LEGENDARY
— Hammerin’ Hank Aaron was one for all time
ATLANTA — Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record and gracefully left his mark with 755 homers and a legacy as one of baseball’s greatest allaround players, died Friday. He was 86.
The Atlanta Braves, Aaron’s longtime team, said he died in his sleep. No cause was given.
Aaron made his last public appearance just 2 1/2 weeks ago, when he received the COVID19 vaccine. He said he wanted to spread the word to Black Americans the vaccine is safe.
“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a 23-year career spent mostly with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, including RBIs, extra-base hits and total bases.
But the Hall of Famer will be remembered for one swing above all others, the one that made him baseball’s home-run king.
It was a title he would hold for more than 33 years, a period during which the Hammer slowly but surely claimed his rightful place as one of America’s most iconic sporting figures, a true national treasure worthy of mention in the same breath with Ruth or Ali or Jordan.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who often attended Braves games, described Aaron as “a personal hero.”
George W. Bush, a one-time owner of the Texas Rangers, presented Aaron in 2002 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom —— the nation’s highest civilian honour.
“The former Home Run King wasn’t handed his throne,” Bush said. “He grew up poor and faced racism as he worked to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Hank never let the hatred he faced consume him.”
On April 8, 1974, before a sellout crowd at Atlanta Stadium and a national television audience, Aaron broke Ruth’s home run record with No. 715 off Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But Aaron’s journey to that memorable homer was hardly triumphant.
He was the target of extensive hate mail as he closed in on Ruth’s cherished record of 714 — much of it sparked by the fact that Ruth was white, Aaron was Black.
Aaron was shadowed constantly by bodyguards and forced to distance himself from teammates.
He kept all those hateful letters, a bitter reminder of the abuse he endured and never forgot.
“This is just the way things are for Black people in America,” he once said. “It’s something you battle all of your life.”
Aaron spent 21 of his 23 seasons with the Braves — first in Milwaukee, then in Atlanta after the franchise moved to the South in 1966. He finished his career in Milwaukee, traded to the Brewers after the 1974 season when he refused to take a front-office job that would have required a big pay cut.
While knocking the ball over the fence became his signature accomplishment, the Hammer was hardly a one-dimensional star. In fact, he never hit more than 47 homers in a season (though he did have eight years with at least 40 dingers).
But it can be argued no one was so good, for so long, at so many facets of the national pastime.
He posted 14 seasons with a .300 average, the last of them at age 39, and claimed two National League batting titles. He finished with a career average of .305.
Aaron also was a gifted outfielder with a powerful arm, something often overlooked because of a smooth, effortless stride that his
critics mistook for nonchalance. He was a three-time Gold Glove winner.
In addition, Aaron posted nine straight seasons with double-figure stolen bases, including a career-best of 31 in 1963 when he joined Ken Williams and Willie Mays as only the third member of the 30-30 club — players who have totalled at least 30 homers and 30 steals in a season.
Six-feet tall and listed at 180 pounds during the prime of his career, Aaron was hardly an imposing player physically. But he was blessed with powerful wrists that made him one of baseball’s most feared hitters.
Aaron hit 733 homers with the Braves, the last in his final plate appearance with the team on Oct. 2, 1974. Exactly one month later, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Aaron became a designated hitter with the Brewers, but managed just 22 homers over his last two seasons. He retired after hitting .229 in 1976.
Even so, his career numbers largely stood the test of time. The home run mark lasted until Barry Bonds hit his 756th in 2007.
Bonds retired with 762 homers, but many consider Aaron the true home-run king because of steroid allegations that continue to hound his successor.