Cooperstown trip honors Aaron’s Buffalo connections

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is in sync with the opening of its new exhibit, “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” and the unveiling of a Hank Aaron statue. Former Bisons general manager Mike Billoni has long been a supporter of the Negro Leagues and inner-city baseball and still marvels at his recent trip to the Hall, when he graced Aaron’s appearances in all three Buffalo’s newest minor league ballparks.

Billoni commissioned plaques about Aaron for the Hall in Cooperstown and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and presented them to Josh Rawitch and Bob Kendrick, the presidents of the two respective organizations. He also met Aaron’s widow, Billye, and his son, Hank Jr.

“We now properly honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues,” Billoni said. “And that’s exactly what I thought when I was in the lobby looking at the exhibit.”

Hank Aaron played in Buffalo when the Indianapolis Clowns called Offermann Stadium home in 1952 and signed his first professional contract there. He played at War Memorial Stadium in a 1985 Oldtimers game to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Buffalo Baseball, and at then-Pilot Field in the 1988 National Oldtimers Baseball Classic.

Billoni was fascinated by the connection with Aaron through his research for “The Seasons of Buffalo Baseball,” the book he published in 2020 with Jim Overfield, son of late Bisons history-maker Joe Overfield. He recalled a scene where Aaron met with a group of Buffalo fans during his visit in 1985 and talked about his days with the Indianapolis Clowns.

The group was a group of elderly black fans from the East Side neighborhood known as the “Home Plate Dancers.” The Bisons named them Fans of the Year in 1987 for their support, and Aretha Franklin’s playing of “Respect” that had them jumping out of their seats dancing became a mid-eighth staple in recent years at the War Memorial.

“It’s maybe my biggest regret in baseball that I don’t have an audio tape or a video of that conversation,” Billoni said. “Hank Aaron was so nice to them to talk about his time with the Clowns because some of them had seen him play. He told them, ‘We had no money. We had a lot of fun and we were together.’ If we go to a city we would all have to stay at the Black Hotel but we accepted it because we are together.

“‘Now I’m in pro ball in the minor leagues. We get off the bus, they drop me off at the Black Hotel and they go to their hotel. Then he talked about what it was like chasing the Babe Ruth’s home run. ) record, having the FBI there to protect him, the thousands of letters he received, mostly hate, it was incredible.

Billoni’s plaques included a photo of the Offermann Stadium marker erected on the site in 2012 by John Boutet, now president of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame Site and Exhibit; four vintage photos by Offermann; photos of Aaron with the Clowns and a card of him at the 1985 centennial celebration, and another of this game of Aaron and Ernie Banks; and a plaque with a description of Aaron’s connection to the three stadiums.

Billoni was also able to provide copies of the book and plaque to the Aaron family and included interviews with them in a video of the trip that he posted on YouTube. Billye Aaron, now 87, was known before she married Aaron in 1973 for being the first black woman in the Southeast to regularly co-host a local television show, “Today in Georgia.”

Billoni said of their conversation: “She was as elegant as could be.”

“And Hank’s son praised his father when he said to me, ‘My father never talked much about his play or anything like that,'” Billoni said. “But mostly he talked about how he was proud of the foundation that his father had set up and how his father was very proud that he put 77 kids through college because of it.”

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s rehabilitation visit with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Friday night in Rochester drew a record crowd of 13,605, the largest in Innovative Field’s 27-year history.

Cole gave Yankees fans what they wanted to see by going 4⅓ innings and allowing just one unearned run on two hits. He struck out 10 and walked none.

“It’s a fun evening, just a beautiful summer evening in upstate New York,” Cole told reporters in Rochester. “It’s a special feeling when you go somewhere and your fans come to support you. We don’t get to come to these parts often; the last time the big club was here was during COVID when we played in Buffalo (against the Blue Jays in 2020 and 2021).

“It’s nice to see these people and it’s really special that they came to support me. That’s kind of what makes this (rehab) process cool.”

• Yariel Rodriguez’s rehab outings with the Bisons that ended Sunday went as well as the Blue Jays could have hoped. In six starts, the Cuban right-hander posted a 1.33 ERA in 14 innings, with 26 strikeouts and 10 walks.

• Omaha’s magic number to clinch the first-half International League title fell to one against second-place Syracuse on Tuesday marking the start of the first-half final series. The Bisons (35-34) end the half with Scranton up six.
• Busy time on the Bisons roster with Spencer Horwitz and Addison Barger gone to Toronto and a loaded injury list that includes pitchers Ricky Tiedemann, Hagen Danner, Chad Dallas and Paolo Espino, outfielder Nathan Lukes, catcher Payton Henry and infielder Luis De Los Santos. Double-A New Hampshire’s key additions are infielders Michael Turconi and Riley Tirotta as well as outfielder Alan Roden, who is Toronto’s third prospect currently active in the minors.
• The Bisons sold an average of 10,011 tickets for their three weekend games against Worcester, led by a strong crowd of 13,242 on Father’s Day. The season average of 6,232 is currently down more than 900 per game from the end of last season, but that gap will likely be erased once school ends and the summer months arrive.