RIP Hank Aaron
- Thread starter paultzman
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Ray Morgan
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Paultzman" post=414237 said:
A very sad day. Growing up a Braves fan in the 90's, I unfortunately never got to see him play live. However, I know how much he's still meant to the organization over the past decades. He has been such a great ambassadar to the team and the city of Atlanta. Always a gentleman as well. There are so many tributes to him in their Truist Park stadium, and I'm glad he was alive to witness all of that come together. He will be missed.
The Double Aa that begins Hank's name doesn't do justice to this Baseball Icon . Hammerin Hank gets most of his props for his HR Stats but , not nearly as mentioned is that he was a 5 tool player in a era of 5 tool players . Mantle , Mays , Clemente, , Kaline, Frsnk Robinson , etc . I'm probably missing a few too. Ernie Banks? Could be but , not sure about his fielding and base stealing or speed . Anyway , Hank is one of the All Time greats ! 86 , he had a good life .
beast of the east
Active member
The boys of summer of the formative years of our lives are leaving us quickly this past year. It was a time when many of us lived and breathed baseball, before video games, hundreds of cable tv channels and text messages consumed the imagination of kids.. It was an era when a trip to the ballpark was something special. Arrive early. When you stepped out of the runway and gazed over the glorious expanse of green, the melodic sounds of the ballpark organ. When on some warm summer days if the breeze was blowing in your direction, you could smell the freshly cut grass. Where you could see some of the greatest players ever to play the game warming up playing soft catch an hour before game time. Clemente, Mays, McCovey, Stargell, Aaron, Brock, Santo, etc. Sometimes you caught a glimpse of boyish antics of these idols. We weren't exposed to their personal indiscretions which made baseball as idylic and American as Mount Rushmore. It was when you could buy a scorecard for 25 or 50 cents, and diligently record for history every play with a two inch nub of an eraserless pencil Gosh, our youth is dying.
Two things come to mind. I visited the HOF in Cooperstown on a dad/son trip about a dozen years ago. Inside you can usually find some fan who will completely understand what I wrote above. I had this 5 minute conversation with a fan at the Aarron Exhibit (he had 1/2 a room chronicalling the chase for Ruth and the racism he encountered). We chatted how at the time, the threats were more of a sidebar to the historic event of closing in on shattering what was thought to be an unbreakable career record. 714 60, 61 all have incredible importance to baseball fans. We engaged in a classic baseball debate, whether Mays was so much better than Aaron or not.
The second was a trip in summer of 2019 for a friend's reunion in Syracuse. We went to a Syracuse Mets game, and a 30ish man seated directly in front of me was diligently keeping score of the game, replete with a zip lock bag filled with colored markers, each I am certain with a color coded purpose on the scorecard. Flip back 50 years, and as nerdy as the guy seemed, I admired his adherance to a long forgotten tradition.
Aaron's passing floods my mind with all of that. I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Willie Mays in person ramble on from the podium in San Francisco on Barry Bonds day. I thought of how I was perhaps the only person in the park that day that was also present at Shea for Willie Mays night in September, 1973, when he uttered the famous words (for fans at least), "Willie, it's time to say Goodbye to America".
Goodbye, Mr. Aaron. Somewhere in a shoebox, I still have your baseball cards, one of the last vestiges of the boy that never quite leaves a man.
Two things come to mind. I visited the HOF in Cooperstown on a dad/son trip about a dozen years ago. Inside you can usually find some fan who will completely understand what I wrote above. I had this 5 minute conversation with a fan at the Aarron Exhibit (he had 1/2 a room chronicalling the chase for Ruth and the racism he encountered). We chatted how at the time, the threats were more of a sidebar to the historic event of closing in on shattering what was thought to be an unbreakable career record. 714 60, 61 all have incredible importance to baseball fans. We engaged in a classic baseball debate, whether Mays was so much better than Aaron or not.
The second was a trip in summer of 2019 for a friend's reunion in Syracuse. We went to a Syracuse Mets game, and a 30ish man seated directly in front of me was diligently keeping score of the game, replete with a zip lock bag filled with colored markers, each I am certain with a color coded purpose on the scorecard. Flip back 50 years, and as nerdy as the guy seemed, I admired his adherance to a long forgotten tradition.
Aaron's passing floods my mind with all of that. I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Willie Mays in person ramble on from the podium in San Francisco on Barry Bonds day. I thought of how I was perhaps the only person in the park that day that was also present at Shea for Willie Mays night in September, 1973, when he uttered the famous words (for fans at least), "Willie, it's time to say Goodbye to America".
Goodbye, Mr. Aaron. Somewhere in a shoebox, I still have your baseball cards, one of the last vestiges of the boy that never quite leaves a man.
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My Dad grew up in Rhode Island and was a Boston Braves fan as a kid. He became a fan of NY teams over the years but when I was growing up he did still kind of root for the then Milwaukee Braves and he loved Hammerin' Hank. I believe Hank came up a year or two after Braves moved to Milwaukee. I always admired Hank who in addition to all the home runs was a great hitter and outfielder (3 time gold glove winner) who could steal a base in his younger days. RIP Hank, lived a full life.
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beast of the east
Active member
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Beast of the East" post=414244 said:
I just saw this. RIP Hank Aaron.
My memory floods back to Monday night in April 1974 watching the Monday Night Baseball game on NBC, Dodgers vs Braves at Fulton County Stadium with my Mom. Dad hadn't gotten home from work yet. I saw history being made when Hank Aaron took Al Downing deep for his 715th career homerun. What a moment that was.
Baseball has always been my number one sport. Couldn't wait to play all the time in my youth. I got to see some of the greats in the latter portion of their careers like Mays, Aaron, Kaline, McCovey, Yaz, Marichial, Gibson but heard so much about them and others I didn't see from my father who taught me the game and where I got my love for it. I know the feeling Beast of my youth going to Yankee or Shea Stadium early for BP and having my breath taken away everytime I walked in and saw the field. Watching BP, the players plaing catch or flip.
Baseball has really been taken hits like this over the past year.
My memory floods back to Monday night in April 1974 watching the Monday Night Baseball game on NBC, Dodgers vs Braves at Fulton County Stadium with my Mom. Dad hadn't gotten home from work yet. I saw history being made when Hank Aaron took Al Downing deep for his 715th career homerun. What a moment that was.
Baseball has always been my number one sport. Couldn't wait to play all the time in my youth. I got to see some of the greats in the latter portion of their careers like Mays, Aaron, Kaline, McCovey, Yaz, Marichial, Gibson but heard so much about them and others I didn't see from my father who taught me the game and where I got my love for it. I know the feeling Beast of my youth going to Yankee or Shea Stadium early for BP and having my breath taken away everytime I walked in and saw the field. Watching BP, the players plaing catch or flip.
Baseball has really been taken hits like this over the past year.
beast of the east
Active member
Also, incredible to think, that Henry Aaron began in the Negro Leagues at a time when the door was almost open to African American players. We all knew he was a country boy self taught, who when he was signed still batted cross handed. Some credited his powerfully quick wrists on playing for years as a kid with a horrifically wrong fundamental. Today parents pay thousands for tutors and camps, where all the analytics are deployed - bat speed, exit velocity and so on. Kids are school on transferring their weight to their front front, to pivot their heel - all technical stuff that was reserved for games like tennic or golf.
No, Henry Aaron learned to play on all dirt fields in Mobile Alabama, in a poor neighborhood where with his brother Tommie, also produced Willie McCovey, Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee. Legend says it was a field with a lake in deep right field that required that Cleon Jones learn how to hit right handed because the kids couldn't afford to lose a baseball and Cleon hit the ball too hard and far left handed. In Queens we broke out the eletrical tape when asphalt fields ripped the cover off of baseball and softballs. I imagine they did the same in Mobile. Somehow we were all connected. We were poor, they were poorer - dirt poor literally.
Aaron always maintained those genteel southern manners. Even when he spoke out against racial inequality, his powerful message was delivered in gnetle and polite southern tones. His game was similar. No fist pumps, no trash talk, cooly efficient greatness. Our kids may be able to do just about everything with a mobile device, from hailing an uber, to ordering a pizza, to paying for school books, on and on. Somehow I think we may have had it better because we had it worse. They woudn't appreciate an Aaron the way we did. The game is a zillion times slower than a video game and requires a lot more of an attention span.
No, Henry Aaron learned to play on all dirt fields in Mobile Alabama, in a poor neighborhood where with his brother Tommie, also produced Willie McCovey, Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee. Legend says it was a field with a lake in deep right field that required that Cleon Jones learn how to hit right handed because the kids couldn't afford to lose a baseball and Cleon hit the ball too hard and far left handed. In Queens we broke out the eletrical tape when asphalt fields ripped the cover off of baseball and softballs. I imagine they did the same in Mobile. Somehow we were all connected. We were poor, they were poorer - dirt poor literally.
Aaron always maintained those genteel southern manners. Even when he spoke out against racial inequality, his powerful message was delivered in gnetle and polite southern tones. His game was similar. No fist pumps, no trash talk, cooly efficient greatness. Our kids may be able to do just about everything with a mobile device, from hailing an uber, to ordering a pizza, to paying for school books, on and on. Somehow I think we may have had it better because we had it worse. They woudn't appreciate an Aaron the way we did. The game is a zillion times slower than a video game and requires a lot more of an attention span.
Not sure if I should start another thread for this but when I heard the news this morning it made me start thinking about which 4 players I'd put on the Mount Rushmore of Baseball, if there were such a thing.
My baseball Mt Rushmore wouldn't have any banned players. Nobody from the deadball era. And nobody who was linked to steroid use.
The first three are easy for me:
Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron & Willie Mays
The 4th one is tougher.
Jackie Robinson deserves consideration for is importance in baseball, and American history. But his on field performace, while great, wasn't up to par with the best of the best.
Part of me wants to put Ken Griffey Jr on there because I consider him to be the best player of my lifetime.
Thought about Ted Williams since he's the greatest hitter of all time.
Maybe a pitcher, but who? There are a dozen guys who can lay claim to being the best pitcher of the live ball era. Maybe Mariano Rivera since he's the firtst unanimous HOF selection?
Mickey Mantle has a strong claim, but his knees betrayed him.
I think I have to go with:
Babe Ruth
Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Lou Gehrig
What's your 4?
My baseball Mt Rushmore wouldn't have any banned players. Nobody from the deadball era. And nobody who was linked to steroid use.
The first three are easy for me:
Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron & Willie Mays
The 4th one is tougher.
Jackie Robinson deserves consideration for is importance in baseball, and American history. But his on field performace, while great, wasn't up to par with the best of the best.
Part of me wants to put Ken Griffey Jr on there because I consider him to be the best player of my lifetime.
Thought about Ted Williams since he's the greatest hitter of all time.
Maybe a pitcher, but who? There are a dozen guys who can lay claim to being the best pitcher of the live ball era. Maybe Mariano Rivera since he's the firtst unanimous HOF selection?
Mickey Mantle has a strong claim, but his knees betrayed him.
I think I have to go with:
Babe Ruth
Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Lou Gehrig
What's your 4?
Nice article on Hammerin' Hank. Pretty incredible that even if you take away his 755 home runs, he still has more than 3,000 hits and finished more than 700 total bases ahead of Stan Musial who was second to him for all time total bases. Could also throw, hit and run with the best of them. Add in the fact that he never got the chance to play in a major market and it's no wonder he often got overshadowed by other superstars in his best years before the home run chase focused the press on him.
We can argue forever who was the best of all time but Aaron is certainly up there with the very best.
Hank Aaron was baseball's total package of greatness (nypost.com)
We can argue forever who was the best of all time but Aaron is certainly up there with the very best.
Hank Aaron was baseball's total package of greatness (nypost.com)
beast of the east
Active member
It's funny, but I don't think that if you listed the top 3-4 guys you absolutely did not want to face in a given situation - Mays, McCovey, even Richie Allenor Mike Schmidt, that Aaron would head the list. I don't even think he was viewed as this tremendous power hitter. The parks he played in were not exactly bandboxes, but didn't present the challenges that the old Yankee stadium or even Candestick park, which was considered to hurt hitters more than help them.NCJohnnie" post=414331 said:
It's not to denigrate Aaron, who was a superb player. I just don't think his name seriously entered into a discussion as the best player in baseball. For that matter, neither did Clemente. Frank Robinson had a few seasons that had people thinking he should have done that every season. Banks was something special too. In that era there were a host of players that in any given year would overshadow Aaron, who merely kept on pumping out .300 averages, lots of extra base hits, 40 homers (off the top of my head I think his high was 44) and 100 RBIs. The 44 home runs is significant as a high, because Mays hit 52 in '65, and of course Mantle had hit 54 and 56, and Maris 61. Aaron was consisentely great, but never had that breathtaking season where he overshadowed the rest of the league.
I love these debates that are unuque to baseball since all fields have different dimensions, even different altitudes, winds and climates that affect play. I was in Toronto in the domed stadium and if felt very odd to watch baseball played indoors. .
It's sad to lose another great player, but it feels good to discuss his greatness, which is undeniable.