RIP Hank Aaron

[wadesworld]

Hammerin' Hank.  A true legend.  The real home run king.

[GooooMarquette]

Hammerin' Hank.  A true legend.  The real home run king.

So sad.

I was at his last game. In his last career AB, he hit an RBI single and Jim Gantner came in to pinch run.

RIP Hammerin' Hank

[buckchuckler]

Truly a legend and a great.  Wow. 

[tower912]

One of my first sports recollections was him chasing the home run record in the summer of '73.   It is also the first time I was aware of racial issues as 7-year-old me could not understand why anyone would threaten to kill someone chasing a record.

A true great.   And another boyhood hero gone.

[buckchuckler]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aaronha01.shtml

Amazing.  The world sucks a little more today.

[GooooMarquette]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aaronha01.shtml

Amazing.  The world sucks a little more today.

Kinda cool that #44 hit 44 HRs four times....

[MuggsyB]

Before my time (and I'm from Chicago) but this is crushing news from every corner of the sports world.  He was my grandpa's favorite player and I have never heard a single thing uttered about Mr. Aaron that wasn't positive.  He was a total class act and model for not just athletes, but all of us.  I feel strongly that it was an absolute travesty his hr record was illegally broken.  He's without question the greatest pro athlete in the history of Wisconsin.  May he rest in peace.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Hammerin' Hank.  A true legend.  The real home run king.

The actual homerun champ indeed.

[buckchuckler]

Before my time (and I'm from Chicago) but this is crushing news from every corner of the sports world.  He was my grandpa's favorite player and I have never heard a single thing uttered about Mr. Aaron that wasn't positive.  He was a total class act and model for not just athletes, but all of us.  I feel strongly that it was an absolute travesty his hr record was illegally broken.  He's without question the greatest pro athlete in the history of Wisconsin.  May he rest in peace.

^ Couldn't agree more

25 time All Star.  Roll that around in your head for a second.

[shoothoops]

^ Couldn't agree more

25 time All Star.  Roll that around in your head for a second.

His 21 seasons of being an All Star is one ahead of Stan Musial and Willie Mays.

One of the best to ever play the game.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Before my time, but the absolute epitome of class.

One of my favorite stories is Hank reuniting with the fans who ran onto the field to celebrate his 715th.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=5504664

[HouWarrior]

In July Scoop had a thread on this legend, one of my childhood heroes.

https://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=60671.msg1257933#msg1257933

Also in the Obits:

My very first childhood sports hero also just died. I was only 5 in kindergarten, when my dad tells me of the famous family sitting next to us in church. Bob Sadek was a U of Minn FB QB who led them to the Rose bowl, and next to him was younger brother Mike Sadek, star catcher at Edina High later to be drafted by the Giants. At the time I  thought these guys were HUGE, most famous sports guys I could ever hope to meet....well, oh to be a star struck 5 year old again....as... ESPN reminded me Mike barely ended up a journeyman, to wit:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30751475/mike-sadek-former-san-francisco-giants-catcher-dies-74-illness

So, who was your earliest sports hero?

[The Big East]

One of the true all time baseball greats . 755 homers with no steroids. Batted .305 in an era dominated by pitchers . Consistency of top level performance was incredible.

Aaron was not a big tv celebrity . So  sometimes he does not get his proper recognition on the Mt.Olympus of sports. He is definitely sitting there with the rest of the sports gods in my book. 

[Uncle Rico]

Henry Aaron is a prime example of the American Dream and why sports and politics are intertwined.  He was one of my heroes and I never saw him play.  The way he carried himself on and off the field is something everyone should strive for

[lostpassword]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aaronha01.shtml

Amazing.  The world sucks a little more today.

Before my time but a legend.  I was surprised to see he only has a single MVP.

Imagine having these stats in a 154 game season....
.355 BA (#1)
.636 slugging (#1)
400 total bases (#1)
92 extra base hits (#1)
223 hits (#1)
46 doubles (#2)
7 triples (#8)
39 HR (#3)
123 RBI (#3)
116 runs (#4)

....and finishing 3rd in MVP voting and 4th most 1st place votes.  1959.  A teammate (Mathews) even came in above.  At first I assumed this had to be a travesty but looking at what Banks and Mathews did that year, not black-and-white.

[MuggsyB]

The Packers should pay tribute to Mr. Aaron before the game on Sunday. 

[Marquette Fan]

I was so very sad to hear this news this morning.  He was a phenomenal baseball player of course but such a great person too.  One year when I ran the Hank Aaron 5K in Milwaukee he was there for a ceremony for the Hank Aaron trail and it was cool just to see him in person.

[Jockey]

Saw him for the 1st time in Milwaukee when I was 4 years old. Over the years I saw him dozens and dozens of times.

He was my 1st baseball hero. My favorite player ever. First, for his baseball abilities. Second (as I grew older), for his unrivalled class on and off the field.

[4everwarriors]

Absolutely the quickest wrists of any baseball player I've ever seen. Hit for power, had the arm from right field, ran the bases. Hammerin' Hank did it all, aina?

[CTWarrior]

He was a great hitter who also hit home runs.  With Ruth and Mays as the top 3 players in history, IMO.  People tend to think of him as a HR hitter, but he could do everything on a baseball field, was a trailblazer and a gentleman of the first order.  Sad day for America.

Just a brutal stretch for baseball legends.

[wadesworld]

For some reason him and Bill Russell more than any other athletes seemed larger than life to me.

[MuggsyB]

He was a great hitter who also hit home runs.  With Ruth and Mays as the top 3 players in history, IMO.  People tend to think of him as a HR hitter, but he could do everything on a baseball field, was a trailblazer and a gentleman of the first order.  Sad day for America.

Ted Williams?

Just a brutal stretch for baseball legends.

[CTWarrior]

I'm a die hard Red Sox and am a huge fan of Ted Williams, even though he retired right before I was born.  Williams was a better hitter, but Aaron was a much better fielder and base runner and played 1,000 more games.  I'd take Aaron, but I wouldn't argue too strenuously with anyone who preferred Williams.  Going through both of their baseball reference pages is fun.

[MU82]

I didn't become a baseball fan until I was a teenager, and one of my first and fondest memories was of his 715th home run.

I took it upon myself to learn all there was to know about Hank, and he definitely became one of my earliest sports heroes. After I became an adult and got to talk to others who knew him pretty well, he just seemed like the classiest of class acts to me.

Oh, and I just got this text from my son:

When I saw that Hank died, I looked up his stats. Obviously an all-time great, and there's a ton to be amazed at, but this blows my mind: He never struck out 100 times in a season. Fewer than 1400 Ks in 23 seasons. Amazing for a HR hitter of his stature.

My son has followed the "close your eyes and swing as hard as you can" era pretty much his whole life, so I can see how that would amaze him.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

One of if not the best to ever play the game. Before my time but heard all the stories from dad and uncles.

He also starred in one of my favorite super bowl commercials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5kLuWmw5EM

Rest in Peace Hammerin' Hank