, LA).”
12 Peter Barrouquere, “NL Wins for Old Times Sake,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 2, 1984: 6,1.
13 “NL Wins for Old Times Sake.”