Upon Hank Aaron's passing, the tributes poured in

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

January 22, 2021, 2:43pm

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He was an All-Star player and person, and when Hank Aaron died Friday, the tributes poured in. And poured in and poured in.

They talked with great reverence about him yesterday, but also many days before that as well.

"As far as I am concerned, Hank Aaron is the best ballplayer of my era," Mickey Mantle once said.

"The only man I idolized more than myself," once said Muhammad Ali.

"Hank Aaron is near the top of everyone's list of all-time great players," Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "His monumental achievements as a player were surpassed only by his dignity and integrity as a person."

Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run mark on April 8, 1974. He hit No. 715 off lefty Al Downing of the Dodgers in the fourth inning as 50,000-plus fans cheered him in Atlanta.

Sadly, we know also that not all were cheering. Aaron faced death threats and racial taunts and received a massive amount of hate mail. It was reported that he would get 3,000 letters a day. Aaron said the hate made him push harder.

"Hank saved all those hateful letters," broadcaster Bob Costas said. "At one point I said to Hank, 'There is no denying that is true, but has that obscured for you that millions and millions of Americans, not just Black Americans, admired and respected you? His faced softened and he said, 'I know. I know that's true, but it still doesn't change what I had to go through.' "

His career spanned from 1954 to 1976, and Aaron still holds MLB records for RBIs (2,297), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477), and he ranks among the majors' best in hits (3,771, third all time), games played (3,298, third) and runs scored (2,174, fourth).

In 1982 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Here are two of many amazing notes about him: He was a 25-time All-Star. Yes, 25. And if you could take away his 755 career home runs, he would still have finished with 3,016 career hits. He's the only man ever to record 700 homers and 3,000 hits. And he was more than just a slugger. He won three Gold Gloves and two batting titles. He finished with a career .305 average and .928 OPS.

Jayson Stark of The Athletic pointed out that Aaron posted an OPS+ of 161 over a 20-season span from 1955-1974. He also noted that Aaron is one of four men to play at least 3,000 regular-season games for one franchise. He played in 3,076 for the Braves. Carl Yastrzemski played in 3,308 for the Red Sox, while Stan Musial played 3,026 for the Cardinals and Cal Ripken Jr. played 3,001 for the Orioles.

"Hammerin' Hank" was 86 and the Atlanta Braves announced he died peacefully in his sleep.

Said Tim Kurkjian on ESPN: "He will best be known as one of the greatest players of all time. But his lasting legacy will be the grace with which he carried himself through the breaking of Ruth's record and the dignity he showed when his record was surpassed - some say fraudulently - by Barry Bonds in 2007. Aaron was not just a Hall of Fame player, but a civil rights activist, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a gentleman in every way."