Dan Patrick just reported this, too. One of the best ever, especially at a time and place where people were actively against him. I still remember reading a book about him as a kid where he said he was actually hitting wrong handed well into his teenage years...and was still hitting hrs. By all accounts and from what I've seen in interviews, he seemed like a genuinely fantastic human being. Rest in peace, Hammerin' Hank
Legend doesn't do him justice. Absolute inner circle of all time greats. A handful of guys with better peaks, but the list of guys with a better career than him is really short, if anybody. If not for roids, he would be first in HR and RBI, and 3rd in Runs and Hits.
When I was maybe 11 or 12 years old, my Dad and I would go to all sorts of sports memorabilia shows. We'd go to the giant ones down at the George R Brown convention center, and we'd go to the small weekend ones that would be at some random Holiday Inn. It was shocking, looking back, that a lot of those small shows would get big stars to sign autographs, and for relatively little money, you could meet and greet them. Probably in 1992ish, we went to a small card show at a random Holiday Inn. They had several people to get autographs from, and we decided to get one from Hank Aaron. I believe the autograph ticket was $25. We bought an official major league ball and went to the designated area when they called for the line up. We were shocked. They had set him up in a hotel room off the conference room with a signing table. They were letting people in small groups to get autographs. We were the only people in the room with him to get his autograph, and it was a slow day, so he invited us to sit there for 10 minutes to talk baseball. Looking back, it was amazing. You'd never get that type of access in this day and age. Mr. Hank Aaron...thank you for giving swing tips to an 11 year old kid for 10 minutes. I still have the signed ball sitting right next to me at my desk.
I would be lying if I said this one didn't bother me. I knew it was going to happen..... no one lives forever, but a little part of history is now gone. At this point Mays and Frank Robinson are the two old timers left. It was hard when Ted Williams and DiMaggio died. When Seaver died it alerted me that guys like Nolan Ryan will eventually be gone too.
Sportscenter is leading off with a very good piece on him, worth a watch, I'm sure they'll be replaying it. Hank Aaron has 12.3 more *miles* of total bases than the runner-up, Stan Musial. (that's courtesy of Ralph Wiley from '98...I miss that guy too, he was great).
GOAT gets thrown around quite a bit today...pretty recklessly. But I feel pretty confident saying Hank was truly a GOAT. Just a ridiculously fantastic ball player...and, by all accounts, an even better human. Rest well Hank.
If I had a Mount Rushmore for baseball, it would be Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, and Hank Aaron. If anything, I think people under-rate Hank Aaron, perhaps because he played for Atlanta.
If he played for the yanks he’d be the consensus GOAT At any rate, nobody was ever better at hitting a baseball...
Rest in peace, legend. If any of you have never made it to Cooperstown, you have to go. The BBHoF is an amazing place, and it has a whole exhibit on Hank Aaron. Hank and the Babe are the only two singular players that have such dedicated exhibits. And that feels completely right.
was out of town these past couple of days, just found this out. he was my absolute hero when I was a kid, I remember #715 off of Al Downing like it was yesterday. He lived a good life.
I started following baseball a bit after his career ended, and even though I don't follow it much anymore, he's still a legend to me. All the better when he seemed like a guy worthy of being looked up to. RIP Hammer.
