The 3 most incredible numbers from Hank Aaron’s career

2. Power with Batting Average

Aaron is easily lauded as one of the best power hitters of all time, with the nickname to match. And with 755 career home runs and 624 doubles along with all-time records for RBI (2,297) and total bases (6,856), it’s fitting. But it’s easy to forget he also finished with a .305 career batting average, a career strikeout rate below 10 percent and more walks (1,402) than strikeouts (1,383). A true combination of power and bat-to-ball contact from another era. It’s also an era that’s never coming back, amid focus on launch angle, etc. and strikeouts being considered a lesser evil among outs that can be produced.

During the peak of his career, which I’ll mark as 1955-1973, Aaron hit over .300 14 times with two other seasons above .290 and another (.287 in 1968) that was close. Over that 19-season span, he hit .312 while averaging 40 home runs per 162 games. Batting averages of .268, .232 and .229 over his three age 40-plus seasons (.243 combined average) “dropped” his career average to .305.