Way back when I was a kid, I knew the names of a bunch of great baseball players, in every single team.  As I grew older, I really only cared about the folks on my chosen team, the Phillies.  So, nowadays, I recognize the names of less than 50 players.

But, when I was about 6, when I knew about some 200 baseball players, the Brooklyn Dodgers pulled up stakes.  They abandoned Ebbets Field (Brooklyn, NY) for Los Angeles.  Even the other team, the Giants (that I didn’t follow per se, but had been to a few of their games at the Polo Grounds), left Manhattan for San Francisco.

Obviously, I was not a fan of the team that remained in New York City.  So, when the Milwaukee Braves (who had recently migrated west from Boston) took on that team in 1957, I was excited to see the visitors take the championship.   After all, that (still nameless) team had crunched the Brooklyn Dodgers the year before (whilst 2 years earlier, the Dodgers were the world’s champs.)

The Braves had a player that excited me immensely.  Henry Aaron- Hank was the moniker assigned to him to make him more acceptable to White America.  While Milwaukee wasn’t among my favorite teams, Henry Aaron captured my interest.  He also captured the Most Valuable Player award that year!  (Henry Aaron and Satchell Paige were two of the more famous players from the Negro Leagues, that are just now being integrated into the history of baseball.  A long-standing slight against Blacks in sports- and life.)

Over the years, Henry kept performing.  So much so that he even broke the record (Babe Ruth’s long standing HR King status) that so many White nationals tried to deny him.  At the start of the 1974 baseball season, Henry slammed his 715^th home run (1 upping the record of Babe Ruth) in Atlanta Stadium.  The hallowed broadcaster, Vin Scully, announced the feat as “a marvelous moment for the country and the world.  A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-time baseball idol.”  (Scully didn’t add that critical word, “White”, before baseball.)  Would that have only been true.

Sure, he got the standing ovation.  Which was followed by death threats, catcalls, and the like.  Which is one of the reasons why Mr. Aaron retired soon after that season. A few years later, he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame.   A deserved honor- not just because of his home run records, but his total hits, RBI’s (still at the top of the heap), Golden Glove awards, stolen bases, and as a perennial All-Star player.  Even though the only time he won a World Series game was that 1957 series.  (His other appearance was a year later, when the Braves lost to that nameless NY team.)

More importantly, Henry worked hard to advance the cause of Blacks and to make civil rights the rule of the land.  (It’s hard for you young’uns to realize, but until the late 1940s, Blacks had to play in the Negro Leagues; baseball’s owners had no use for integration.  Jackie Robinson might have been the first to make the leap, but Henry wasn’t far behind.)   But, just like Henry was with baseball, he was content to do and not be in the limelight.

Consistent excellence on an off the field.

Henry Aaron passed away in his sleep at the age of 86 on 22 January 2021.

Given the sentiment to rename the Braves organization, folks are beginning to clamor for “The Hammer”, the sobriquet of Henry Aaron.  It’s time.

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