A man who was much more than a mere king

As the 1973 baseball season came to an end, Henry Aaron of the Atlanta Braves had 713 career homers next to his name. Even casual baseball fans knew exactly what it meant.

Baseball idol Babe Ruth had hit 714 during his career. Aaron was set to surpass Ruth in the very early part of the 1974 season. The only question was, how early?

When the schedule was released, the Braves learned they would open the season with a three-game series in Cincinnati, then play their next 10 games at home. Braves management decided they wanted Aaron to break the record before the home fans and announced their 40-year-old star would not play any of the games in Cincinnati.

Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn officially frowned. He said every team had an obligation to put forth its best effort in every game and benching a star player was not the way to put forth one’s best effort. He ordered the Braves to play Aaron in at least two of the games in Cincinnati.

Sure enough, on opening day, Aaron smacked a homer — the one that tied

Ruth on the all-time list. He sat out the second game and the team’s management probably rejoiced when he went 0-for-3 on Sunday. That set up maximum drama for the next night. It was the Braves’ home opener and was carried nationally on network television. History beckoned every time Aaron entered the batter’s box, which is what he did in the fourth inning with a runner on base and nobody out.

The Dodgers were the visiting club and Al Downing was the pitcher. Downing got his second pitch up higher than he wanted it and the rest — for sure — was history.

Aaron slammed his second home run of the season as Braves announcer Milo Hamilton screamed “There’s a new home run king of all time,” into the microphone.

The moment, still a thrill, was played over and over on Friday after the news broke that Aaron had died at the age of

86. Aaron went on to complete a career that featured 755 home runs, a record that stood until Barry Bonds produced 762.

Bonds, however, hit 317 of his clouts after he reached the age of 35. Many people suspect he did it with chemical help and think there ought to be a footnote next to his name in the record books. Aaron is regarded by most fans as the alltime “clean” home run king and 755 is regarded as the all-time “honest” number.

In fact, 755 and Aaron seem almost to be synonymous. In a way, that’s a shame.

There’s no question that feat was remarkable. Astounding, in fact. But mentioning that number alone sells Aaron woefully short. He was much greater than that. He was considerably more than just a slugger. He might have been the most consistent star in baseball history.

For more than two decades Aaron never seemed to be in a slump. He certainly never had a bad year. He led the majors in home runs only once (1957 when he hit

44 for the World Champion Milwaukee Braves) but hit 30 or more 16 times.

Home runs were only part of his legacy. Aaron played 23 seasons and finished with 2,297 runs knocked in. He came within three measly RBIs of averaging 100 per season over his very long career. Yes, he is the all-time leader in career RBIs — exceeding both Ruth and Bonds.

His amazing totals don’t stop there. Aaron had 2,294 singles alone. Twice he was the National League batting champion. Put all those singles alongside 624 doubles, 98 triples and 755 home runs and do the math. That comes to 3,771 hits, the third most all-time. It also comes to 6,856 total bases.

Breathtaking. If you don’t think so, look at it this way: Aaron had 722 total bases more than the great Stan Musial.

Musial is second on the all-time list. Aaron won only one Most Valuable Player award (1957), but placed in the top

10 a dozen times. He played in 25 All-Star Games, including two a year between

1959 and 1962.

The postseason portion of his resume is short because he had relatively few opportunities, The Braves looked like a budding dynasty when they won National League pennants in 1957 and 1958, but they faded thereafter. His only other taste of the postseason occurred in 1969.

The last few months haven’t been kind to old ballplayers. We’ve lost Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, Joe Morgan, Al Kaline, Dick Allen, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton, Tommy Lasorda and now — Hank Aaron.

Maybe there’s a big game coming up in the Great Beyond and the Lord is assembling his team. If so, he sure has a good one.