Rest In Peace Hank Aaron; passed away this morning at age 86

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
man oh man baseball needs to get a reckoning too...

they STILL haven't shown the proper respect to these Black greats and their contributions to the game

Cause the greatest respect isn't just a moment of silence sand social media posts

but investing in increasing Black youth to play the game and also getting Black folk in executive positions

and being MUCH MORE socially active.

THAT is how you honor the greats.
 

darth frosty

Dark Lord of the Sith
BGOL Investor
Hall of Famer, former home run king Hank Aaron dies at 86
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Cassandra Negley
·Writer
Fri, January 22, 2021, 10:46 AM


Hank Aaron died at the age of 86. (Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP)

Hall of Famer and longtime home run king Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron died Friday morning, his daughter confirmed to WSB-TV in Atlanta. The Atlanta Braves legend was 86.

Aaron, a 25-time All-Star, played in MLB from 1954-76 almost entirely with the Braves organization first in Milwaukee and then in Atlanta. In 1957 he led the organization to their first World Series pennant since 1914. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982.

Aaron’s career as home run king
Aaron famously passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run leaderboard in 1974 with his 715th shot. He finished his career with 755. It stood for 31 years until Barry Bonds passed him in 2014 and eventually set the mark at 762.

The slugger is still the game’s all-time leader in RBI (2,297) and total bases (6,856). He ranks third in career hits (3,771). The outfielder won three Gold Gloves as well as the National League batting titles in 1956 and 1959, the 1957 NL MVP award and the 1970 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award for character.

Six Hall of Famers enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, died in 2020. The Hall had not lost that many players since seven died in 1972. Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton died Monday at the age of 75.

Aaron overcame racism to play professional baseball
Aaron, who was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934, overcame racism in the deep south and received death threats while pursuing Babe Ruth’s record.

He remained a role model up until his death. Earlier this month he joined civil rights leaders in getting the COVID-19 vaccine to show Black Americans getting vaccinated is safe.






 

darth frosty

Dark Lord of the Sith
BGOL Investor



How the ‘Black Godfather’ changed baseball legend Hank Aaron’s life
Aaron joins Hollywood to toast new Netflix documentary about music executive Clarence Avant

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(From left to right, standing): Jacqueline Avant, Billye Aaron, Clarence Avant and Carolyn Young, with Hank Aaron (seated left) and Andrew Young (seated right) attend the Netflix world premiere of “The Black Godfather” at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles on June 3. Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
BY KELLEY L. CARTER@KELLEYLCARTER
June 4, 2019

LOS ANGELES — Hank Aaron was closing in on Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs when the death threats started coming.
Thousands of letters, many of them racist, poured in weekly. Those folks didn’t want to see a black man break the record, which had stood since 1935. But there was also a call the superstar got before April 8, 1974, the day that Aaron hit his 715th home run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing — a call from the Black Godfather.

That call changed everything.

Everything.

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Former MLB slugger Hank Aaron (left) and his wife, Billye (standing), attend Netflix’s The Black Godfather premiere at Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles on June 3.


LISA O'CONNOR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Black Godfather, known as such inside the tightknit music and entertainment fraternity, is music executive Clarence Avant, who quietly became one of the most influential dealmakers in the business over the past six decades.

Avant, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a varied career as a manager, the founder of two record labels and an occasional concert organizer and event producer. But his real influence came from advocating for black artists and advising them on how to get paid what they were worth.

Avant, now 88, would in many cases reach out to people he saw making moves and help them make better ones. When he saw what was happening with Aaron, he called then-U.S. Rep. Andrew Young (D-Ga.), whose political career he helped launch, and told him that he’d be calling Aaron to help formulate a plan for endorsements. The deals needed to be in motion before Aaron broke the record, Avant said.

And Avant got it done. How? He walked into the office of the president of Coca-Cola and, without any small talk or pretense, announced that “n—–s drink Coke too.”

The-Black-Godfather-Clarence-Avant.jpg

The Black Godfather, known as such inside the tightknit music and entertainment fraternity, is music executive Clarence Avant, who quietly became one of the most influential dealmakers in the business during the last six decades.

PHOTO BY CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES FOR NETFLIX

“He is the godfather,” Aaron, 85, said in an interview with The Undefeated before the Monday night world premiere of The Black Godfather, a Netflix documentary that tells that story and more about how Avant connected people, closed deals and made sure that black creatives and athletes moving on from sports were getting their due. “He’s mine. I love him. He played [a role in] almost 90 percent of my career. He broke down doors to get [me] in to do certain things. I always say I am who I am because of Clarence Avant.”

The film will have a limited release in theaters and will begin streaming on Netflix on June 7. The story of Avant and the Coca-Cola deal is one of many shared in the documentary, which was directed by Reginald Hudlin. Monday’s premiere brought out an impressive amount of star power, nearly rivaling those featured in the film itself, which includes former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Also in the documentary are Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, music mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs, Bill Withers, Quincy Jones, Babyface, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and others. Much of the focus of the documentary — which is produced by Avant’s daughter, Nicole, an ambassador to the Bahamas in the Obama administration — is on Avant’s influence in the music industry. But he also made an impact in the political world, fundraising for Clinton and Young and advising them and Obama.

On Monday, Avant gathered with Pharrell, Foxx, Ava DuVernay, Snoop Dogg, Chadwick Boseman, Leonardo DiCaprio and others inside a small theater on Paramount Pictures’ lot to watch a film that felt like a love letter to a man who has been shaping pop culture behind the scenes for decades. (And, in many ways, still is. Several people said in the documentary that they’re distraught at the idea of who they’ll call once Avant is gone.)

Nicole Avant says she’s been thinking of telling her father’s story since she was 8 years old. She remembers the day well; she was at a Dodgers game with dugout seats, gifts from Aaron.

“I was like, ‘How did you do business with Hank Aaron? Why did you do business with Hank Aaron?’ And he told me the story … of how he got him endorsement deals and why it was a big deal at the time. I knew when I left that day, something clicked in my brain and said there’s something different here. These stories need to be told. This is over 40-something years ago,” she said in an interview before the premiere.

“What’s so amazing is that he did deals for Jim Brown, Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, three of the greatest athletes ever in three different sports. … Here is this guy there at the crucial moment of them transforming their careers.” — director Reginald Hudlin on Clarence Avant
That understanding that her father’s work transcended what he was doing in music and in Hollywood, and that it was her dad who helped three of the most prominent athletes of all time, made her as an adult want to bring this project to light.

“What’s so amazing,” Hudlin said before the premiere, “is that he did deals for Jim Brown, Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, three of the greatest athletes ever in three different sports. … Here is this guy there at the crucial moment of them transforming their careers.

“He took Jim Brown from being a professional athlete to being an actor. At the time when Hank Aaron is worried about whether someone is going to shoot him on the field if he breaks Babe Ruth’s record, here’s this guy who got him endorsement deals when no one would touch him. With Muhammad Ali, here he is nearing the end of his career, he steps in and makes sure that Muhammad makes a transition into being a personality beyond simply being an athlete. Really important for all three of these great athletes in that really challenging time in their careers. Can you transition? Can you go to that next place? In all three cases, Clarence was there for them.”
 
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