Photo Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame
According to a report via CBS 46 in Atlanta, baseball legend and Hall of Famer Hank Aaron passed away on Friday morning at the age of 86.
Raised in Mobile, Alabama, Aaron experienced first-hand the racially-charged atrocities of the early-to-mid 20th century Deep South. He’d carry those experiences — and the subsequent lessons learned — through his playing career.
In the months leading up to Aaron breaking Babe Ruth‘s all-time home run record in 1974, Aaron received so much hate mail — some letters containing death threats — the Braves were forced to hire a secretary just to sort through it all.
Instead of succumbing to the pressures, Aaron persisted, surpassing Ruth’s 714 home runs on April 8 of that season and finishing out his career with an astonishing 755 round-trippers before hanging it up in 1976.
Over the course of his 23-year major league career, Aaron put together one of the finest bodies of work the game has ever seen, finishing his career with a .305/.374/.555 batting line, 755 home runs, 153 wRC+, and 136.3 wins above replacement (FanGraphs; fifth all-time).
His 2,297 runs batted in and 6,856 total bases still stand as MLB all-time records.
Aaron was a 21-time National League All-Star, won the NL MVP in 1957 (.322/.378/.600, 44 HR, 132 RBI, 164 wRC+, 7.6 fWAR), was a World Series champion (1957), three-time NL batting champion, four-time NL home run champion, and three-time Gold Glove Award recipient.
His all-time home run record was eclipsed by Barry Bonds in 2007 (finished with 762), but most within and around the game still look to Aaron as baseball’s true home run king due to Bonds’ implications in the game’s much-publicized Steroids Era.
Amazingly, Aaron accumulated such gaudy home run totals without ever hitting more than 47 in a season — which came in his age-37 season, no less!
The game of baseball lost a foundational pillar on Friday. Rest easy, Mr. Aaron, and condolences to all who knew and loved him.
