Hank Aaron died today and while I have mentioned him in
posts, I’ve never had the opportunity to speak at length about him in this
forum. The easiest thing to say about him is that he was one of the greatest
baseball players who ever lived. That’s easy because the staggering numbers he
compiled will always tell the story of his greatness. However, I believe he reached
his greatest heights as he chased the hallowed home run record of Babe Ruth. He
received an almost unfathomable 3,000 pieces of hate mail a day. He was simply
doing what he was paid to do, but had to endure the most inhumane threats and
insults imaginable. He never once shied away from the spotlight, never once hid
the hate that was coming his way on a daily basis, he never cowered under the
avalanche of death threats. He just went out and did his job. It was a display
of courage and fortitude that few could have matched. The terms hero, icon and
legend are too often thrown around to the undeserving. He was all of those things. He personified the
idea of grace under pressure. He bore an incredible burden and not only
survived but thrived. I unfortunately came along too late to see him play as an active Major Leaguer, but that does not diminish my reverence. My
memories are only of the old black and white movies of him in 57 & 58 World
Series against the Yankees. The old video of the all-star games he took part in
and of course the video of that wonderful night in Atlanta when he finally
broke the home run record and that perfect call by Milo Hamilton, “There’s a
new home run champion of all time and it’s Henry Aaron”. We lost one of the
best of us today and I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that we may never
see his like again.
