After a brief time with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro Leagues, Hank Aaron would become the greatest player in Atlanta Braves history, which is no small feat considering the Braves are an organization spanning well over a century. Aaron became one of the most prolific hitters in the game of Baseball, collecting over 3,771 Hits with 755 Home Runs, a batting combination that has no equal.

The Associated Press named Jim Thorpe the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th Century, and with the myriad of sports that he excelled in, it should have been an easy vote.

After World War II, many within Major League Baseball knew that it was time to re-integrate (there had been black players in the Majors in the 1880s), and it was the Brooklyn Dodgers who took that first step with Jackie Robinson, a second baseman with the Kansas City Monarchs.

• Babe Ruth was not the first star in Baseball, but he was the first man of the game who transcended the sport. "The Sultan of Swat" began his career as a Pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, but as the 1910s closed, he transitioned into the game's first great power hitter, though for the New York Yankees, who purchased his contract from Boston.
  

One of the purest hitters in Baseball, Ted Williams, was the template by which thousands of batters followed.

Willie Mays played two years with Birmingham of the Negro Leagues before he signed with the New York Giants, and it would not take long before the “Say Hey Kid” became the face of the franchise.

If Babe Ruth was the first baseball player to be a national celebrity, Joe DiMaggio was the first to be one part of an athlete/celebrity power couple when he was married to Marilyn Monroe.

Babe Ruth was the first superstar on the New York Yankees, but it did not take long before he was joined by another one, Lou Gehrig.

From Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente was not the first Latin American star in Major League Baseball, but he was the first one who transcended the sport.