One of the classiest guys in sports history.
As an American league fan from Detroit, he was my favorite NL player.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30759337/hank-aaron-lasting-impact-measured-more-home-runs
Aaron should be on almost everybody's top 10 best MLB list.
10 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
https://www.britannica.com/list/10-greatest-baseball-players-of-all-time
As the owner of the title Home Run King for a generation, Hank Aaron is often thought of as simply a tremendous power hitter, albeit arguably one of the best ever. However, his 755 career homers (a record for 33 years) are just the tip of the iceberg for “Hammerin’ Hank.” His all-time-best 2,297 runs batted in and 6,856 total bases are, of course, indicative of his legendary power, but he also put up a solid career .305 batting average and won three Gold Gloves for his play in the outfield. The consistently great Aaron was selected to the All-Star Game 21 straight years and hit at least 30 home runs in 15 seasons. In addition to his standing records, Aaron finished his career in 1976 with what were then the second most hits (3,771) and runs scored (2,174) in major-league history.
Positions: Rightfielder and First Baseman
Bats: Right • Throws: Right
6-0, 180lb (183cm, 81kg)
Born: February 5, 1934 in Mobile, AL us
Died: January 22, 2021 (Aged 86-352d)
High School: Allen Institute (Mobile, AL)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aaronha01.shtml
metmike: I just learned that his birthday was the same as mine!
we lost all these greats in 2020
Aaron was one of the smoothest that ever played.....just smooth
of course Aaron was known for playing right field and was never considered a first baseman
And a little guy with the most amazingly quick wrists that generated a lightning fast bat reaction and ALSO power.
This is why he had such few strikeouts, especially for a power hitter.
Don Mattingly was the same way.
In his final years, Hank Aaron was alternately inspired and worried about the state of baseball.
He marveled at the accomplishments of great hitters like Mike Trout, Mookie Betts and his fellow Atlanta Brave, Freddie Freeman. Yet he also fretted about the myriad changes in development and approach that pose an existential threat to the sport.
And he certainly wasn’t shy about sharing those thoughts.
The former all-time home run leader, trailblazer and arguably the greatest hitter of all time died Friday morning at 86, a legend revered unanimously throughout the game.
Aaron returned that love, too, paying tribute annually to the players who won the award that bears his name, which since 1999 honors the game’s most prolific hitter.
“I was talking to someone the other day,” Aaron said on a December video call after Freeman won the 2020 Hank Aaron Award, “and they said, ‘Have you ever seen anybody play first base like he does?’ And I said, ‘No, I haven’t.’ And I played 23 years.”
Yet Aaron also realized there may never be another player who could hit like he did – prolific power, a high average and a paucity of strikeouts.
At the 2018 World Series – the last time he fielded questions as Major League Baseball announced his award – Aaron expressed concern about baseball in the so-called “three true outcomes” era, when players swing for the fences, care not about strikeouts and above all hope the pitcher walks them before they punch out.
Teams averaged 5.01 strikeouts per game in 1974, Aaron’s last full season. By 2019, it had increased 76%, to an all-time high of 8.81 strikeouts per game.
Seven of the 10 most prolific strikeout seasons have occurred in the last five full seasons. Mark Reynolds is the all-time single-season leader, with 223 in 2009.
Aaron? He never struck out more than 97 times in a year.
And at age 37, in 1971, his home run total of 47 nearly matched his strikeout total of 58, an unthinkable feat in any era.
Mattingly also had an incredibly low number of strikeouts, even less than Aarons.
He was headed to the Hall of Fame but his lower back went out in the late 1980s and he lost all of his power(in 1990) and some of his hitting.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mattido01.shtml
https://calltothepen.com/2017/01/27/mlb-alternate-realities-what-if-don-mattingly-back-held-up/
not to mention "Donnie baseball" is from where? Evansville Indiana
Yes on Mattingly from this town!
I came to Evansville, IN his hometown in Sept 1982.
I was a competitive bodybuilder and a few times powerlifter who could bench press 345 lbs when I weighed 170 lbs.
Mattingly was still a member of the one serious gym in Evansvlle in the WInter of 82/83 and I worked out when he was there.
When he got rich and famous shortly after that, he built a 5 million dollar house with his own gym in the basement, around a mile from where we lived in the 1990's.
I followed MLB since I was a little kid(and played some baseball in Detroit) but never knew any MLB players from close up like this and remember thinking, holy crap, this guy isn't any bigger than me and I'm at least twice as strong.
So when he started pounding out double digit homeruns for numerous seasons, I was just blown away. He obviously had the Hank Aaron bat speed and quick wrists.
I remember him spending time using equipment that worked your wrists that most guys didn't mess with.
I had heard too that he was sort of like Larry Bird with his work ethic. He spend hours every day in the off season swinging a bat and developing the skills that made him a phenom................but my theory is that it wore out his lower back on the small framed body.
I've had 19 surgeries, half of which are probably the result of doing just that with my small framed body that didn't have the connective tissue designed to withstand the tremendous strength of my muscles and my 2 hours a day of lifting nothing but heavy weights for decades.
I remember where I was when John F. Kennedy was shot.
I remember where I was when the moon landing happened.
I remember where I was when Hammerin' Hank hit number 715!
ok, who was pitching and for what team....very odd because he spent almost his entire career somewhere else