I only saw Hank Aaron play once in a game I attended in person.
It was July 23, 1969, at Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and the National League beat the American League, 9-3, in that summer’s All-Star Game.
Aaron was 35 that summer, and he wasn’t the home run king that day. He had one hit — a single — in four at-bats, and San Francisco slugger Willie McCovey hit two home runs, Aaron scoring ahead of him on one of them. Hometown hero Frank Howard hit a massive home run to deep center.
Aaron was, well, just there.
He was a great player, though. He never hit more than 47 home runs in a season, but he hit 40 or more eight different times. He never drove in more than 132 runs in a season, but his career total of 2,297 is the best of anyone who ever played in the big leagues. He got 97.8 percent of the vote the first year he was eligible for the Hall of Fame.
And he spent more than three hours one spring evening in 1984 watching a South Atlantic League doubleheader with me in Anderson, S.C.
Anderson was a low-A farm club for the Atlanta Braves, and 1984 was the final season for minor league baseball at Memorial Stadium.
If you look at the green structure on the upper left, the top deck was the press box. The left end of it was open, and Aaron and I sat on lawn chairs and watched the games. He was the farm system director for Atlanta and he showed up from time to time to keep an eye on promising players.
It was half a lifetime ago for me, and it has been decades since I had the article I wrote. I cannot remember anything we talked about. I just remember what a classy guy he was, a true gentlemen. I was maybe four years into my nearly 30 years as a journalist, and this may sound goofy (or even pathetic), but I was still kind of shy around really famous people.
I only met him that one time, but for the last 10 years I have lived less than a dozen miles away from a car dealership he owned.
I say “owned” because I just heard Aaron had died at the age of 86. I live just south of Atlanta, and I would have to say Aaron is the city’s greatest sports hero ever. I would say he was Georgia’s greatest as well, but it’s important at least to consider Ty Cobb.
Only three players in history both scored 2,000 runs and batted in 2,000 runs — Aaron, Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez.
Back in Jim Crow days, people wanting to say something nice about a black man might say that he was a credit to his race.
Hank Aaron was much more than that.
He was a credit to the human race.