Hugh T. Brooks

On TK, Hank Aaron, one of baseball’s finest right fielders in the history of the game, died by TK only six days after his 86th birthday. 

Aaron played in Major League Baseball for 21 seasons, playing for the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers. He famously held the record for most career home-runs for 33 years up until Barry Bond’s 756th home-run in 2007. He also helped break the color barrier in baseball, playing a few years in Negro American League between 1952 and 1954 before moving to the Major Leagues. Throughout his career, he boasts one 1957 World Series, one 1957 Most Valuable Player award, and even earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. After being inducted in 1982, Aaron lives forever in infamy in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. 

Hank Aaron’s career is something to be gawked at. The 25-time All-Star holds the records for most runs batted in (RBI) (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), and total bases (6,856). He is second in all-time home-runs with 755, and pitchers on every team were scared of the Braves’ slugger in right field. Bill Lee, a Boston Red-sox and Montreal Expos pitcher, once said, “I’m mad at Hank Aaron for deciding to play one more season. I threw him his last home run and thought I’d be remembered forever. Now, I’ll have to throw him another.” 

Aaron famously broke Babe Ruth’s record of 715 home-runs in 1974, despite receiving hate-mail and racist threats over the nearly sacred legacy of Ruth. However, Aaron was never one to back down from challenge, conquering the Negro leagues’ color barrier while earning $200 a month, winning a difficult championship in 1957, and eventually crushing the home-run record. Difficulty and racism were always part of Aaron’s life, but it never slowed him down. He remembered one story in Washington, D.C., while playing with the Indianapolis Clowns, “We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating.”

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Aaron grew up poor and practiced his swing with sticks and bottle-caps. After playing some semi-pro baseball, Aaron first tried out for a Major League team in 1949 at the age of 15. He attempted to join the Brooklyn Dodgers, following in the footsteps of his idol, Jackie Robinson, but was promptly cut him despite his appearance as a power-hitter. He returned to school to finish his education before playing for the Pritchett Athletics and Mobile Black Bears. Despite being traded around, his success in the independent Negro Leagues would eventually earn him a spot on his first Major League team, the then Milwaukee Braves, and the rest is history. 

Hank Aaron is survived by his children Gary, Lary, Dorinda, Gaie and Hank, Jr., and Ceci, and his wife, Billye Suber Williams. His funeral will be held on TK. 

Though Aaron’s super slugging may no longer be with us, the MLB’s Hank Aaron award goes to the best offensive player in the MLB, continuing to recognize his greatness for years to come.