[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2496-2497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                      HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HANK AARON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a very, very joyous and 
celebratory occasion, an occasion to wish happy birthday to an 
extraordinary person, a great American, and a leading world citizen, 
and that is home run king Hank Aaron.

[[Page 2497]]

  For on February 5th of this month, Hank Aaron will celebrate his 75th 
birthday, and I am sure all of us in this Congress and across America 
and around the world would love to take this opportunity to say, 
``Happy birthday, Hank.''
  Hank Aaron was born in 1934 in the midst of the Depression in Mobile, 
Alabama. In that same year, a gentleman by the name of Babe Ruth 
swatted his last home run for the New York Yankees. Who would have 
thought that this young, black kid in Mobile, Alabama in 1934 would one 
day beat the record that many said never would be broken?
  Then World War II comes along; Pearl Harbor is bombed. While Hank 
Aaron's father is in the shipyards of Mobile, Alabama, fixing up the 
boats and the ships to help win World War II, Hank Aaron is playing his 
very first ball game as a 7 year old in Mobile, Alabama.
  Then 1947 comes around, and Jackie Robinson comes on the scene, and 
Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier, and creates a great gleam and 
hope and inspiration in the heart of this young 13-year-old kid, Hank 
Aaron, to think that, one day, I can play Major League Baseball because 
Jackie Robinson is with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
  He grows up in 1951, and at the tender age of 17, this young man 
signs a contract, Hank Aaron. His mother packs his suitcase and sends 
him off to play in the Negro league for the Indianapolis Clowns. What 
an historic and extraordinary life.
  Two years later, three years later in 1954, when the Supreme Court 
brings down that great decision in the Kansas Board of Education to 
integrate the schools and to start America on the movement to where we 
have seen this crowning achievement this year to elect the first black 
President, Hank Aaron signs with the Milwaukee Braves.
  In 1957, he has shown such skill, such tenacity to be one of the 
leading players, star players, in all of Major League Baseball in just 
4 short years, and he leads the Milwaukee Braves to their first and 
only world championship, and he gets the crown as the Most Valuable 
Player in the 1957 World Series.
  Then in 1966, the South beckons. We want a major league team. The 
South is in the major leagues. Atlanta beckons. Mayor Ivan Allen makes 
a trip to Milwaukee, not to talk to the mayor, not to talk to the 
general manager or to the owner but to go knock on the door and to sit 
in the living room of Hank Aaron in 1965 and say, ``We are building a 
stadium, but we need a team.''
  Hank Aaron says, ``Let's go south, boys,'' and history was made, and 
the South becomes a part of Major League Baseball because of this great 
American, Hank Aaron, in 1966.
  In 1974, the night is April 8, and then we flash back to that year 
1934 and remember the great bambino strikes his final home run the year 
Hank Aaron is born. 714, they said, would never be broken, but on that 
night on April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron shatters Babe Ruth's record and hits 
715. It is the shot heard around the world and the accolades. A great 
achievement. One of the greatest sports achievements in history.
  In 1976, he hits 755.
  All America join me in saying, ``Happy birthday, Hank Aaron, on your 
75th birthday.''

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