Henry Aaron and His Brother Tommie, His Baseball Teammate

Henry Aaron and Tommie Aaron crossing bats at Bradenton, Florida on March 1, 1962. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

“Relationships between brothers can be complex things,” concluded the award-winning author Tom Stanton, right after commenting about Hank Aaron and his far less famous Braves teammate, his brother Tommie. Stanton was mainly expressing empathy for Tommie having to play in the imposing shadow of his Hall of Fame brother, and the author was by no means alone in having done so. Still, he provided a valuable insight into the health of the dynamic between the two: “Almost every lengthy story about Tommie Aaron included comments from Hank, who played the role of big brother admirably, deflecting some of the spotlight off himself and onto his sibling,” Stanton said. In the case of the two Aaron brothers, Stanton perceived value in understanding that relationship, or at least in trying.1 In fact, other writers who were clearly intrigued by the relationship between the Aarons offered insights worth pondering.

This complexity probably means one should tread carefully, especially with regard to generalizations. It might help to keep in mind that how sportswriters perceived the relationship between the Aaron brothers while both were still alive could have been very different from how they perceived their relationship many years later. If so, that would be thanks to the advantage of hindsight, just as halls of fame commonly have a waiting period before a retired player can be considered for enshrinement.

It might be necessary to explain seemingly inconsistent or even contradictory statements, if not behavior, by the brothers – assuming such statements were sincere. That said, relationships between brothers can certainly change over time, for better or worse, or some of both. Also, comments are sometimes made in the proverbial heat of the moment. Of course, sportswriters are external to such family dynamics, but it’s possible that any “dirty laundry” they might air could undermine brotherly bonds, if it makes it back to the siblings. In the particular case of the Aaron brothers, that was quite rare. Tom Stanton would clearly agree that if any common practice in sports journalism could damage the rapport between the Aaron brothers, it was when the large gap between the outputs of their playing careers served as the basis for a trivia question. It was practically a trick question, asking which brothers combined for the most career major-league home runs. “The nugget of trivia came at Tommie Aaron’s expense, reducing him to a punch line,” Stanton bemoaned.2 The Aarons remain the correct answer, but Henry hit 755 to Tommie’s 13.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising example of a reaction in print to this trivia question was in 1998, by a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and author of multiple New York Times bestselling books, Harvey Mackay. “Ninety million kids play baseball and dream of reaching the majors; only a handful do,” Mackay said in defense of Tommie Aaron. He then compared Tommie to a very different brother who was likewise relegated to a secondary status, namely Milton Eisenhower, who “was nobody’s comedy foil,” despite being a younger brother of President and General Dwight Eisenhower. Milton, Mackay noted, had been “president of Kansas State University, Penn State and Johns Hopkins. Who wouldn’t be proud of that kind of record?”3

If journalists questioned the strength of the relationship between Henry and Tommie Aaron, it was often simply by pointing out the difference between their ages, which was more than five years. Especially in such a large family, including three sisters and other brothers, such observations seemed to assume that it was unlikely for Henry and Tommie to have been close as the two were growing up. However, Howard Bryant noted in his book on Henry that in the family’s home at 2010 Edwards Avenue in Mobile (which has been preserved elsewhere as the Hank Aaron Museum), Henry shared a bed with Tommie and their oldest brother, Herbert Jr.4

When Tommie joined the parent club at the start of the 1962 season, there was an additional reason for the two bothers to spend considerable time together: They were instantly roommates when the Milwaukee Braves made road trips. Félix Mantilla had previously been Henry’s roommate on the Braves, but after the 1961 season Mantilla was selected by the New York Mets in the National League expansion draft. Henry’s autobiography said Tommie had reached the majors “just in time, (because) I needed a roommate on the road.” Henry didn’t mention any concern about loneliness as the only Black player on the roster, but it seems plausible to read that between the lines. Henry quickly switched to a humorous tone when he called Tommie “a great roommate, except for one morning at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis.” The elder Aaron recalled eating breakfast on his bed when the room’s air-conditioner exploded and burst into flames, causing smoke to quickly fill their room. He speculated that Tommie had earlier been “fiddling” with it, though quickly conceded, “I don’t know what happened, really.” Henry bemoaned the fact that everything in the room was ruined but then quipped, “The people who ran the Chase probably figured that’s what happens when you start letting in the coloreds.”7

 

 

In actuality, it was Tommie who was thought to have a more obvious sense of humor than Henry, and it bolstered their rapport. “Tommie was always quick with a laugh,” noted their former teammate Joe Torre, “and he made it easier for Hank.”8 Howard Bryant said that “having Tommie in the big leagues changed the dynamic of the Braves clubhouse” for the better, because he was so popular with coaches and managers, in addition to teammates. “Having Tommie on the club brought Henry even closer to the city and the club,” Bryant asserted (emphasis added).9 “Their personalities came from opposite poles, with Tommie the talkative, outgoing type and Henry the Quiet Man. But the younger brother had the gift of gab plus the sense of humor that touched the heart and soul of his introverted but famous sibling,” wrote another Aaron biographer, Dan Schlossberg. “He made Hank laugh, though Tommie’s constant trips up and down between the majors and minors were no laughing matter to the brothers. They hated their separations.”10

Tommie Aaron celebrated his 35th birthday during his first season as a minor-league manager, of Double-A Savannah in 1974. He appeared in more than 100 minor-league games during 1973 as a player-coach but didn’t play at all during 1974. Though plenty of players continue on professional rosters well into their 30s, presumably Tommie knew he wasn’t going to be a player again. Whenever that realization occurred, it might have caused his perception of Henry to shift. Regardless, after the 1974 minor-league season ended, he reflected on their relationship. “You know, I kind of enjoy it, having a brother like that,” Tommie said. One sportswriter was convinced that at the start of Tommie’s baseball career, the likelihood of being compared to Henry routinely, and never being comparable, hadn’t occurred to him. “Maybe if it had, I wouldn’t have signed with the Braves.”11 It’s possible Tommie was simply saying what he thought the reporter wanted to hear, though longtime Braves scout and executive Paul Snyder, for one, was convinced that Tommie “was very genuine.”12

Tommie also offered an interesting comment about Henry’s disappointment that neither of the Aaron brothers was seriously considered by Atlanta Braves general manager Eddie Robinson to fill the club’s midseason managerial vacancy around the time their former teammate Eddie Mathews was fired on July 21, 1974. “Hank never talked about managing before,” said Tommie, “but if he wants to be, I’d be happy for him.”13 That could’ve been interpreted as an acknowledgment by Tommie that he and Henry had been out of touch. In fact, Henry had been consistent but only up to a point, with statements like, “I think Eddie Robinson should have had the courtesy to ask me if I was interested. I don’t want to manage, but I think he should have asked me if I did.” Henry’s change of mind was characterized as rather abrupt when he then told NBC broadcaster Tony Kubek, “I think I would accept at this time simply because there are no black managers in the major leagues.”14

Henry spoke to this sequence of events in his autobiography, explaining how he didn’t think he’d contradicted himself, but rather “was just telling the rest of the story.”15 Henry also spoke bluntly about Robinson’s stated reason for not considering Tommie for the vacancy, that the club didn’t want to interfere with the younger Aaron as he managed Savannah during a pennant race. “That was pure malarkey,” Henry wrote. “I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a situation where the organization considered the welfare of the minor-league club ahead of the major-league club.”16 It’s possible Henry Aaron was faking this indignity on behalf of his brother, though it’s difficult to see what he might have gained by such insincerity.

After the Aaron brothers were no longer major-league teammates, the next time they were closest in a baseball context may have been in 1977 and 1978, after Henry had retired as a player and taken an executive position in Atlanta’s front office and while Tommie peaked as a minor-league manager with the Triple-A Richmond Braves. Before the 1978 season, a Richmond sportswriter credited both Tommie and Henry, the latter as minor-league director, with making the tough decisions to assemble Richmond’s roster.17 The result was ultimately winning the International League’s playoffs in September, after which Tommie became a coach with Atlanta.18

It probably surprised few baseball fans in 1981 that, despite Henry’s having been retired for half a decade, plus Tommie having proved himself as a manager atop the minor leagues and having settled in as a Braves coach, the younger Aaron couldn’t escape a familiar shadow. “Fans and media representatives alike also usually get around to prodding Tommie for answers about Hank’s habits, his childhood, his stardom, and even his personal affairs,” noted one minor-league beat writer. “It’s Hank this and Hank that.” Tommie demonstrated that his attitude about his brother hadn’t changed over two decades. “I knew I wasn’t the same kind of player,” he said. “If I would have pretended to be, I would have only put pressure on myself. I went out and played my game of baseball.”19

Leukemia took the life of Tommie Aaron at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital on August 16, 1984, just 11 days past his 45th birthday. In addition to his wife and their three children, he was survived by both of his parents and six of his siblings.20 According to Howard Bryant, for well over two years before Tommie died, Henry phoned him every day, and often took him food during his extended illness. His widow said everyone at Tommie’s deathbed was startled when the end came and Henry punched a window in the hospital room.21 “Tommie never demonstrated any pain until the very last night before he passed,” said Henry Aaron. “It was the hardest night of my life.”22 Given the consistently of their comments about one another for so long, Henry’s assertion is quite easy to take at face value.

Bryant, writing in 2010, commented on the Aaron brothers’ respective genuineness, implying that when Henry was so serious in large groups, he wasn’t revealing his full personality. “Tommie Aaron was the one person who had bridged that gap with Henry, perhaps, apart from [Henry’s wife] Billye, better than any other person in Henry’s life,” Bryant concluded. “Tommie could swear and joke and loosen Henry up in public to the point where, around Tommie, Henry Aaron was a different person.”23 Dan Schlossberg, another Aaron biographer, had four full decades after Tommie Aaron’s death to reflect on the true nature of his relationship with Henry. “Tommie himself never won an MVP as a major league player,” Schlossberg noted, “but he was the Most Valuable Player for many who knew him, including his brother.”24

RICH BOGOVICH is the author of Frank Grant: The Life of a Black Baseball Pioneer. His prior book profiled another pre-1920 Hall of Famer, Kid Nichols. He has contributed chapters to more than a half-dozen SABR books on Negro Leaguers. In 2023 he solved the mysterious disappearance of Negro Leagues superstar Dave Brown a century ago. Richard has degrees from Northern Illinois University and is office manager of the Wendland Utz law firm in Rochester, Minnesota.

 

NOTES

1 Tom Stanton, The Road to Cooperstown: A Father, Two Sons, and the Journey of a Lifetime (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), 114. For Stanton’s credentials, see https://www.tomstanton.com/.

2 Stanton, 113-114.

3 Harvey Mackay, “Take Pride in Legacy of Your Own,” Fresno Bee, August 30, 1998: C4.

4 Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010), 26.

5 Bryant, 292.

6 “Tom Aaron of Braves to Wed Nurses’ Aide,” Milwaukee Journal, October 10, 1962: 2, 19; Atlanta Braves’ Public Relations Department, Atlanta Braves 1984 Guide for Press, Radio and Television, February 15, 1984: 7.

7 Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: Harper Perennial, 2007), 224-225.

8 Bryant, The Last Hero, 292.

9 Bryant, 292, 293.

10 Dan Schlossberg, Home Run King: The Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron (New York: Sports Publishing, 2024), 158.

11 Alan Lassila, “Tommie Aaron Makes Name for Himself – as Manager,” Sarasota (Florida) Journal, September 19, 1974: 1D.

12 Bryant, The Last Hero, 449.

13 Lassila, 2D.

14 Alan Truex, “Tommie,” Atlanta Journal, July 24, 1974: 1-E, 8-E; Frank Hyland, “Hank,” Atlanta Journal, July 24, 1974: 1-E, 8-E. Fittingly, these two articles were printed side by side.

15 Aaron with Wheeler, I Had a Hammer, 384-385. Henry added that he could understand sportswriters’ perception that he was contradictory, but he was particularly bothered by Hyland – see Note 14 – writing that Henry had either lied to Atlanta sportswriters or on national television.

16 Aaron with Wheeler, 385.

17 Vic Culp, “R-Braves Receive Belloir and LaCorte,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 1, 1978: C-1.

18 Atlanta Braves’ Public Relations Department, Atlanta Braves 1984 Guide for Press, Radio and Television, February 15, 1984: 7.

19 Eddie Augustine, “Oh, Brother! Tommie Aaron ‘Hank’ers for Fame,” Anderson (South Carolina) Independent, July 11, 1981: 1B. The Anderson Braves played in the South Atlantic League.

20 Gerry Fraley, “Braves Mourn Loss of Tommie Aaron – Coach and Friend,” Atlanta Journal, August 17, 1984: 3-D; “Funeral Service Held in Mobile for Tommie Aaron,” Atlanta Daily World, August 24, 1984: 7. Fraley included a bit of trivia by reporting that on May 27, 1962, Aaron set a major-league record for most double plays initiated by a first baseman (3).

21 Bryant, The Last Hero, 449.

22 Aaron with Wheeler, 434.

23 Bryant, 449.

24 Schlossberg, Home Run King, 132.