Baseball mourns Hank Aaron

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, the quiet, unassuming slugger who broke Babe Ruth’s supposedly unbreakable record for most home runs in a career and battled racism in the process, died on Friday, the Atlanta Braves announced. He was 86.

Aaron joined the Braves management to become one of the few African-Americans in a baseball executive position after retiring as a player in 1976 with 755 career home runs. His cause of death was not immediately reported.

Aaron’s hitting prowess earned him the nickname “Hammerin’ Hank,” and his power was attributed to strong wrists. He was somewhat shy and unassuming and did not have the flair of contemporaries Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

Instead, Aaron played with a smooth, under-control style that made the game look so easy that some critics wondered if he was really giving his best. But Aaron was fuelled by a powerful inner desire as he overcame an impoverished youth and racial hatred to become one of the greatest and most consistent baseball stars of all time.

Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. His profile on the hall’s website notes that boxing legend Muhammad Ali called Aaron “the only man I idolize more than myself.” It quotes Mickey Mantle as calling Aaron “the best baseball player of my era ... He’s never received the credit he’s due.”

Aaron played 23 major league seasons — the first 21 for the Milwaukee/ Atlanta Braves and the final two for the Milwaukee Brewers. He appeared in a record-breaking 25 All-Star games.

Aaron’s pursuit of Ruth’s ultimate home run record was one of the top sports stories of the 1970s and generated intense media coverage. He finished the 1973 season with 713 home runs — one short of Ruth’s record, which allowed drama to build for several months before the 1974 season began.

The Braves opened that season in Cincinnati and Aaron wasted no time, hitting a home run in his first at-bat to tie Ruth’s record.

A few days later, on April 8, fittingly at home in Atlanta, Aaron broke the record when he drove a fastball from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Al Downing over the left field fence for No. 715. As Aaron trotted the bases at the tumultuous Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, two fans broke through security to briefly join him.

In the run-up to breaking the record, millions of fans cheered Aaron. Others jeered and some went even further.