Henry Aaron and the 1952 Indianapolis Clowns
This article was written by Alan Cohen
This article was published in Henry Aaron book essays (2026)
In his first 17 games with the Clowns, Henry Aaron batted a robust .427 with five home runs and 26 RBIs. (Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)
“Teammates barely knew what to make of him – until he stepped into the batter’s box.” – Howard Bryant, writing of Henry Aaron’s first days with the Indianapolis Clowns.1
Henry Aaron began his professional career in the minor leagues with Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1952. A plaque indicates that he played his first professional game there. But did he?
Weeks before he joined the Boston Braves organization, the 18-year-old Aaron suited up with the Indianapolis Clowns of the six-team Negro American League. The NAL was quite different from the league it had been a decade earlier. By the start of 1952, 10 Black players had cracked the racial barrier in the AL/NL major leagues. Dozens more were in the affiliated minor leagues.
The Clowns were known as much for their antics as for their ballplaying, but the 1952 team was, along with the Birmingham Black Barons, the class of the league.
Aaron was discovered in 1951 by Ed Scott while playing with the semipro Mobile Black Bears. The following spring, Aaron boarded a train from Mobile and joined the Clowns for spring training,2 which began April 10 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. When he joined the club, media coverage was scant and the trail of his first games is elusive. On April 16 at Charlotte, he was in the lineup against the Philadelphia Stars and singled, doubled, and tripled as the teams played to a 7-7 tie.3
The Clowns were managed by Buster Haywood, who also did some catching. The clowning of “King Tut,” a part-time first baseman named Dick King, was a main attraction.4
The team traveled to Austin, Texas, to take on the Kansas City Monarchs, and then it was on to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where Aaron gained a bit of ink (although they got his first name wrong, calling him Frank Aaron) for fielding 13 chances at shortstop without an error in a 7-0 loss.5 He played exclusively at shortstop with the Clowns and it was not until he joined the Braves organization that he was moved to the outfield.
On May 3, the bus stopped at Nevada, Missouri, and the Clowns and Monarchs engaged in a slugfest with the Clowns winning 7-5, largely on the strength of Aaron’s first two home runs as a professional.6 Aaron participated in seven double plays in the contest.7
The next afternoon in Kansas City, Aaron had two hits in each game and stole two bases in the opener, but the Clowns came up short in each game. In the second game, the Clowns could muster only three hits against Henry Mason. Aaron doubled and scored the only Clowns run in the second inning of an 8-1 loss.8
The regular season began for the six-team NAL on May 11. The Clowns swept a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Stars in Nashville. Accounts of these games are incomplete and there was no mention of Aaron. The next days were spent on a trip that took the Clowns and Stars through Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, splitting six games before arriving at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium.
On May 18 in Baltimore, Aaron hit two homers for the Clowns. They came in the second game of a twin bill and accounted for four of the Indianapolis runs in a 5-2 win. In the opener, Aaron had gone 1-for-4 in a 4-3 win.9
The Stars and Clowns were scheduled to play at Washington’s Griffith Stadium on May 19, but the game was rained out.
The Clowns then made their way north with stops at Wilmington, Delaware, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, en route to Buffalo, New York. In Wilmington on May 21, the Clowns won, 5-0, with Aaron going 2-or-5.10 He doubled in a 2-1 Clowns win at Lancaster the next night.11
At Buffalo on Sunday, May 25, Aaron came up big as the Clowns swept two games from the Memphis Red Sox. He went 4-for-5 in the opener and 3-for-4 with a home run in the nightcap.12
Statistics published in Black newspapers reflected Aaron’s dominance in the early season. Through May 25 he had 28 hits in 58 at-bats (.483) and also led the NAL in home runs (5) and RBIs (24). He had a league-leading six doubles and 51 total bases.13 He also had six stolen bases.14
On June 1 in Kansas City, the Clowns split a doubleheader against the Monarchs, with Aaron getting a hit in each game. In the second game, he drove in a run and stole a base as the Clowns won 17-7.15
As May turned into June, reports surfaced that Aaron, still hitting over .400, was bound for the Boston Braves organization. Even so, he continued with the Clowns until the signing was officially announced on June 10.
In Des Moines on June 6, Aaron had two singles and a walk in the Clowns’ 9-1 win over Kansas City.16
On June 8, the Clowns were at Comiskey Park and Aaron’s fourth-inning single in the second game helped his team score its only run in a 5-1 loss. The Clowns had won the opener, 6-0, but there are no details of the game.17
On June 9, the Clowns played in Benton Harbor, Michigan, against the St. Joseph Auscos. Although the Clowns lost 10-5, Aaron singled, doubled, and stole a base.18
Aaron played his last game with the Clowns on June 10. In a 14-6 loss to the Chicago American Giants, he went 0-for-3. Ironically enough, it was the only time during his days with the Clowns that the team played in Indianapolis.19
On June 12 Aaron arrived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His first game in the Northern League was on June 16.
His final stats with the Clowns, as shown in the Baltimore Afro-American on June 14 and reported in newspaper articles accompanying reports of his signing with the Braves, had him with a .427 batting average with 32 hits in 75 at-bats in 17 games.20 He had 26 RBIs with 7 doubles, a triple, and 5 home runs. He also led the league with 18 runs scored and 56 stolen bases.21
Because these numbers did not include his final games with the Clowns at the beginning of June, a look at June 21 and 28 Black newspapers is necessary to see Aaron’s total with the Clowns. He tailed off a bit toward the end. His final totals included 40 hits in 107 at-bats for a .374 average. He led the league with 8 doubles, 5 home runs, and 32 RBIs. He also had 5 stolen bases.22
Henry Aaron played mostly shortstop for the Indianapolis Clowns. (Chicago Defender, June 7, 1952)
But even these were not Aaron’s final numbers with the Clowns.
After a stellar season with Eau Claire, he returned to the Clowns for a postseason series against the Birmingham Black Barons. The Clowns had won the first-half title, and Birmingham (23-15) had led the league in the second half of the season, with Indianapolis (18-16) dropping to second place. The series was to have begun in Birmingham on September 14, but the game was rained out. Details from this series are incomplete at best.
In Memphis on September 15, the Clowns won, 4-3. Aaron went 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base.23 Birmingham won the next two games, and the Clowns pounded out a 16-10 win in Knoxville on September 19 to even the series. Aaron hit a home run, a double, and three singles.24
Birmingham won three of the next four games, but little is known about those games. Down five games to three, the Clowns won four straight contests to take the 12-game series. Per the article that appeared in the Philadelphia Tribune, Aaron batted .402 with 5 homers during the 12 games.25 The only home run that was documented came in the fourth game.
The teams continued to play after the decisive game was played on September 28. On October 8 in Knoxville, they concluded their 18-game barnstorming tour, and Birmingham won, 11-7, with Aaron getting a double and a triple in his last game with the Clowns.26
ALAN COHEN has been a SABR member since 2011. He chairs the BioProject fact-checking committee, serves as vice president-treasurer of the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter, and is a datacaster (MiLB stringer) with the Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. He also works with the Retrosheet Negro Leagues project and serves on SABR’s Negro League Committee. His biographies, game stories, and essays have appeared in more than 80 baseball-related publications. He has four children, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, and resides in Connecticut with wife Frances, their cats Zoe and Ava, and their dog Buddy.
SOURCES
In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and the following:
“Clowns Get Minor Loop Stars for World Series,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, September 16, 1952: 15.
“Hank Aaron Cinches ’52 Rookie Honor,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 16, 1952: 10.
NOTES
1 Howard Bryant. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010), 42.
2 Bryant, 39; Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: Harper-Collins, 1991), 22-25.
3 Bill Johnson, “Clowns and Stars Battle to 7-7 Knot,” Charlotte Observer, April 17, 1952: 4-B.
4 When Aaron was with the team, the clowning was limited to King Tut and Spec Bebop.
5 “Shut Out by Monarchs,” Kansas City Times, May 1, 1952: 28.
6 Paul Jenner, “Clowns Win, 7-5, in Battle of Home Runs, Double Plays,” Nevada (Missouri) Herald, May 8, 1952: 6.
7 “Clowns Set NAL Record,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 17, 1952: 24.
8 “A 3-Hitter by Monarch,” Kansas City Times, May 5, 1952: 19.
9 “Clowns Win Double-Header from Stars by 4-3 and 5-2,” Baltimore Sun, May 19, 1952: 16.
10 “Indianapolis Clowns Top Philadelphia Stars, 5-0,” Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News, May 22, 1952: 24.
11 “Ex Roses Star Scores Winning Run for Clowns,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) New Era, May 23, 1952: 19.
12 “Baseball News,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, June 2, 1952: 2.
13 “N.A.L. Data: Aaron Monopolizes Slugging Honors,” St. Louis Argus, June 6, 1952: 20.
14 “Negro American League Averages (including Games of May 25),” Kansas City Call, June 2, 1952: 11.
15 “A Split for Monarchs,” Kansas City Times, June 2, 1952: 21.
16 Jim Foster, “Clowns Romp on Two-Hitter,” Des Moines Register, June 7, 1952: 10.
17 “Clowns Blank Giants, 6-0, Then Lose, 5-1,” Chicago Defender, June 14, 1952:
18 “Major League Trial Awaits Clowns Star,” Benton Harbor (Michigan) Herald-Palladium, June 10, 1952: 8.
19 “American Giants Whip Clowns,” Indianapolis Star, June 11, 1952: 27.
20 “Official NAL Statistics,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 14, 1952: 17.
21 “Aaron, Top Hitter, Bought by Braves,” Cleveland Call and Post, June 14, 1952: D-1.
22 “Aaron Sets Pace in NAL Hit Parade,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 21, 1952: 25.
23 “Clowns Defeat Barons,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 16, 1952: 21.
24 “Rookie Leads Clown Victory,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, September 20, 1952: 6
25 “Third NAL Title for Funmakers,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 14, 1952: 10.
26 “Homers Defeat Clowns, 11 to 7,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, October 9, 1952: 34.