Hank Aaron, baseball’s one-time home run
king, dies at 86
Associated Press,
by
Paul Newberry
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
1/22/2021 12:11:38 PM
ATLANTA — Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record and gracefully left his mark as one of baseball’s greatest all-around players, died Friday. He was 86.
The Atlanta Braves, Aaron’s longtime team, said he died peacefully in his sleep. No cause was given.
Aaron made his last public appearance just 2 1/2 weeks ago, when he received the COVID-19 vaccine. He said he wanted to help spread the to Black Americans that the vaccine was safe.
“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a 23-year career spent mostly with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Thos Weatherby 1/22/2021 12:17:30 PM (No. 670527)
A great man and fantastic baseball champion. Outlived many challenges. Only to fall from the deadly vaccine.
12 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 1/22/2021 12:22:56 PM (No. 670536)
Hmm. Vaccine, then dead in a few weeks. Coincidence?
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Rather Read 1/22/2021 12:27:20 PM (No. 670538)
One of the best of the best. RIP to Hammerin' Hank.
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
PCMM 1/22/2021 12:31:39 PM (No. 670546)
Yeah ... great man ... hated white people. If he’d received his “vaccine” from a white nurse, they’d be getting investigated for a hate crime. /sarcasm off
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Newtsche 1/22/2021 12:37:31 PM (No. 670558)
Aaron's place in history is not "one-time home run champ", he's the guy that broke
Babe Ruth's career HR record. It didn't come without a price, Aaron suffered not only
the pressure of beating that record but the racial animus that came with it.
In many ways it made him bitter and angry, not unjustified. I met him in the 70's, he was
not a gracious and happy man.
He can finally rest in peace, his legacy assured despite idiot sports writers stinking up
any joint they're in.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Hazymac 1/22/2021 12:38:33 PM (No. 670560)
During Hank Aaron's years with the Atlanta Braves, I attended four games (lived over four hours away), and he homered in all of them. Every one was a line drive. It's a round ball and a round bat, but he hit the ball square. Fellow Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax fooled batters about as well as any pitcher ever. He was afraid of no batter, except one: Bad Henry. If he made a mistake against #44, he knew that mistake was headed over the wall.
In my opinion Hand Aaron is still MLB's all time home run champion. He always played fair, and never cheated. It was an honor to have seen him play. A great, honorable man.
15 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Son of Grady 1/22/2021 12:39:10 PM (No. 670562)
I'll never forget my Dad and I watching that game and swing that broke the record.
It was a great memory. We jumped to our feet the moment the ball leapted off the bat, there was no doubt that was 715. Rest in Peace Mr. Aaron
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
john56 1/22/2021 12:39:55 PM (No. 670565)
Rest In Peace, Hammerin' Hank!
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
varkdriver 1/22/2021 12:39:57 PM (No. 670567)
The personification of grace, class and dignity. Received many ugly death threats, all of which he kept, and still kept right on doing his thing. A true champion.
As someone pointed out, 755 home runs. 3016 'other' hits. Think about that! MLB leader in RBI and Total Bases. 2179 runs scored. Numbers that may never be beaten.
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DaBigGuy 1/22/2021 12:49:39 PM (No. 670577)
I got to meet Aaron in 1968 with my siblings. My mother called the hotel where the Braves were staying to ask if we could come by to get his autograph. The operator connected the call to his room, and he told her to come by and bring the kids. Having recently moved from Atlanta where we attended many Braves games, we were thrilled. Aaron not only posed for pictures, but signed everything we brought. Then he asked us if we would like for him to introduce us to the other Braves players who were in the hotel lounge waiting for the team bus. Incredible! The graciousness and professionalism he showed us was off the chart.
RIP Hammer. You were a class act. Thank you for an afternoon of wonderful memories.
18 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
montwoodcliff 1/22/2021 12:56:27 PM (No. 670589)
Hank Aaron’s nickname should be “Mr. Consistency”. Year after year he was among the leaders in all hitting stats. That consistency is why he hit 755 non-PED home runs. He wasn’t flashy like Mantle or Mays, but amazingly consistent up to his retirement.
Maybe Mike Trout could approach Aaron, but I doubt that anyone will ever equal or surpass what Aaron accomplished.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
obdurate 1/22/2021 1:00:55 PM (No. 670595)
No asterisk after his records, he was the real deal!
11 people like this.
There was a time when this would have saddened me. Not now.
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
RedWhite&Blue2 1/22/2021 1:24:11 PM (No. 670630)
The ass/press, which lies about and distorts every bit of news they narrate, today clumsily reported Hank Aaron’s death...
See how they do that?
RIP
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
coyote 1/22/2021 1:29:28 PM (No. 670637)
In 1958 I attended a MLB game in Milwaukee and as I looked out at this skinny black kid warming up in left field, I thought this guy is getting hits, he could be pretty good. He became very good. RIP Hank.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
MDConservative 1/22/2021 1:58:35 PM (No. 670659)
As a native Milwaukeean of a certain age, it was always something to play in a neighborhood pick-up game and have a fight over who was Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst or Warren Spahn...every kid wanted to be Hank! Color? What did it matter? Never mentioned. In the bleachers we always sat in County Stadium's right field bleachers, behind Hank.
8 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 1/22/2021 2:27:46 PM (No. 670686)
Hammering Hank! What a great American icon. His final act was doing something for the benefit of others. Peace, Mr. Aaron.
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
voxpopuli 1/22/2021 2:33:55 PM (No. 670695)
"Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats..."
beep.. stopped reading..
10 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
SweetSweetback 1/22/2021 2:42:40 PM (No. 670716)
The true home run king
Not the “anomaly” with the balloon head
6 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
red1066 1/22/2021 2:52:44 PM (No. 670735)
Will his death be counted as a Covid death?
6 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
thelmalou 1/22/2021 2:58:20 PM (No. 670749)
Great guy, great player. Should still be the home run king, except for loser baseball then-commish Bud Selig allowing cheater Bobby Bonds to keep the record even though he took steroids for years.
6 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
lakerman1 1/22/2021 3:48:32 PM (No. 670795)
I'm sorry, #18, but Aaron had to put up with all sorts of racist threats and comments as he approached Ruth's HR record, which made no sense to me.
He didn't whine about the situation, but did correctly point it out.
6 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 1/22/2021 4:19:06 PM (No. 670820)
I have vivid memories of watching young Hank play against my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers in Ebbets Field.
He had a beautiful, fluid, power stroke. But I actually feared his teammate - - Eddie Mathews - - even more than Hammerin' Hank. Mathews feasted on Dodger pitching - - and that nearby wall in right field.
Thanks for the memories, Hank!
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Anti_democRAT 1/22/2021 6:09:45 PM (No. 670934)
Long before i became a trump supporting racist playing little league hammering hank was my friends and my hero. We followed him to what was it 714 or 715 hrs. I didnt even think of his skin color or even know that he was a racist.
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
bighambone 1/22/2021 9:52:01 PM (No. 671075)
I was privileged to meet Hank Aaron as he was traveling by commercial air from Canada to Boston in the late 1970s. It has been reported that he took his first COVID-19 shot about 12 days ago in a televised civil rights based initiative at Atlanta designed to encourage Black folks to sign up to be vaccinated, as it appears that many Black folks do not want to take the vaccine.
Now since Aaron died twelve days later and apparently was not sick beforehand, the powers at be had better get with Aaron’s family to allow his cause of death to be made public, especially if not related to a reaction to the COVID vaccine, or they are going to quickly find out that a lot more Black folks are going to refuse to take the vaccine if they think that a vaccine reaction had anything to do with Aaron dying suddenly.
3 people like this.
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