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Friday, January 22, 2021
Hall of Famer and one-time home run king Atlanta Braves legend Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron passed away this morning at the age of 86, CBS46 has learned. He leaves behind an indelible legacy on and off the baseball diamond.
...
It was the 1974 season that saw Aaron smash his way into the national consciousness. On April 8, 1974 Hammerin’ Hank, as he was known, crushed a 1-0 pitch from Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing over the left field wall at Fulton County Stadium and broke Babe Ruth’s long-time home run record of 714 home runs in a career.
—and we’ve lost another one.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
RIP, Hank. One of my all time favorites, despite retiring before I was even born.
I saw Hank (and Willie) come off the bench in my first big league game (when Don Hahn and George Theodore collided in center). Then I was in Cooperstown for his induction, the only one I've ever attended.
RIP Hank.
We have lost a big chunk of our all-time greats.
And from what little I have seen about the specifics of their collective deaths, Covid wasn’t mentioned as the cause.
So sad
Growing up after he had retired, I mainly knew of Aaron as the guy with the HR record. It wasn’t until I was older that I fully appreciated how impressive he was, as a human being as well as a player. RIP.
I Had a Hammer is worth a read to understand what this man achieved in the times he had to face.
I was at that game too!
Just like back in the day, people didn't die of AIDS, they died of "pneumonia".
Or they didn't die of cancer, they died of "a long illness".
Maybe it's just random chance that all these people at high risk for COVID are dying all at once . . . but sometimes occums razor.
(FWIW, as newer sports, basketball and football simply have fewer elderly greats. Hank Aaron was a star even before the NFL was a national sport (1958).)
I remember Henry saying he thought his "only" one MVP award was the product of racism, but that is easily dispelled by noting that from 1954 to 1969 the award was won 13 times by African Americans. So the question then becomes whether he had better seasons than the likes of Roy Campanella, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Maury Wills and others.
His career overlaps Willie Mays' and an off year for Mays in his prime was 8 WAR.
Why I mention this is is hopefully obvious, my kid brain understood Aaron as a beacon, of decency, of perserverance. Kid brain was right on that, at least. RIP Hank, you were a special guy.
Despite only the one win, he is tied for eighth in MVP shares, along with Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig.
Bottom line: it is tough to be the best player in your league when you are in the same league as Willie Mays.
He was 86. He could have been in really good health and just pass away suddenly at that age.
Hank was as Inner Circle HoFer as you could be. This is a true loss, and it keeps making the next HoF reunion all the more poignant AND precious at the same time.
I'm starting to be more surprised that McCovey and Frank Robinson were the only 50 WAR guys we lost in 2018-19.
Same here. I was bummed with the others but now I'm crying. I didn't even know him but he was a hero for me.
I second the suggestion to read I Had a Hammer. If you don't want to read the whole thing just read the chapters on integrating the South Atlantic League and the home run record. He was as important as Jackie Robinson in the fight against white supremacy in baseball.
He's kind of like Don Sutton in that every season looks about as good as every other season for most of 20 years. Except that in Hank's case, his average season would be an awesome peak for most HOFers.
Cepeda.
Average life expectancy for a male in the US is 78. Of the HOFers who've died in the last 13 months, Seaver, Sutton (cancer), Morgan ("neuropathy") and Allen (not a HOFer, no cause given) were the only ones that age or younger. Lasorda and Ford were in their 90s, Aaron and Kaline 85+.
The deaths of our childhood heroes means only one thing - we're getting old.
***
Those sports have changed much more than MLB over the years. The NFL or NBA greats of past decades are seen as inferior to today's athletes even though they were as great as their contemporaries in MLB. Guys like Otto Graham and Johnny Unitas were truly all-time greats, but the game is so different today that stats don't show it.
Yeah, it's pretty unlikely (but not impossible) he had COVID. As I noted in another thread, Aaron got the first dose of the COVID vaccine a few weeks ago. He posted about it online and there were articles written about it in an effort to reassure people, especially in the African American community, that it was safe. Hopefully that doesn't backfire at all now -- I'm sure it had nothing to do with his death.
Right. Cepeda hit the ground running when he came up in 1958, the Giants' first year in San Francisco. For the first year or two he was more popular in San Francisco than Mays, who carried a slight taint of being a New York import.
Their names may not be as recognizable to most fans today as the all-time baseball greats, but here are a few superstar NFL HoFers who are still with us.
Charley Trippi (99)
Hugh McElhenny (92)
Joe Schmidt (89)
Ray Berry (87)
Lenny Moore (87)
Sonny Jurgensen (86)
Sam Huff (86) (Though he's been in an advanced state of dementia for several years)
Don Maynard (85)
I hate you now. I mean you're 100% right, but I still hate you.
don't remember the topic, but I learned a huge lesson.
after maybe my 3rd message being left with his secretary, she told me, "So Henry has yet to respond to you, such a nice young man? Let me see if I can get him on the phone right now!"
and she did - and he was wonderful.
show some respect to elevator operators, security guards, secretaries, parking lot attendants, etc.
I mean, we all should. but it's amazing what they see, what they know, what they can tell you, how they can help you.
I also heard the news of Hank hitting HR No. 714 just minutes before I broke my finger - on a bad hop from a liner hit to me during batting practice.
RIP, Hank. I'll just reiterate being a tween and having my world rocked over his description of the awful hate mail he got as he chased down a white man's home run record. he said he would save those letters forever - in hopes that he'd live long enough that someday, people otherwise wouldn't believe what the cultural climate was like back then.
Hank Aaron
Mays 1931
Aparicio 1934
Koufax 1935
Mazeroski 1936
Brooks Robinson 1937
Marichal 1937
Billy Williams 1938
Perry 1938
Yaz 1939
Perez 1942
Jenkins 1942
Carlton 1944
Palmer 1945
Carew 1945
1. Hank Aaron, 6,856
Gap to second (Musial) is 722. Over 10% more TB than any other player who ever played baseball. Ever.
If you go down another 722, you get to Eddie Murray, 11th.
(we're still voting on 1934-1939)
2nd to Banks in 1959. 2nd to Koufax in 1963. 3rd behind Mays and Mathews in 1960. 3rd behind Mantle and Norm Cash in 1961 (top NL player). 3rd behind Mays and Frank Robinson in 1962. 4th in 57, 58 and 67. In his MVP 1957 season we placed him behind Mantle, Ted Williams and Mays.
I missed my chance to get his autograph. After the induction ceremony in 1982, my father and I drove over to the Otesaga Hotel where all the players stay. He was outside behind some ropes taking photos (he got an amazing shot of Joe Dimaggio standing by himself), and I snuck into the lobby to try to get some autographs. There were a bunch of other kids in there. I looked up and saw Hank walk through the front door. Rather than quietly sneak up to him, I announced, "It's Hank" or something similar. Of course, all the kids then converged on Hank, and I opted against fighting the crowd.
Didn't really stick.
So much amazing in Hank's record, but I did not realize that. And you actually undersold him, he received MVP votes for 19 consecutive years, every year from age 21 to 39. His worst finish in the MVP voting in that stretch was 17th in 1970. That year he hit .298 with 38 homers, 118 RBI, was 9 for 9 on the bases, and was average on defense. His OBP was .385.
Not saying he should have been MVP in 1970, Johnny Bench was certainly deserving. But years similar to that have won the MVP award before, like Vlad Guerrero in 2004 (39 HR, 126 RBI, .391 OBP, 15 for 18 on the bases).
#crossthread
17. Dag Nabbit at ExactlyAsOld.com Posted: July 24, 2006 at 03:31 AM (#2109160)
The Hammer holds two records more important then "755".
One - most lifetime RBI
Two - most lifetime total bases
Fun fact: his lead over second place in the latter category is 12 miles. Yes, miles.
18. DavidFoss Posted: July 24, 2006 at 04:00 AM (#2109175)
Fun fact: his lead over second place in the latter category is 12 miles. Yes, miles.
Excellent! :-) You just made my day.
12.3 miles or 64980 ft or 722 bases.
I also remember when I was in Cooperstown to see the Biggio induction, that Aaron got by far the biggest ovation when Hall-of-Famers were introduced at a ceremony in the stadium.
I am sad he has passed; he was truly an all-time great.
I noted in another thread that as of last month, Koufax (inducted 1972) now has the record for most time as a living HOFer. He’s not the oldest, but he had an unusual combination of retiring so young and being a first ballot selection. Bob Feller (inducted 1962, passed away 2010) had been the previous record holder.
Sept 22, 1973
Astros lead, 2-1
Marty Perez and Darrell Evans single to lead off the 6th, Hank follows with a 3-run HR.
Braves win, 4-2
future managers Dusty Baker and Davey Johnson hit 5-6 in this game, behind cleanup batter Hammerin' Hank
Jim Brown 84
#crossthread
160. OCF Posted: July 28, 2006 at 04:19 PM (#2115523)
Aaron signed with the Mobile Bears in 1950 at the age of 16. At that point he batted cross-handed. The Indanapolis Clowns, on a barnstorming trip, played the Bears in 1951, and the Clowns started making Aaron offers, which he eventually accepted in the spring of 1952. (Aaron was also being recruited by college football teams.)
"The Clowns didn't live in Indianapolis," recalled Aaron, "they lived in that bus. I never did see Indianapolis."
The MiLB stadium in his hometown of Mobile is named after him.
I hope hw stays #3 in oldest HOF for a while because I could not handle losing Willie too.
Ave atque vale.
And yet even that kind of understates his greatness. Here are some Aaron facts, most of which I pulled from Posnanski's Baseball 100 writeup a few months ago.
.305/.374/.555 with 37 HR and 113 RBI is a great season, an MVP-caliber season. That was Aaron's 162-game average for 23 years.
Earlier on the same night he broke Ruth's HR record, he passed Willie Mays as the all-time NL Runs leader.
He had a period where he stole a fair number of bases. In the 10 seasons from 1959-68, he was 7th in baseball in steals, ahead of Mays. For his career, his SB % was higher than Mays, Wills or Lou Brock.
If you take away his 755 homers, he still has 3,000+ hits.
He's #1 all time in RBI and in Runs+RBI.
His 6,856 total bases is 700 more than anyone else. Musial could have hit 350 more doubles and not had as many total bases as Aaron. Ruth could have hit 250 more home runs and not has as many total bases as Aaron. (Bonds would have needed 220 more homers just to tie Aaron.) Pete Rose could have cracked another 1,100 singles and not had as many total bases as Aaron. And that's all playing his prime in a pitchers' era.
What a man.
RIP Hank. You did it all.
Other HOFers:
Steve Calrton .342/.395/.630 in 81 PA
Nolan Ryan .324/.390/.486 in 41 PA
Don Drsysdale .267/.345/.579 in 249 PA
Robin Roerts .291/.335/.554 in 158 PA
Juan Marichal .288/.348/.473 in 161 PA
Bob Gibson and Don Sutton, who also recently passed, are the only HOFers who really seemed to have Hank's number.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kingha01.shtml
For example, after the 1966 season, Aaron had completed his age 33 season, Mays his age 36 season.
Aaron was at 481 HRs, Mays was at 542. At that moment, it would have seemed unlikely that either of them could get to 715 home runs, right?
From that point on, Mays was still a very valuable player for another four years, but he was diminished, and the home runs declined, as well.
But my education on Aaron's remarkable career included the narrative that he was an all-time player who benefited from the move to Atlanta, in the form of increased HR totals. Then, once he hit the 40 HRs in 1971, people were like, "Woah, he could catch Ruth!", but that was a relatively late realization in his career. Is this accurate?
I've seen some statements that if you add in Negro League HRs, Aaron might actually have more than Bonds. Any opinions on that?
When Aaron passed Mays and was still going strong, there was definitely talk of Aaron catching Ruth.
He did have the platoon advantage against Koufax. Aaron might be the best RH batter who ever lived.
Looking over I Had a Hammer today and Aaron said Jackie Robinson's death in 1972 gave him the determination to make the final push.
To put it slightly differently, if you turned 240 of Aaron's home runs into singles (which would put him at 515 HR, 22nd all-time), he would still be the all-time leader in total bases.
I don't believe Aaron has any "official" at bats under the NGL period that's part of the major league record now, which is 1920-1948. He certainly had plenty in barnstorming, etc, but if you are adding barnstorming homeruns to the record Ruth may well take it again!
After those three, all who died in the last few months, the HOFer who he faced at least 20 times who had the most success against him might be Fergie Jenkins and Jenkins only held him to .271/.325/.443. I hope Fergie is doing well.
I thought this was interesting, and the stathead search I used was all seasons of 50 or more Rbat by a RH batter, which returned a nice, round 200 seasons. Aaron has 7 of them, Pujols and Hornsby 9, Mays, Foxx, Ed Delahanty, Thomas, and Trout all have 8. I think it's possible we may be watching the greatest RH batter ever right now. The inclusion of Ed Delahanty blew me away. I knew of him, but would not have expected him to pop up in this company!
As others have mentioned, the thing about Aaron is his sustained excellence, it's extraordinary! And it shows up here even though there are several players with more than his 7 seasons of at least 50 Rbat because if you look at his career, from age 21 to 39, 19 seasons and over 12,000 PA's, he averaged 45! The only one of those players with more 50 Rbat seasons who can come close to averaging 45 across 19 seasons is Mays with an average of 42 from age 23 to 41. Hornsby (career average 37), Foxx (career average 38), and Delahanty (career average 36) didn't even make it to 19 seasons. Thomas had a 19 year career and averaged 36, and Pujols also averaged 36 for his first 19 seasons. Trout with 0 at age 19 and just 19 in Covid shortened 2020 is averaging 49, but despite my comment above has a LONG way to go to match Aaron's longevity of excellence!
Going by OPS+, and leaving out Trout because his career is far from over, Hornsby and Mays both had higher OPS+ in similar career lengths. If you include shorter careers, Foxx, McGwire, Greenberg, and Allen all were higher than Aaron and Mays both.
He had a pretty good excuse.
These are all so great, but I love Eric's illustration of turning 240 HR into singles still leaving him as a 500 HR guy AND the leader in TB!
What if you included his years, 'official' or not?
Understood
Not sure what you mean by this? Hornsby had nowhere near the career length of either Aaron or Mays. But he is undoubtedly the best RH by OPS+, for a full career to leave out Trout.
If Albert Pujols repeats his 2019, he will tie Musial in TB. (If I did the math in my head right)
but 1932-37, he had only 305 total PA - so a half-season's worth in "six seasons"
he also had only 61 PA in his debut at age 18, and only 120 in 1930
so 486 in "eight seasons"
too soon?
ok, I guess not
Aaron didn't join the Negro Leagues until 1952, and those years don't count. I read he he hit five HR for the Clowns in the three months he was with the team. He was 18 that year!
although you did bring a link to a gunfight, albeit paywalled
I went by years played to make sure I got the decline phase, but probably should have used PAs.
Assuming I did the math right, his career line becomes: 243/316/310
In 1964 (right in the middle of his career), the National League hit 254/311/374. Even without the HRs he beats league average in OBP. Slugging a bit low.
He had a career Rfield of 98. An average of 4.26 per year. Rpos of an average about -6.
By far, what Aaron is best known for is the home runs. But even without them - indeed, even if they were all caught by outfielders leaping over the fence - he'd have been a competent major league player. Probably a fourth outfielder, but that's pretty incredible.
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