Over the course of the past few weeks, our
nation has had to endure the passing of many iconic figures in sports and
entertainment. Many of them of color displaying their greatness in their rise
in the face of complete disrespect that was not warranted and denied the just
do for their accomplishments at that moment. Late last month, the baseball
world, especially the Negro League and Major League Baseball (MLB) lost one of
those great icons who faced a great deal of push back during his rise in that
sport, but still made his mark.
One week ago, Baseball Hall of Famer Henry
Aaron, who played two years in the Negro Leagues and 23 years in MLB with the
Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1954-1974) and the Milwaukee Brewers (1975-76) passed
away in his sleep at the age of 86. The cause of death was listed as natural
causes but serious suspicion of his death came just 16 days after he and
several public African American figures that included longtime activist Joe
Beasley, former Atlanta, GA Mayor Andrew Young, and Founding Dean of the
Morehouse School of Medicine and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services during the George H.W. Bush Administration publicly
received a Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination. They did so to squash the myth
that this life saving vaccine is harmful to minorities and that it is safe and
necessary to get.
“This is just a small thing that can help
zillions of people in this country,” Mr. Aaron said back on Jan. 5 to ABC News.
The man who was nicknamed the “Hammer” or
“Hammerin’ Hank” for his uncanny ability to hit the ball right into the
bleacher is survived by his second wife of 47 years Billye Suber Williams and
their one child together Ceci. Mr. Aaron was also married before to Barbara
Lucas for 18 years (1953-71) and they had five children together: Gary, Lary,
Dorinda, Gale, and Hank, Jr.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said of
Aaron’s impact on the game, “Hank Aaron is near the top of everyone’s list of
all-time great players.”
“His monumental achievements as a player
were surpassed only by his dignity and integrity as a person. Hank symbolized
the very best of our game, and his all-around excellence provided Americans and
fans across the world with an example to which to aspire.”
Atlanta Braves legendary third baseman and
outfielder in 1993 and 1995-2012 Chipper Jones said Aaron was the “epitome of
class and integrity. RIP Henry Aaron!”
Jones also that Mr. Aaron was not only a
“transcendent baseball player” but a “transcendent person” in our nation’s
history.
“He set the bar not only for what you
should strive for as a baseball player but as a human being.”
Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk said Aaron
was: “A beacon for our organization.”
Before the Philadelphia 76ers tilt versus
the Boston Celtics two Friday nights ago, a 122-110 win on ESPN, there was a
moment of silence before the game in memory of Mr. Aaron.
Head Coach of the 76ers Glenn “Doc”
Rivers, who played for the Atlanta Hawks from 1983-91 said on Friday night that
Mr. Aaron was a great example where he replaced “anger” with “opportunity.”
“He’s a giant,” Rivers added. “You can
still argue he still holds the home run record in a lot of people’s opinion,
you know. He was just such a humble giant.”
Rivers former teammate during the 1980s and
Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins said via Hawks Twitter page
@HawksonFSSE/Twitter that Mr. Aaron had to be one of the greatest athletes of
all-time because of the pressure he played under, without knowing if something
bad would happen to him on the field or just by sitting in the baseball dugout.
“The thing for me that was most satisfying
that he was able to sit down and give me tutelage to help my career,” Wilkins,
who played for the Hawks from 1982-94 said on Friday night, adding, “and I owe
Hank a lot because he made it possible for a guy like myself to persevere, and
do something special in his life.”
Mr. Aaron put together one of the greatest
career resumes in the history of MLB finishing as the all-time leader in 2,297
career runs batted in (RBI), 6,856 career total bases, 1,477 extra-base hits,
and 25 career All-Star appearances, which includes an MLB-record 21 All-Star
selections.
Prior to 14-time All-Star Barry Bonds
becoming MLB’s all-time leader in career home runs in 2007, which stands at
762, Aaron was the all-time leader in home runs from 1974-2007 at (755). He
along with Bonds and the late great Babe Ruth (714) are the three players in
MLB history with 700-plus career homers, with all playing 20-plus years in the
major leagues.
Mr. Aaron in 11 of his 23 MLB seasons had
more than 100 RBIs, 624 career doubles, 240 stolen bases, and 13 times he
finished in the Top 10 in MVP voting.
He also won three Gold Glove Awards
(1958-1960); two National League batting titles (1956, 1959); four National
League home run titles (1957, 1963, 1966, and 1967); and four-time National
League RBI leader (1957, 1960, 1963, and 1966).
His No. 44 was retired by both the Brewers
and Braves in 1976 and 1977 respectably.
To put into perspective what Mr. Aaron did
in his major league career, former writer for Sports Illustrated Ralph
Wiley, who now works for ESPN said back in 1998 that Aaron hit more homers than
Ruth. Drove in more runs than Lou Gehrig. Scored more runs than Willie Mays and
had over 12 miles in total bases than the runner-up Stan Musial.
To honor Mr. Aaron, the Braves welcomed
fans to visit his statue inside of Monument Garden at Truist Park in Atlanta,
GA.
The Brewers will wear the No. 44 on their
jersey sleeves for the 2021 season. The NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League
Soccer’s Atlanta United FC will both retire No. 44 jerseys for the 2021 season.
All flags at Georgia state buildings were
flown at half-staff until his exceedingly small socially distant funeral that
took place on Jan. 27 at Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA. S3
The most iconic and memorable homer that
Aaron, who was 40 years old at that time hit was the one where he surpassed
Ruth into No. 1 on MLB’s all-time list at No. 715 came as a member of the
Atlanta Braves Apr. 8, 1974 in the national televised game then at
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing at the
bottom of the fourth inning.
While cannons fired off in celebration of
this history making moment, as Aaron was rounding third base heading towards
home plate, two college students sprinted onto the field and jogged alongside
Mr. Aaron, which temporarily startled him.
Aaron after that was interviewed by the
late great NBA on TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager between third and home
plate for then Sarasota, FL’s WXLT (now WWSB-Channel 40).
As the fan in the stadium cheered wildly
for what just took place, Aaron’s parents, Aaron Sr., and the former Estella
Pritchett ran onto the field as well to congratulate their son. His mother ran
across the field and threw her arms around him, showing him love not just for
the fact he surpassed Ruth, but that he was alive to witness this moment.
Then Braves announcer Milo Hamilton, who
called the game for WSB radio description of that milestone scene: “Henry
Aaron, in the second inning walked and scored. He’s sittin’ on 714. Here’s the
pitch by Downing. Swinging. There’s a drive into left-center field. That ball
is gonna be-ee… Outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run
champion of all-time, and it’s Henry Aaron! The fireworks are going. Henry
Aaron is coming around third. His teammates are at home plate. And listen to
this crowd! Met at home plate not by only every member of the Braves but by his
father and mother.”
The Dodgers broadcaster in the late great
Vin Scully took a different tone when describing the Aaron’s milestone homer as
he addressed the racial tension. He began by saying how this was a “marvelous
moment for baseball.” That it was a “marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state
of Georgia; what a marvelous moment for the country and the world.”
Mr. Scully also said that “a black man”
was getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an
all-time baseball idol.
“And it is a great moment for all of us,
and particularly for Henry Aaron…And for the first time in a long time, that
poker face in Aaron shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have
been like to live with for the past several months.”
The good and the bad that Mr. Aaron faced
during this proud moment in his baseball career is nothing new to him or many
African Americans back then, especially in the Southern part of the U.S.
Born in segregated Mobile, AL on Feb. 5,
1954 one of seven children, including Tommie Aaron, who played with his brother
in the majors, the game of baseball Henry saw as his way out of poverty,
despite the fact he was not able to play organized baseball as a youth because
of the aforementioned segregation then.
How poor was Mr. Aaron and his family when
he was growing up in Alabama, he had to make his own baseball bats out of tree
limbs.
Mr. Aaron said that what made him such a
great hitter in his career is that he would actually hit bottle caps and really
small rocks that were a major aide in becoming the incredible hitter he was for
over two decades in MLB, striking no more than 100 times in a season.
Aaron thought he had escaped that part of
his life when he made his major league debut with the then aforementioned Milwaukee
Braves in 1954. But 12 years later the Braves moved to Atlanta, putting Aaron
back in the Deep South, where he really worked hard to escape.
The late U.S. Congressman of the Georgia’s
5th Congressional District from 1987-2020 John Lewis (D-GA) said
back in 2000 that the south Aaron was returning to then was what he called a
“different South,” with Atlanta considered “the capital of the New South.”
Longtime Civil Rights Activist Dick Gregory
added in 1999 saying that the Civil Rights Movement had already shocked the
“New South” and Aaron being the face of the Braves who brought a class and
dignity on the surface, but underneath had a sternness of “don’t mess with him,
don’t talk down to him.”
As Aaron was approaching Ruth’s home run
record that had been held for four decades by Ruth, Aaron received death
threats and racially driven hate mail, that according to the ESPN’s Baseball
analyst and de facto historian Tim Kurkjian total about 1,000 letters a day.
In fact, Mr. Aaron set the Guinness World
Record for the most mail received by a private citizen of nearly 3,000 letters
a day, that equated to nearly one million in 1974, and much of it was hate
mail.
One letter that was sent to Aaron said
that someone was going to break his leg, his back and that he will “DROP DEAD.”
Another began with “Dear Nigger Henry,”
and consisted of he would “((not))” break the record “established” by the great
Babe Ruth. That Caucasians are “more superior than jungle bunnies,” and that
person’s gun is “watching your ever move.”
Someone sent Mr. Aaron a picture of an
ape, pointing his first finger at his head that asked, “This picture flatters
you Hank. You Fag.”
“I couldn’t open a letter month,” Aaron
said last year about that hate mail he received during that time. “They had to
be opened by the FBI or somebody else.”
Longtime sports commentator Bob Costas,
now with the MLB Network said that Aaron saved each of those hate letters in a
box in his attic as a reminder that not a whole lot has changed, even today in
our nation when it comes to racism. Costas at one point in that interaction
asked Mr. Aaron if those hate letter obscured that millions of Americans, not
just African Americans admired and respected you.
Mr. Aaron responded by saying that he does
know but it does not change what he had to go through.
“I couldn’t let that stand in my way,” Mr.
Aaron said.
Adding, “When I look in the stands, you
know, after they said these nasty things, I looked in the stands and I saw all
these Black people in the stands. I said, ‘I can’t let them down.’”
Co-host and longtime media personality and
writer Jemele Hill said last week on Vice TV’s “Cari & Jemele (Won’t) Stick
to Sports” said Mr. Aaron’s drive to break one of pro sports all-time records
was one he did not reflect positively on until later on his life.
The newspaper that covered the Braves had
his obituary prepared to be published because of the fear he would be
assassinated.
In fact, the newspaper that covered the
Braves, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s then executive sports editor
Lewis Grizzard reported that he was receiving numerous phone calls that called
journalists “nigger lovers” because they covered Mr. Aaron’s chase of Ruth’s
record. So, while preparing the massive coverage of Aaron’s chase of MLB’s
all-time home run mark, Grizzard quietly had Aaron’s obituary written, fearing
that someone was going to assassinate him.
“And so, when we acknowledge our Black
icons, we need to also acknowledge what racism has done to their lives,” Hill
said.
She added that we need to acknowledge what
systemic racism has “stolen” from our Black icons in sports and entertainment.
Hill’s co-host and former ESPN
“Sportscenter” anchor Cari Champion said that we needed icons like Hank Aaron,
fellow Negro Leaguer and MLB legend in the late Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad
Ali to push the needle to where seeing her and Hill host their own show. To see
someone like now Vice President Kamala Harris, and longtime journalist with CNN
and NBC Soledad O’Brien, the host now of the weekend political show “Matter of
Fact” to give young minorities a vision of that they can also be in position of
power, and leadership, which is how we can make our world better.
Aaron surpassed Ruth on the home run list
and at the same time showed many other African Americans who played in the MLB
that they can be great like him even if others do not think so, like Torii
Hunter, who hit 353 career homers a 19-year career in the majors.
“For him to stay focused and hit 756 home
runs, and I just don’t understand it. I don’t get it, you know,” Hunter said.
“If a guy hit, you know, 300 or 400 home runs in the major leagues, he’s like a
God. What’s higher than God? Hank Aaron.”
You would think the words that came out of
Mr. Aaron mouth would be one of jubilation. That was not the case, as he said
once he surpassed Ruth, “I just thank God it’s all over with. Thank you very
much.”
Mr. Aaron saw his milestone moment as a
sign of relief that it was over because this moment was just six after the
assassination of Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. Just six years after
then U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Just a
decade after then President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.
“You didn’t know what was going to happen
to Hank Aaron. You didn’t know if he was actually going to break the record,”
ESPN’s Baseball Insider Buster Olney, said of what Mr. Aaron went through back
then.
Aaron tied Ruth’s all-time home run record
on opening day in the 1974 season and surpassed Ruth four days later.
Olney, who was age 10 at that time said
that his mother the next left a note that Mr. Aaron had broken the all-time
home run record, writing at the bottom of the note that the crowd cheered.
Olney said that the final part of that
note he got from his mother was just as important as the fact that he became
the MLB’s new all-time home run leader.
After Bonds hit his record-breaking 756th
career homer on Aug. 7, 2007, Mr. Aaron made a surprise appearance on the big
video screen at AT&T Park in San Francisco to congratulate Bonds on this
history making moment in MLB.
“I would like to offer my congratulations
to Barry Bonds on becoming baseball’s career home run leader. It is a great
accomplishment which required skill, longevity, and determination,” Mr. Aaron
said that night. “Throughout the past century, the home run has held a special
place in baseball and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of
those years. I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family
on this historical achievement. My hope today, as it was on that April evening
in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase
their own dreams.”
When Bonds surpassed Aaron in 2007 on the
all-time home run list, he showed the same grace and dignity that has been a
part of him, all be it fraudulently because Bonds was found out to have used
Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) that he became known for his entire baseball
career to him that Aaron did not receive when he surpassed Ruth.
“Hank Aaron—thank you for everything you
ever taught us, for being a trailblazer through adversity and setting an
example for all of us African American ball players who came after you,” Bonds
said in a statement last weekend. “Being able to grow up and have the idols and
role models I did; help shape me for a future I could have never dreamed of.”
This was another example of Mr. Aaron’s
kindness and respect for another, which was nothing really new because ESPN’s
Pedro Gomez said two weeks ago on “Sportscenter” that Aaron during his career
took many minority baseball players that experienced the kind of systemic racism
under his wing.
Mr. Aaron not only confronted that vitriol
from many Caucasians and was open about it but showed the class in how he
handled it.
He did have his fun moments in his
baseball career, especially on the back nine of it often joking about how old
he was playing against younger player, and still besting them.
“The kid that was pitching, and the kid
that was catching I was older than the two of them put together,” Aaron
jokingly said with a smile in an interview once while playing with the Braves.
“So, it was kind of embarrassing. But I felt good about it really. Because it’s
very unusual to participate in this game that long.”
“His career demonstrates that a person who
goes to work with humility every day can hammer his way into history and find a
way to shine like no other,” Commissioner Manfred said.
Aaron’s professional baseball journey
started in the Negro American League in 1952 with the Indianapolis Clowns, that
was separate but nowhere close to equal to the majors.
There, Mr. Aaron said that he played with
some of the best baseball players that “knew how to play the game.”
He added that the players he played with
taught him a great deal.
His MLB journey began with the Milwaukee
Braves on Apr. 13, 1954 at age 20, where he went hitless against the Cincinnati
Reds. Things would get better from there and in the 1957 season won his only
National League MVP and led the Braves to that year’s World Series title over
the New York Yankees in seven games.
Even the eye-popping numbers Mr. Aaron put
up in his remarkable career, he was always seen as underrated because he was
not a player that took the approach to have all eyes on him. He never hit 50
homers in a single season, with his highest in one season being 47 homers.
While he was remarkably consistent in his 25-year career, Aaron was always
overshadowed by other MLB players, who had more charisma and played in more
high-profiled media markets like Ruth with the Yankees.
“If Hank had played in New York like
[Mickey] Mantle and [Willie] Mays, we all know it would have been a different
story,” Academy Award winning film director/producer and New York sports fan
Spike Lee said once. “He was stuck in Milwaukee.”
“I know they were in the World Series in
’57 and ’58. That put him in the spotlight. But other than that, it really
wasn’t until he was getting into that Ruth territory that the spotlight finally
shown on him the way it should have all along.”
ESPN Baseball Analyst Eduardo Perez, who
played 13 years in the majors (1993-2000, 2002-06), said that Aaron was someone
that was not only a great player on the baseball diamond, but the impact that
he had off the field was even greater.
The one number Perez said on ESPN’s
“Sportscenter” two weeks ago that stood out about Mr. Aaron in his baseball
career that he hit 44 home runs in four different seasons.
“I used to always be a numbers guy. Still
am to this day. And No. 44, every time I think of it, it symbolizes Hank
Aaron.”
After playing the final two seasons of his
baseball career with the Brewers, Aaron stared across another racial divide as
his next challenge, owning a baseball team.
“I look forward to one day that a Black
will be able to run a professional ball club. And I’m hoping that one Black
will be me.”
Following the 1976 season, then owner Ted
Turner, founder of CNN, TBS, and TNT reached out to Aaron about being a part of
the Braves front office, which he accepted and worked for the team he played
for a little over two decades in several capacities for over four decades, that
included being named Senior Vice President and assistant to the Braves’
President. He became the Corporate Vice President of Community Relations for
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), a member of the company’s Board of Directors,
and the Vice President of Business Development for The Airport Network.
In 1982, Aaron was inducted into the
baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 97.8 percent of the ballots, second only to
the 98.2 percent of the vote Ty Cobb received in the inaugural 1936 Hall of
Fame election.
In 1999, MLB honored Mr. Aaron on his 65th
birthday created the Hank Aaron Award in celebration of the 25-year anniversary
of Aaron surpassing Ruth on the all-time home run list. This award is given
annually to baseball played voted most effective hitter in both the NL and
American League (AL).
In 2007 after the Braves were up for sale,
then MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced that Aaron would play a key role in
the management of the Braves formation of programs through MLB that encouraged
the influx of baseball into minority communities, which included Aaron founding
the Hank Aaron Rookie League program.
The greatest award that Mr. Aaron has
received came on Jan. 8, 2001 when then President Bill Clinton (D) presented
the MLB legend the nation’s highest civilian honor in the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, which he received by his predecessor George W. Bush ® in June 2002.
“Rosalynn and I are saddened by the
passing of our dear friend Henry Aaron,” former President and Governor of
Georgia Jimmy Carter (D) said in a statement. “One of the greatest baseball
players of all-time, he has been a personal hero to us. A breaker of records
and racial barriers, his remarkable legacy will continue to inspire countless
athletes and admirers for generations to come.”
Former President Bush said of Aaron, “The
former home run king wasn’t handed his throne. 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.”
President Clinton said that Aaron’s
passing, baseball lost “one of its greatest heroes” and that our nation lost
“an inspiring role model and philanthropist, and I have lost a wonderful
friend.”
President Barack Obama, who presidency
back in 2008 is not possible if not for how Mr. Aaron stood strong in the face
of racism said that the Hall of Famer not only “one of the best baseball
players we’ve ever seen” but was one of “the strongest people” he ever met.
“Whenever Michelle [his wife] and I spent
time with Hank and his wife Billye, we were struck by their kindness,
generosity and grace—and were reminded that we stood on the shoulders of a
previous generation of trailblazers.”
The current President Joe Biden said that
watching Hank Aaron play baseball that he knew he was watching “someone
special.”
That seeing Mr. Aaron play baseball was
more than just about watching a “gifted” athlete that mastered his craft as he
worked towards what would be a Hall of Fame career as one of the greats to ever
play baseball, but that every time we saw him round the baseball diamond that
we were witnessing not just someone chasing an astonishing record, but he was
helping the nation chase a better version of who we are and want to be.
Henry Louis “Hammer or Hammerin’ Hank”
Aaron will forever in the eyes of many be remembered for a monumental swing
that allowed this African American man to surpass a Caucasian man in fellow
Hall of Famer Babe Ruth on Major League Baseball’s all-time home run list.
On that night, Mr. Aaron was getting
showered with praise and appreciation at a time where he did not always get it
back. What he really did was provide hope that our nation can break a systemic divide
that has seemingly divide the U.S. into two countries where Caucasian Americans
can do and get away with anything and minorities, like African Americans have
to toe a certain line at all times.
Mr. Aaron was a very towering and
monumental figure at a time in baseball that was a very harsh environment that
might have left a much lesser man bitter or resentful for what he endured from
racist Caucasian fans and the letters they sent to him back in 1974, and the
threat of kidnapping his kids.
Aaron’s remarkable grace and focus did
more than lived up, even surpassed the enormous responsibility he felt how he
represented Black and Brown Americans. That focus led him to become a
successful businessman. Raised and provided millions of dollars to school and charities.
In his later years, Mr. Aaron often said
he hoped his lasting legacy to be not for the remarkable resume that he put
together as an MLB player for 23 years. But for the many lives he help change.
“I think I want to be remembered as
someone who was able to forget about baseball. But be able to help mankind,”
Aaron said.
Henry Louis “Hammer or Hammerin’ Hank”
Aaron memory for what he did on and off the field will never be forgotten. And
while the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where his most famous swing took place
is now gone, and is now a parking lot, the piece of the outfield wall where his
715th career homer landed remains.
Information,
statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 1/22/2021 1 p.m. ESPN’s
“Sportscenter” with Hannah Storm and David Lloyd, with reports from Buster
Olney and Eduardo Perez; 1/22/2021 6:30 p.m. on “ABC World News Tonight With
David Muir,” on WABC; 1/23/2021 12:30 a.m. ESPN’s “Sportscenter” from Los
Angeles, CA with Neil Everett, and Stan Verrett; 1/27/2021 www.npr.org story, “Funeral For
Hank Aaron: The ‘Marvel From Mobile’ Is Honored In Atlanta,” by Bill Chappell;
1/28/2021 11:30 p.m. Vice’s “Cari & Jemele (Won’t) Stick to Sports,” with
Cari Champion and Jemele Hill; 1/31/2021 5 a.m. “Matter of Fact with Soledad
O’Brien;” https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/HR_career.shtml; https://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter; and https://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron.
