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Hank Aaron passes away at 86
Palm_City_Dawg
✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
in General
Dang...he was a great one.
RIP Mr. Aaron.
Comments
I don't mean I was personally friends with him, but I knew him enough to have talked with him several times. In all respects he was a good guy, a gentle man, and a tremendously gifted, but also modest and humble ballplayer.
I used to attend, back when it cost a dollar to sit in the outfield bleachers, almost every home game. I always sat in right field.
Hank Aaron will be missed. I'm sorry he's gone.
Go, Dawgs!
Rip to the true home run king.
I'm 52 years old and he was my childhood hero.
Cannot even attempt to count the number of times my friends and I tried to act like we were Hank playing backyard baseball.
Very sad day and may he RIP.
I had the honor of sharing an elevator with Mr. Aaron when we worked for the same company - he on the Executive floor, me way, way below. After a quick nod acknowledging each other as I entered the car, then in perhaps a total breach of elevator etiquette, I said, "It's an honor to ride with you, Mr. Aaron, I enjoyed the way you played the game and am a huge fan of yours."
Mr. Aaron smiled and said "Thank you, it's nice to ride with you...???" I told him my name and then he offered his hand - the biggest, strongest hand, fingers and wrist to this day I've ever had the pleasure, in Mr. Aaron's case honor, to shake - the source of so much of his power. That was 30+ years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday.
As @Kasey said, Hammerin' Hank will always be the King in my book.
A sad day with the loss of a tremendous Man.
Sutton, Knucksie, and now Hank. Sad times for sure.
Loved seeing Mr. Aaron play. Even if he popped up for an out, that ball looked like it was going to Mars. Rest in peace.
Hammering Hank was my 1st sports hero. I have tried to remember why I came to be a braves fan. I think it was 1957 when I could begin to read the newspaper and it was braves vs Yankees. No way I was going to root for any yankee. When I earned my 1st money when I was 9 or so cutting grass bought a subscription to the sporting news so I could read more about the braves and Mr Hank Aaron my 1st sports hero.
755 homers, the true home run king.
RIP Mr. Aaron, good man and a dgb !
The back of his baseball card reads like Groundhog Day. He just was great over and over and over. He was created to hit a baseball.
I'll always remember him as Henry "Hammering Hank" Aaron. May you always rest in peace sir.
PS - I was just a 10 year old kid when he hit number 715 against the Dodgers in April of 1974 at Fulton County Stadium. I remember watching it on the news on WAGA CBS Channel 5 (at that time), and then seeing it in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in my Daddy's newspaper the following day as it was a HUGE home town happy headline. I turned 11 the following month. Easily, it was "Hammering Hank" who was far and away the very BEST Atlanta Braves player on the entire team. (WOW, did anyone else notice that in 1974, the newspaper was just .10 cents?????!!!!!)
What I remember about Hank Aaron: He hit his number 44 ( in HR's) four times in his career. A very humble guy with a personality much different than the "say hey kid", Willie Mays.
Originally hit cross handed which, allegedly, contributed to his wrist strength.
From Mobile Alabama along with Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith, Satchel Paige, and Billy Williams -- all HOF players. One of only 3 players, as I recollect it, to hit a HR into the upper deck of Fulton County Stadium by 1970 (?) and one of the other players to do so, was a HS player in a State playoff game. Wierd.
And was my childhood Sports Hero. Rest in Peace Hank Aaron.
Thank You Hank!
Rest In Peace Mr. “Hammering Hank” Aaron. A true legend and home run king. 🙏
I actually met him over in "Historic West End" in Atlanta. It was the Summer of 98 and I was going to a Hardware store and he was loading something in his car and I simply said "Hi Mr Aaron " and he smiled and waved and that was the end of it. Didn't want to approach him about an Autograph though out of respect.
With the passing of Mr. Aaron, I was looking back at his various accomplishments in baseball. And while he won the MVP award in 1957 including a league-best 44 hr's and 132 rbi's, it was his performance in 1959 where he had a most remarkable season.
Aaron finished 3rd in MVP voting in 1959 behind teammate Eddie Matthews (who finished second) and MVP winner Ernie Banks of the Cubs.
But the voters got it wrong that year. They were fixated on homeruns IMO. Banks hit 45 hr's and had 143 rbi's; Matthews hit 46 hr's and had 115 rbi's. Hank Aaron "only" hit 39 homeruns that year. But, he also hit 46 doubles, a .355 batting average, 400 total bases, .636 slugging, and 223 hits -- all league bests. He also had 123 rbi's.
Edit: Aaron's 46 doubles were second best in the league in 1959 -- one behind league leader Vada Pinson (?) of the Reds who had 47.
Aaron's .355 batting average was 51 points better than Ernie Banks; 49 points better than teammate Matthews that year.
Incidentally, when they show Aaron's 715th, a lighted square on the left-center field wall is shown -- on the old Fulton County stadium. Is that a marker for the spot where he hit his 500th HR?