Words can not describe how big of an impact Hank Aaron had on not only the Atlanta Braves franchise, nor the entire game of baseball, no Hank Aaron had an impact on the entire world.
When you think of players on franchise’s you think of Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls, Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers, or Hank Aaron on the Atlanta/Milwaukee Braves.
No doubt this has been an extremely rough month for the Atlanta Braves franchise with three of the team’s hall of famers passing. No disrespect to the other two in any way, shape, or form but the loss of Hank Aaron is going to sting for a while, again on the entire game of baseball.
Like most probably, I was too young to ever watch Hammerin’ Hank play the game. Again, like most though, I have seen the highlights of his career and I have seen the replay of that famous home run he hit back in April of 1974 at least a 1000 times.
Yes, he is still the true home run king. He did it the right way, and he did it the right way for an extremely long time.
The numbers speak for themselves and I’m sure we will all see them tons of times over the course of the next few days.
For me personally, I have been fortunate enough to have some experiences connecting me to Hank’s career. No, I never was fortunate enough to meet him, but I remember going to Turner Field once and we parked by where the ball he hit to break Babe Ruth’s record landed because as many know they kept the fence intact there. It was not much but just being able to stand there, you could still feel a little bit of the history that was entrenched at the spot.
I remember being excited as I went to the Louisville slugger museum and they had a whole shrine if you will dedicated to Hank Aaron’s career and all kinds of memorabilia. Again, it was amazing to see how far he was able to come and to be able to see how much he did with so little.
Continuing on, I have been to Mobile where they rightfully cherish their own son and I have seen the field named after him and the statues in his honor.
The most amazing thing of it all to me though, is I recall going to an Atlanta Braves game where he was being honored, and the applause was so long and loud it reminded me of the couple times I have been around former President Jimmy Carter. The respect that both individuals have earned is similar and very deserving.
So with that being said, let’s honor the great legacy of the greatest Atlanta Braves franchise player that ever lived. Hopefully, the rest of the year will be better for the Atlanta Braves than January has been thus far. God speed Mr. Aaron.