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

zenman

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One Time for Hank Aaron. My Grandfather coached him in at Central High in Mobile, AL. I asked my grandfather what was it like to coach Hank. He said "He didn't need no coaching". Mind you Hank was batting cross handed at the time. He also said his brother was helluva running back. My Grandfather had a ball signed by all the 68' Braves. We don't know what my aunt did with it to this day.
 

Mello Mello

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RiP to a sports legend and homer in king Hank Aaron.

Gonna have a hat embroidered in his memory.
 

SamSneed

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Rest easy legend

when you really look at it he was just bein a human playin a game of baseball was one small part of his life

dude is a great man
 

Don Coreleone

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I remember my last year in college his daughter was a first year instructor very attractive tall woman. Only bad habit I noticed is she was a smoker. R.I.P. to one of the greatest!!!
 

playahaitian

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listen to this....
 

playahaitian

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Hank Aaron diversity fund starts with $2M in pledges from Atlanta Braves, MLB, players' association

The Atlanta Braves plan to honor Hank Aaron during the upcoming season, with the first of those initiatives being a $1 million donation to establish the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, which will work to increase minority participation among players, managers, coaches and front-office personnel.
That was an issue Aaron took a keen interest in throughout his life. He often criticized the lack of Black managers and general managers in Major League Baseball. He fretted that fewer Black people were playing the game.

"We want to continue Hank's amazing work in growing diversity within baseball now and in the years to come," Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said in a statement. "I believe this seed money is just the beginning for this growing fund and I'm certain other companies and organizations who have worked with Hank over the years will join us and add to this call to action to develop talent and increase the diversity on the field and in the front offices across the league."

The Braves' donation will be matched by $500,000 apiece from MLB and the players' association.

"Henry Aaron was a Hall of Fame player, a front office executive, a mentor, a colleague and a friend. In each of these roles, he was a tireless advocate for better representation of people of color throughout our sport," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "As a philanthropist and businessman, this celebrated power hitter was most passionate about empowering others. We are proud to honor his legacy through this joint donation to the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, and commit ourselves to continue building toward greater diversity and representation in the game Hank loved dearly."

Aaron, whose 755 career home runs long stood as baseball's all-time best, died last week from natural causes at the age of 86, and a memorial service in his honor was held Tuesday at Truist Park in Atlanta.

 

playahaitian

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8 Times Hank Aaron Faced Racism: #4, Major League Rookie
By gondeee May 5, 2009, 11:52am EDT

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This is the fourth installment of the terrific series by Chris Mays, highlighting several times that Hank Aaron faced racism. These were originally posted on his blog, The 8 Things, and are reprinted here with permission.
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Upon his arrival at the Braves spring training camp in Bradenton, Florida in 1954, the press would tout Hank Aaron as a major prospect. Hank felt like anything but. He spent the Spring fighting the bigoted notion that he was lazy, a label often placed on African-American players. His manager had even nicknamed him "Stepanfetchit" in the papers. First baseman Joe Adcock labeled him "Slow Motion Henry". They even misspelled his name on his locker. Aaron didn't believe he had any chance of making the team, but when Bobby Thomson broke his ankle, Hank Aaron was made the team's starting left-fielder. It would be 23 years before he would leave the starting lineup.
After spring training, the Braves and Dodgers would barnstorm their way north playing exhibition games across the south. It was a particular thrill for Hank to play against Jackie Robinson in front of his Dad in Mobile. The African-American players from both teams would spend their evenings in Jackie's room. Robinson and the other veterans offered advice to the newer players about surviving in the game as African-American players. Hank Aaron said he learned from hanging out with the veteran Dodgers that ...​

I could never be just another major-league player. I was a black player, and that meant I would be separate most of the time from most of the players on the team. It meant that I'd better be good, or I'd be gone. It meant that some players and some fans would hate me no matter what I did.
Life in the majors was a step up for Aaron, but his race presented the usual difficulties. He wasn't allowed to eat in the hotel restaurants with most of his teammates. He had a hard time finding a restaurant that would serve him. Once, Aaron was riding around with a friend of Italian descent in Cincinnati, his friend's wife and her sister, when they were pulled over and the police made Aaron get out of the car and told him to get out of town. He hid in the woods and snuck back to his hotel.

As a player, Aaron was solid as a rookie and would improve as the season went on. There was no doubt that he was a major league hitter. His image, however, was that of a backwoods, country boy who wasn't very bright. Much of that image was the result of stories from manager Charlie Grimm, a natural entertainer. Unfortunately for Aaron, it is an image he has spent his entire life attempting to shake. It was hard because, as good as Aaron was, he was never a flashy player like Willie Mays. So he had to deal with the typically stereotyping applied to black players: he was slow and dim-witted and whatever talent he had was just a natural occurrence.

Aaron's rookie season would end in September when he broke his ankle. When he would return to the Braves in 1955, he would establish himself as one of the best players in the league. He'd be one of the best for 20 more years.
 

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