Trial by Fire: Henry Aaron’s 1953 Season with the Jacksonville Braves in the Sally League

The race-based trials and tribulations that Henry Aaron endured on his way to breaking Babe Ruth’s home-run record in 1974 are well documented, but less well known or recognized are the no less inhumane trials that the then 19-year-old Aaron faced as a member of the Milwaukee Braves A-level farm team, the Jacksonville Braves, in 1953. As he would do in 1974, Aaron stoically let his performance do the talking in the face of the racist vitriol that was heaped upon him. And while the spotlight under which he performed in 1953 was less bright than the one under which he shined in 1974, playing under those conditions was no less a challenge than what he would face two decades later. But in its own way, it undoubtedly helped prepare Aaron for that later travail.

Adding to the challenge was the fact that Aaron’s initial exposure to life in the minors in 1952 as a member of the Eau Claire Bears included no real racial dimension, a fact that made his experience in 1953 all the more jarring. Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the home of the Braves C-level affiliate, was almost 100 percent White, and that fact made Aaron more an object of curiosity than a target for derision or abuse.1 One of three Blacks on the team, the 18-year-old shortstop flourished on the field, hitting .336 with 9 home runs, 61 runs batted in, and 25 stolen bases in just 87 games. The performance earned him a promotion to the Jacksonville (Florida) Braves, the organization’s A-level club in the South Atlantic League, commonly known as the Sally League.

It was a very different place than Eau Claire. Indeed, while the level of baseball represented a promotion, the social conditions for a young Black man, a year before the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, in no way represented a step up from Eau Claire. In fact, not only had the Sally League not yet been integrated, but it was “widely considered to be the most hostile league for blacks in the minor-league system. Perhaps more than any minor league, the Sally represented the major challenge to integration.”2 So poisoned was its reputation that one author went so far as to say that in Jacksonville, Aaron “would have a more difficult time even than [Jackie] Robinson[,]” who at least had the “benefit of going to his home ballpark in Brooklyn half the time.”3

From the outset there were challenges, big ones. But while Aaron was switched to second base both to accommodate his teammate and fellow shortstop Felix Mantilla, and because he was seen as having a “natural throw from second, the challenges that Aaron faced had, for the most part, little to do with baseball.4 In fact, Aaron thrived on the diamond, experiencing little trouble between the lines. In the words of one biographer, Aaron “destroyed the opposition.”5 Indeed, before the season even officially started, the young second baseman offered a preview of what was to come in an April Fool’s Day preseason contest against the Boston Red Sox. As the Red Sox pummeled the Braves, 14-1, Aaron was a singular bright spot for Jacksonville, stroking two singles off southpaw Mel Parnell while preventing a shutout with a 400-foot home run off reliever Ike Delock in the eighth inning.6 Meanwhile, Aaron’s regular-season exploits were no less noteworthy with one particular highlight being back-to-back doubleheaders against Sally League rival Columbia in which he went 12-for-13.7

While leading Jacksonville to the Sally League pennant, Aaron won Most Valuable Player honors while compiling a stat line that featured a batting average of .362 with 22 home runs, 36 doubles, 14 triples, 115 runs scored, 125 runs batted in, and 338 total bases.8 And by season’s end he had acquired 13 wristwatches (most of which Aaron gave away to his teammates) as well as a dozen suits, all of which were awarded by local stores for a variety of baseball accomplishments. These rewards meant that Aaron was not only one of the best players in the minors, but he was also one of the best-dressed.9 In addition, the new team owner, Jacksonville businessman Sam Wolfson, the son of a Jewish immigrant and a longtime champion of the poor, was a man who had “been impressed by many of the players in the Negro American League” and was determined to integrate the team.10 In the same spirit as the local businessmen, Wolfson was known to leave envelopes of cash in a player’s lockers as a reward for outstanding play, no small reward given the salaries minor leaguers earned at the time. Aaron used his bonus money to buy his parents a television set.11 But as great as those numbers and the accompanying rewards and honors were, they reflected only one part of Aaron’s Jacksonville experience.

Quite simply, integrating the Sally League was a monumental task. As one author wrote, “The small towns that comprised the league were notorious – societies with little sophistication that enforced Jim Crow laws ruthlessly.”12 Indeed, the daily contradiction that was Aaron’s life as a Jacksonville Brave was summarized by iconic columnist Red Smith, who observed that Aaron “led the league in everything except hotel accommodations.”13

The realities of segregation were very much apparent in the living arrangements that Aaron, Mantilla, and teammate Horace Garner endured. In Jacksonville they were unable to live in the same place as their White teammates. Instead, they were provided a place to stay in the home of Jacksonville businessman Manuel Rivera, who, like Mantilla, was of both Puerto Rican and Black descent.14 Meanwhile, Aaron recalled, when the Braves were on the road, when the team arrived in a rival town for a road series, the bus driver would stop, get the team settled, and then take the Black trio “to their accommodations, usually a Black family on the ‘other side of the tracks.’”15

In fact, the pressure and challenges inherent in breaking the color line in the Sally League were obvious and constant. Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner had no choice but to always be on their best behavior, and if they forgot, the powers that be were always ready to remind them. Before their first game, the trio was told by Jacksonville’s mayor “that whatever they heard or fans tried to do to them, they must ‘suffer it quietly.’ Aaron would later call it the mayor’s Branch Rickey speech.”16 Such warnings were not limited to public officials. Indeed, “at the start of the 1953 season, Sally League umpires warned Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner not to engage with hostile white fans or opponents. They were also warned not to argue calls with umpires, in order not to incite white fans.”17 Given the racial dynamic of the times, it was not really a surprise, but it made for a less-than-even playing field as it quickly became apparent that “[o]ne result of the umpire edict was open season on black players. Pitchers threw at Henry, constantly sending him into the dirt.”18

Of course, all Sally League parks were segregated, which meant that Aaron and his Black teammates played before starkly divided crowds, one part of which proudly cheered on their fellow African Americans, thrilled at both their accomplishments and the fact that they were able to play. This was true both in Jacksonville and on the road, where racial pride often trumped team loyalties.19 Indeed, they cheered the most elemental plays, stomping their feet when a pop fly was caught. In one instance so many Black fans came out to see Aaron and his teammates that the stands collapsed.20 At the same time, they had to be wary of the often-differing response from the White section of the crowd. Indeed, the White fans were by no means content to simply watch a team that had been playing in Jacksonville for decades. Things were different now and rather than simply enjoy the game, some seemed focused on the fact that Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner had dared to intrude upon their previously all-White playground.

The abuse was unrelenting. Fans in the White sections regularly booed and heckled the Black players. It was not uncommon for fans to “wear mops on their heads and release black cats onto the field.”21 Furthermore, “Racial invective regularly rained down from the stands, and white and black fans yelled at one another from their segregated seats. In Augusta, Georgia, hostile spectators hurled rocks at Horace Garner. When the umpire used the loudspeaker to admonish people not to throw things onto the field, the crowd became even more inflamed. Aaron recalls Whites yelling, ‘N*****, we’re gonna kill you next time. Ain’t no N***** gonna squawk on no white folks down here.’”22 Mantilla recalled how Whites would yell from the stands, calling them “alligator bait.”23

Even in Jacksonville, before the home crowd, Aaron and his teammates had to hear fans telling them to “go back to the cotton fields.”24 While things improved as the season went on and the trio’s performances began to earn them respect, the challenges and abuse, regardless of the locale, were nonstop and ever-present and none were immune. If it weren’t catcalls and verbal abuse, it was rocks thrown from the White section of the bleachers.25 It was impossible to ignore. The 1953 season with the Jacksonville Braves presented a series of daily challenges, both at home and on the road. Indeed, when asked, “Which city was the worst?” Aaron responded, “You couldn’t say because they were all bad.”26

Adding to the challenge was the fact that not all the pressure came from outsiders. From the start, Aaron “proceeded gingerly, not assuming that even his own teammates were sympathetic to his situation. The reverse was often true: On more than one occasion White players who reached out to their black teammates could find themselves outcasts as well.”27 Indeed, on one trip to Columbia, South Carolina, a White teammate recalled offering to get food from a segregated restaurant. The players paid him, but the response from his White teammates, especially the Southerners, was less than welcoming.28 “They hated me just as much as they did Hank and Felix and them because I would do that.” That same teammate observed that Aaron “was real quiet in the clubhouse. Those guys, they knew they weren’t accepted by everybody, so they didn’t say and do a lot of things that we would do. It was just a lot of bullshit. It was the worst part. I was down there nine years and that was the worst thing in the nine years.”29

Fortunately, Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner had teammates who did accept them and supported them as ballplayers and as men. One of those was Ohio native Jim Frey, who spent 14 seasons in the minor leagues without ever reaching the majors before going on to a distinguished career as a major-league coach and manager.30 Frey “held Henry in high esteem. He loved his talent, but he also felt acute personal pain because of the abuse Henry endured in Jacksonville during the 1953 season.”31 Meanwhile, Mantilla also “remembered the good white teammates who made his and Henry’s time a bit easier.”32 Foremost among them was outfielder and North Carolina native Pete Whisenant, who “often made sure the black players were not isolated. Whisenant, Mantilla remembered, would often go out to dinner with Henry and Mantilla after games, looking for an integrated place where the teammates could hang out together.”33 But “[o]ften, as Mantilla recalled, such a small gesture could put them all at risk.”34

It was a learning process for all. Indeed, while teammates like Frey and Whisenant were learning about the challenges faced by their Black teammates in the South, Aaron and company “were watching the white players, taking in how they responded to their teammates’ humiliations, who they were as men.”35 Mantilla “recalled his time in the minor leagues as horribly oppressive, where race was consistently the determining factor in virtually every encounter, on or off the ball field. He remembered his difficulties in learning English and understanding the culture.”36

In the face of all of the abuse and the indignities heaped upon Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner, and despite being constantly reviled and subjected to untold amounts of verbal harassment, like Jackie Robinson in 1947, the three stayed focused on the game, regularly taking “their revenge at the plate.”37 Indeed, in one instance Aaron got five hits while he, Mantilla, and Garner reached base on 13 of their 14 times at bat.38 Frey recalled, “I never saw a black player who did anything but put his head down, played well, weather the storm. They had to.”39 Frey added, “It was just terrible what (Aaron) was subjected to. And he just took it all and hit. Baseball is a hard-enough game when everyone is rooting for you. You cannot believe what it must have been like to be Henry Aaron in 1953. It was a heartbreaking thing to watch.”40

One major source of support and comfort for Aaron and his Black teammates was Braves manager Ben Geraghty, who did much to help ease the tension. Aaron always called Geraghty “the best and most influential manager” he ever played for.41 A longtime baseball man and a New Jersey native, Geraghty “recognized Henry’s potential almost immediately[,]” realizing that he “possessed the ability to be not just a major-league player but a great, possibly transcendent one.”42 But in recognizing that talent he also knew that part of his job was to help Aaron maximize it. Consequently, for all his support, he was no less intent on helping make him a better player and “chided Henry constantly” to the young star’s benefit.43

Geraghty also realized that the toughest part of the experience was off the field, and he was a constant source of support in that area. Years later. Aaron remembered how, “[w]herever we stayed, Ben Geraghty would always make it a point to come over and see us. He had nothing special to say – he’d just drink a few beers and talk baseball – but it meant a lot to us that the manager would go out of his way to make us feel like part of the team.”44 Aaron recalled one time that the whole team was invited to Fort Benning, Georgia, but when it came time to eat “Horace, Felix and I were shuttled off to the kitchen. As soon as we sat down, here came Ben to join us. I’ve known white players and managers who will try to put on a good face around black players despite their real feelings, but there wasn’t a phony bone in Ben’s body. He was just a baseball man, and to him we were just baseball players. Besides that, he liked us.”45

But while integrating the Sally League had its own set of challenges, Aaron, unlike Jackie Robinson, “was not alone when he helped integrate the half-century-old” league. Rather, while he was considerably younger than Jackie Robinson was when Robinson joined the Dodgers, Aaron “had two black teammates as well as two African American opponents with league rival Savannah, Georgia.”46 But in reality “these numbers did not make Aaron’s Sally League season easy.”47 Indeed, it was still very much an experiment, a truth reflected in the fact that Montgomery had decided to wait before integrating its team, wanting to see how it went with Jacksonville and Savannah before taking the plunge.48

It was a challenge that made “perseverance … a prerequisite for black players.”49

As one observer noted, for Aaron, “the 1953 campaign was an exercise in perseverance, a crusade to prove the naysayers wrong.”50 Aaron himself recalled, “I’m sure that the Braves knew we were going to have some problems. … If we had failed, if we had come south and started arguing, fighting, and not having a good year, there would have been something for the press to talk about. … It would certainly have been something for everyone to say, ‘I told you so.’”51

Slowly, if haltingly, progress was made. Indeed, “[w]hile Jacksonville was busy integrating its team,” the team itself was “garnering increased revenues from the influx of African American and white fans eager to see Aaron, the league’s new superstar.”52 In fact, total attendance for the Braves in 1953 was more than twice what their predecessor the Jacksonville Tars had drawn the previous year.53 Indeed, as the season advanced and Aaron and Mantilla both made the midseason all-star game as the team powered toward its first league championship since 1912 when the team was known as the Jacksonville Tarpons, there was considerable evidence that “the crowds had warmed to their presence. They wore the right uniform.”54 Typical of the awkward progress, Mantilla remembered, was when after a victory in a “hard-fought contest,” a White fan “approached the two players [Aaron and Mantilla] easily. ‘I just wanted to say,’ the man said, ‘that you N*****s played a hell of a game.’”55

While the recognition was often grudging, in fact, Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner regularly “played a hell of a game,” a fact that was evident from the start. Indeed, based on their performances the previous year, as well as their team-leading efforts in the early days of the 1953 season, observers quickly recognized that racial issues aside, the three new players made Jacksonville a better team. As one columnist wrote in April, “We’re convinced. After watching the Jacksonville Braves of the Class A South Atlantic League soundly trim the Savannah Indians 19-3, in their home opener the other day we’ll have to go along with the facts. The Milwaukee Braves have one of the strongest, if not THE strongest Class A baseball team in the country today.”56 The Wisconsin writer asserted, “We’ll go so far as to say that the Jacksonville club will win the Sally League by at least 10 games this year,” noting that it had been years since Jacksonville had fielded a pennant-winner.57

And of course, at season’s end, in a decision Sally League President Dick Butler hailed as evidence that “the color barrier has been broken, there’s no doubt about that,” Aaron was the overwhelming choice for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award.58 It was an award his “team mates, white and Negro, said they never doubted” he would win.59 Yet the ever-modest Aaron was reported to be “a little surprised,” commenting, “I didn’t much expect it. I thought I might get some rookie award.”60 But Geraghty observed that Aaron was “far ahead of his nearest competitor” for the honor, adding that he was “an excellent team man largely responsible for the Braves being in first place since April.”61

In fact, his value to the team had been made clear when he was spiked in a game just days before the Sally League’s 50th Anniversary East-West Game, an injury that caused him to miss the game, which was particularly disappointing for the large Black crowd that had hoped to see the breakthrough star in action.62 The injury and Aaron’s possible absence from the Braves lineup sparked no small amount of concern. One writer observing that “[p]erhaps more than any individual, he is responsible for the Braves front running position in the pennant race,” said that the injury was viewed “as a major calamity by Braves followers.”63 Meanwhile, another writer observed that “[w]ithout Aaron’s bat the Braves are like a ship without a rudder.”64 Fortunately, Aaron recovered, and the Braves continued their march to the pennant.

As the season went on, more questions emerged about which position he should play going forward. While the shift to second base had been a challenge, it had not been a problem. Even so, the young infielder began taking fly balls in the outfield as the season continued.65

In the end, while the Braves won the regular-season crown, claiming their first pennant in decades, they fell short in the postseason playoffs, losing a seven-game series to the Columbia (South Carolina) Reds. While Aaron would look back on the season with justifiable pride, noting that he, Mantilla, and Garner “had played a great season of baseball in the Deep South under circumstances that nobody had experienced before and – because of us – nobody would again,” he could not escape Jacksonville without a final indignity.66 After clinching the pennant in Savannah, the team arranged for a party at a Savannah restaurant. However, Aaron, Mantilla, and Garner had to stay in the kitchen while the rest of the team partied in the restaurant. After a little while the team’s general manager gave Aaron and his teammates $50, telling them to have their own party. The trio ended up keeping $15 apiece and spending the remaining $5 on some beer.67 The players might have taken solace in the fact that things did get better when they returned to Jacksonville. The team held a party at a local country club, where Mr. Wolfson, as Aaron called him, was able to get the three Blacks admitted for the occasion. Even so, when a Black reporter arrived to cover the barrier-breaking event, he was not allowed inside.68

In the end, for all the travails, beyond their heroic and precedent-shattering efforts, the season in Jacksonville did yield one very large benefit unrelated to baseball for Henry Aaron. Days before the season began, while hanging around the ballpark, Aaron saw an attractive girl about his age heading into the post office. Clubhouse man T.C. Marlin, who was reputed to know everyone in that part of town, introduced the two.69 Initially hesitant, she said Aaron would need to meet her parents. Before long, the future Hall of Famer and and Barbara Lucas, a young student at a local business school, described as “tall and thin with sparkling green eyes,” were dating.70 It turned out that she had a brother who also played baseball and who would later sign with the Braves organization. After going together all summer, Aaron asked Barbara to marry him and accompany him to winter ball in Puerto Rico.71 It was the final step in an 18-month whirlwind that had seen the teenager go “from standing on the platform at the L&N Railroad station to playing in the Negro Leagues to being a married man.”72

Jacksonville had proved to be a tremendously important stop on Henry Aaron’s baseball journey, and for all the contradictory elements of the experience, not only did the city ultimately recognize it, but they wanted to be associated with Henry Aaron, the athlete and the man. That desire was made clear and official in 2021 when the City Council unanimously named the local field “Henry L. Aaron Field at J.P. Small Memorial Stadium.”73

BILL PRUDEN has recently retired after over 40 years as a teacher of American history and government. A SABR member for over two decades, he has contributed to SABR’s BioProject and Games Project as well as a number of book projects. He has also written on a range of American history subjects, an interest undoubtedly fueled by the fact that as a 7-year-old he was at Yankee Stadium to witness Roger Maris’s historic 61st home run.

 

NOTES

1 Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 44.

2 Bryant, 50.

3 Bryant, 50.

4 Jake Penland, “In the Press Box,” Columbia (South Carolina) State, July 24, 1953.

5 Bryant, 57.

6 F.C. Matzek, “Red Sox Display Their Wares on Jacksonville, Win, 14-1,” Providence Journal, April 2, 1953.

7 Bryant, 57.

8 Bryant, 57.

9 Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer (New York: Harper Perennial, 2007), 97; Scott A. Grant, “Hank Aaron’s Ties to Jacksonville Run Deeper Than You Think,” Ponte Vedra (Florida) Recorder, January 28, 2021; https://pontevedrarecorder.com/stories/hank-aarons-ties-to-jacksonville-run-deeper-than-you-think,11926.

10 “Hank Aaron’s Ties to Jacksonville Run Deeper Than You Think”; Dave Burkey, “Hank Aaron Played for the Jacksonville Braves in 1953,” JAX Examiner (Jacksonville), January 22, 2021; https://jaxexaminer.com/hank-aaron-played-for-the-jacksonville-braves-in-1953/.

11 Aaron, 97.

12 Bryant, 51.

13 Bryant, 191.

14 Scott Butler, “Hank Aaron Hammered Home Runs in Jacksonville in 1953; What Do We Know of Him Then?” Florida Times Union (Jacksonville), February 1, 2023; Anthony Castrovince, “Aaron Broke Barriers During Rise to Majors,” MLB.com; https://www.mlb.com/news/hank-aaron-broke-racial-barriers-in-minors.

15 Mark Arnold, “Saying Goodbye to Hammerin’ Hank Aaron-Part III,” From a Native Son, March 14, 2021; https://fromanativeson.com/2021/03/14/.

16 “70 Years Ago Aaron Integrated South Atlantic League,” RememberHenryHarris.com; https://rememberhenryharris.com/70-years-ago-aaron-integrated-south-atlantic-league/.

17 Bryant, 54.

18 Bryant, 54.

19 Chuck Williams, “Before he Was a Legend, Hank Aaron Came through Columbus on His Way To Stardom,” News3, Columbus, Georgia, January 22, 2021; https://www.wrbl.com/sports/before-he-was-a-legend-hank-aaron-came-through-columbus-on-his-way-to-stardom/.

20 Grant, “Hank Aaron’s Ties to Jacksonville Run Deeper Than You Think.” There is no information provided as to where this took place.

21 “Hank Aaron’s Ties to Jacksonville Run Deeper Than You Think.”

22 Bruce Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1999), 2-3.

23 Bryant, 53-54.

24 Bryant, 52.

25 Mark Arnold, “Saying Goodbye to Hammerin’ Hank Aaron – Part III,” From a Native Son, March 14, 2021; https://fromanativeson.com/2021/03/14/.

26 Bryant, 52.

27 Bryant, 55.

28 Bryant, 55.

29 Bryant, 56.

30 “Jim Frey, Manager Who Flirted With Championships, Dies at 88.” New York Times, April 14, 2020.

31 Bryant, 51.

32 Bryant, 54.

33 Bryant, 54.

34 Bryant, 54.

35 Bryant, 52.

36 Bryant, 53.

37 Adelson, 3.

38 Adelson, 3.

39 Bryant, 55.

40 Bryant, 51-52.

41 Bryant 60.

42 Bryant, 56.

43 Bryant, 56.

44 Aaron, 88.

45 Aaron, 88-89.

46 Adelson, 2.

47 Adelson, 2.

48 Bryant, 54.

49 Bryant, 55.

50 Adelson, 3.

51 Adelson, 3.

52 Adelson, 67-68.

53 Jacksonville Tars Franchise History (1926-1952), Stats Crew, https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/t-jt12212; Jacksonville Braves Franchise History (1953-1960), Stats Crew, https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/t-jb12199.

54 Bryant, 54.

55 Bryant, 54.

56 Red Wyczawski, “Ex-Bears on Formidable Jacksonville Club,” Northwest Sportscope, Daily Telegram (Eau Claire, Wisconsin), April 22, 1953.

57 Wyczawski, “Ex-Bears…”

58 Ed Goins, “Negro Star Voted Award,” Durham Morning Herald (Durham, North Carolina), August 19, 1953.

59 “Henry Aaron, Negro Athlete is Voted Sally’s Most Valuable,” Panama City News-Herald (Panama City, Florida), August 19, 1953.

60 “19-Year-Old Henry Aaron Top Prize in Milwaukee Talent Hunt,” Evansville Press (Evansville, Indiana), September 3, 1953.

61 “Henry Aaron, Negro Athlete…”

62 Luther Thigpen, “Threatening Weather Held Crowd Down,” Macon News (Macon, Georgia), July 15, 1953.

63 Mercer Bailey, Henry Aaron Termed Key to Jacksonville’s Success,” Alabama Journal (Montgomery, Alabama), July 15, 1953.

64 Sam Glassman, “It Seems to Me,” Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), August 11, 1953.

65 Whitney Martin, “Sports Trail,” Beckley Post-Herald (Beckley, West Virginia), October 27, 1953; “Jacksonville Star Selected on Twelve of Sixteen Ballots, Pittsburgh Courier, August 29, 1953.

66 Arnold, “Saying Goodbye…”

67 Aaron, 101.

68 Aaron, 101.

69 Aaron, 77-78

70 Bryant, 56.

71 Bryant, 57.

72 Bryant, 57.

73 Butler, “Hank Aaron hammered…”