RIP Hammer. One of my favorite sportspeople and one of my childhood idols as a major Baseball fan as a kid.
Hank Aaron Was More Than a Man Who Hit Home Runs
Hank Aaron will be remembered for his astonishing achievements as one of the all-time great baseball players, not least because he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. But Aaron also ceaselessly fought to defend black people in a hostile, racist society.
The long life and legacy of Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron may be best summed up from a quote from his autobiography, I Had a Hammer.
I used to have talks with Jackie Robinson not long before he died, and he impressed upon me that I should never allow myself to be satisfied with the way things are. I can’t let Jackie down — or my people, or myself. The day I become content is the day I cease to be anything more than a man who hit home runs.
Today, in celebrating the life of Hank Aaron, most commentators have reflected on his status as the first professional baseball player to break Babe Ruth’s home run record. Most have even gone so far as to call him the “true home run king,” due to the cloud of steroid allegations surrounding Barry Bonds’s home run records from this century. But while Aaron was a home run hero, he also wanted to be remembered for far more than that.
Aaron lived long enough to see enormous changes in American society. But he never lost sight of the need to fight and struggle on behalf of others. He continued, until the end of his life, to speak up on behalf of African Americans.
In 2017, as most Americans turned against Colin Kaepernick’s protest, Aaron stated that he was “getting a raw deal” from NFL owners who refused to even consider bringing the former player back into the league. As Hank Aaron, in death, is serenaded with paeans to his “grace” and his “humble” demeanor, let us not forget that he looked up to Jackie Robinson as an example — and that both men were unmistakably, and unabashedly, black men who fought to make chances for other black people in a hostile society.
Hank Aaron Was More Than a Man Who Hit Home Runs
Surprising isn't itRIP
only 17 pages tho??
Read that caption
Mobile Baseball City,USA
My lil short ass coulda been like Altuve cept I never played baseball and I'm blind
When we getting a statue of Malik Rosier?