If I Had A Hammer

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.