This past week Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron passed away. He was a towering hero of baseball and a Civil Rights Icon. There have been extraordinary tributes written about his life and his complicated relationship to America and it’s national pastime. I reflected on how I learned about this titan of a man.
Like all young boys in Mississippi I was obsessed with baseball. I loved the stats and the games. I watched the Chicago Cubs on the WGN Superstation and the Atlanta Braves on the TBS. I read books about baseball. I played baseball and like any fan of the film The Sandlot. I knew that Babe Ruth was the greatest hitter who ever lived.
That was when I found Hank Aaron. In a black and white newsprint stats book the kind where the ink smudges on your hands, his name sat on top of Babe Ruth. 755 career home runs compared to 714. It was undeniable that Babe Ruth came in second. So I learned about Hank Aaron.
His sustained run of greatness that I don’t know we’ve seen in baseball before or since. He retired the home run champ, but also the rbi champ which stands as record even today. He made the all star game for 21 straight seasons.
He did it all in a country that made him fight for his own civil rights. At times on teams that denied him his personhood. His accomplishments can’t be diminished, but we sure did try to hide them all behind a number, 755.
So take time to remember the man and his legacy both the parts we have numbers for and the parts we can’t quantify.