Hank Aaron’s endurance was his x-factor

Hall of Fame baseball legend Henry (Hank) Aaron passed away on Friday at 86 years old. Akin to Aaron’s longevity in life, his baseball career was also a long-term endeavor that spanned 23 seasons from 1954-1976.

Hammerin’ Hank was blessed with what I call athletic health. He was rarely injured and is third on the alltime Major League Baseball list with 3,298 games played.

Pete Rose holds the record (3,562) and is followed by Carl Yastrzemski (3,308).

During Aaron’s minor league years, he endured homesickness and racism. In November of 1951, he signed a contract to play for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. Aaron experienced racism while with his team in Washington, D.C.

“We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating,” he said. “What a horrible sound.

“Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me — here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they’d have washed them.”

Aaron had many outstanding traits, both unrelated and related to baseball. But his x-factor in his great accomplishments on the field was his endurance. The Hammer never gave up.

He had 713 home runs at the end of the 1973 season and worried that he would not live to get a chance to break the record. During the 1973-74 offseason, Aaron received death threats and hate mail. The possibility existed that he would be murdered before the 1974 season. Many people did want him to break Babe Ruth’s record.

Hammerin’ Hank endured. His home run record lasted 33 years until Barry Bonds broke it. I still recognize Aaron as the Home Run King based on the fact that Bonds probably used performance enhancing drugs.

Yes, I will always remember his mark of 755 homers. Yes, I will remember that he was a 25-time All-Star (there were multiple All-Star games from 1959-1962). Yes, I will remember that Aaron won the Golden Glove Award three different times.

But above all, I will remember that he always had an x-factor — the ability to endure.