#3 - Hank Aaron Special - '58-'61

One of Hank's best facial features is that pleasant, built-in smile that always seems to appear in photos of him.  He's also built physically for a baseball uniform.  He always looks like a ballplayer's ballplayer.  The classic Braves uniforms shown in the 1961 card just adds to his appearance.  Hank just never looks like a Schmoe.

I've always had a kind of fantasy where I wanted to see the fans up close at his first big league at bat when a time traveler or angel or prophet says to them, "Yep, this kid will break Ruth's record some day."   How would they react to such news?  And, 20 years later it happened.  Of course, neither 714 or 715 could go on the back of this card since he ended the '73 season with 713.  All these years later, one thing I think I could say about Aaron is that he has been somewhat underrated as a player.  And that's saying a lot.

I heard a story once that said the Giants were the first team to scout Aaron.  But the Braves won out by a mere $1200 on a contract.  Man, could anybody imagine Mays, Aaron, McCovey and Cepeda in the same lineup?  The Giants would have won ten consecutive World Series.  Cursed $1200!