Note: With this post I am pleased to announce the release of “Saying Goodbye to Hammerin’ Hank Aaron-A Heartfelt Tribute from a Lifelong Fan” in both kindle and paperback formats. Originally released as a 5-part series on this blog earlier this year, I always intended that it be published in these formats as well, as I want Hank’s story to be known to as wide an audience as possible. The life he lived and all that he accomplished as a ballplayer is perhaps only exceeded by the example he set in overcoming the barriers he and other Black players faced in the early days of integrating the professional baseball leagues in the late 1940s and early 1950s—especially in the Jim Crow south. Whether a fan of baseball or not, Hank’s story is one that I believe all Americans should know, appreciate and share. Get your copy today by clicking the link at the bottom of this page. MA
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I was saddened recently, when I heard of the passing of one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, my personal boyhood hero, Hank Aaron; who died on January 22nd, 2021, in Atlanta at the age of 86. I grew up in Seattle, Washington in the 1950s and 60s; a time when baseball was truly the national pastime and the New York Yankees ruled the world; except, that is, for that 1957 World Series when the Bronx Bombers fell to the Milwaukee Braves 4 games to 3. The Yankees lost that Series largely due to the play of a slender, 23-year old Black man who played right field and hit the cover off the ball by the name of Henry “Hank” Aaron. From that time forward, as I grew up through the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, across the years of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, and on into the time of Richard Nixon and Watergate, Hank was my favorite player. As the seasons came and went, I followed his exploits closely in the box scores and sports pages; noting every game, at bat and home run hit, all the way to that day in April of 1974 when he parked an Al Downing fast ball into the Atlanta Braves bullpen to at last break the all-time career home run record of the great Babe Ruth.
All that said, there is a far greater dimension to Aaron than I realized in my youth, one which I have now come to fully appreciate. That greater dimension consists of the grace, restraint and tolerance he displayed in facing and overcoming circumstances and barriers he never should have had to deal with to play this simple game. No white player ever faced such barriers, but you never would have known it by the way Hank went about his business and played the game. The simple truth is, before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King there were ballplayers like Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron doing the heavy lifting for Civil Rights. Like mirrors, people like Jackie and Hank reflect our misdeeds, omissions and prejudices back at us. In so doing they afford us an opportunity for the self-reflection necessary to amend and change our ways, in the process confronting who we really are, which I believe is basically good. That is how such people improve society, one person at a time, and that is exactly what Hank Aaron did.
I never met Hank, but sometimes it feels as if I knew him well. And while you may find it ironic that a white, middle class kid from a south Seattle suburb would feel that way, it’s the truth, and is the reason I penned this tribute to the man who is surely one of the greatest ball players of all time; to me, my favorite player ever, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. MA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GNTHCQ6
Copyright © 2021
by Mark Arnold
All Rights Reserved
