New York Daily News

THE HAMMER

Fellow Mobile native Cleon and other Mets react to Aaron’s death

- DEESHA THOSAR

Cleon Jones, the Mets legend, was born in Mobile, Ala., eight years after Hank Aaron and the two became friends. (An incredible marker of Aaron’s longevity is that both retired after the 1976 season, but Aaron’s career started 11 seasons earlier.)

“Hank was such a humble man,” Jones told the Daily News after news of Aaron’s death on Friday. “As good a player as he was, he was a hundred times better person. To me he was the best right fielder in the history of the game. If I had to pick the greatest outfield of all time, it would be Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank.”

“There was so much outside pressure on him when he broke Babe’s record. He knew there were many people who didn’t want him to hit 715,” Jones said of the vicious racism Aaron faced as a player.

In 1969, Jones and the Miracle Mets swept Aaron’s Braves in the first-ever National League Championsh­ip Series before stunning the heavily favored Orioles in the World Series.

“After we beat them in the 1969 playoffs, Hank met a scout from the Orioles and the scout said to him, ‘We shouldn’t have that much trouble with the Mets,’” Jones recounted Friday. “Hank told them to beware that if they weren’t on top of their game, they wouldn’t beat the Mets.”

“This is an especially sad day for me,” Jones added. “20 years ago today, my friend, teammate and fellow Mobile native Tommie Agee passed away from a heart attack.” Agee, who died at 58 on Jan. 22, 2001, had two homers for the Mets in that NLCS.

Ed Kranepool, the Mets’ All-Star first baseman and outfielder on their 1969 championsh­ip team, remembered Aaron being one of only three players who could launch home runs into the bleachers at the Polo Grounds. (The other two, Kranepool recalled, were Hall of Famer Lou Brock and Aaron’s teammate, All Star Joe Adcock.) “Henry was such a quiet guy,” Kranepool told the News. “He let his bat do the talking. Baseball’s lost a great ambassador to the sport and we’re all sorry for that.”

Kranepool’s admiration for Aaron reached a satisfying apex when the two of them traveled to Japan in 1974 as part of a goodwill series. Aaron was getting ready to enter a home-run derby against Japan’s all-time leading slugger, Sadaharu Oh, when he realized he didn’t bring any equipment overseas. Kranepool carried a similar barrel model that Aaron used, so he borrowed his bat and outslugged Oh, 10-9. Kranepool was thrilled Aaron used his bat and he continued to use that same model, knowing it’d been touched by a legend.

“But it didn’t matter with him,” Kranepool noted. “The type of player he was, the type of hitter he was, he used anything and still was a star. He knew that.”

Ron Swoboda, the Mets and Yankees outfielder from 1965-73 with a quick stint on the Expos, remembered Aaron being “the coolest of the cool.” Swoboda said Aaron was the guy who made the whole business of hitting in MLB look way easier than it really was. Swoboda would often try to soak up Aaron’s image at batting practice, emulating his stance and mannerisms. Even then, Swoboda reminded himself: “You weren’t Henry Aaron, and you would never be Henry Aaron.”

Swoboda, now 76 years old, still credits Aaron for his successful launch into a 20-year career on local TV as a sportscast­er. In 1974, Swoboda had just spent spring training with the Braves, where he cherished spending time hanging around Aaron. The Braves released him at the end of spring, and CBS called Swoboda to appear on their sports show. Swoboda, amazed at Aaron’s talent, talked about his experience of playing with him at spring training.

“I talked about Aaron as this sort of calm in the middle of this hurricane,” Swoboda told the

News, referring to the racist attacks Aaron and his family faced on the brink of breaking Ruth’s all-time home run record. “I give Henry a lot of credit for (my CBS career). Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten the attention.”

Three current and former Mets pitchers weighed in after Aaron’s death. “I met the hammer in 1984 was a better person than a baseball player r.i.p my friend,” Doc Gooden tweeted with a picture of him and Aaron.

“I idolized Hank,” said Art Shamsky, the Mets’ right fielder on their 1969 World Series team. “I used to come out early to watch him hit BP. I remember the 1969 playoffs, he hit a homer in each of the three games against Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Gary Gentry. It was a thrill to be on the same field with him.”

“Sad sad day,” Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman said. “Thankful for your heroism!” Noah Syndergaar­d tweeted that “Heaven’s put together one heck of a roster recently.”

When the News profiled Jones in June of last year, at the height of the George Floyd protests, he recalled the brutal racism that Aaron faced. “You can’t imagine what he went through and the hate mail that he got,” Jones said.

“It was just appalling what was happening. He couldn’t even stay in the same hotel with the team. He had to stay in a different hotel where nobody knew where he was. He just wanted to retire, not because he feared for his life, but when you’re about to break records — and records are made to be broken — people ought to be happy for you.

“People ought to be jubilant for you, not try to piss on you on every corner and diminish what it is that you’re doing. You can be complacent and feel rejected.”

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States