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RIP Henry Aaron, 1934-2021

G-Fafif

By G-Fafif
in New York Mets Talk

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MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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Very sad.

He was as good, if not better, than any of the stars of his era who got more press adulation.

RIP



Later


kcmets Draft Eligible

kcmets

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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RIP, Hammerin' Hank.



I remember rushing home on April 8 from Boy Scouts (we ended the meeting early)

to hopefully get to see #715. He didn't disappoint!



As Costas just said on MLB, the elite of the elite. Mt Rushmore elite.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
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Six feet tall. One hundred and eighty pounds. Played his first eight seasons on a 154-game schedule. Played the prime of his career in a pitcher-dominant era.



STILL the all-time leader in RBI and total bases.



They should call runs batted in "Aarons."


Chad ochoseis College Ball

Chad ochoseis

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


=kcmets post_id=54587 time=1611330945 user_id=53]
RIP, Hammerin' Hank.



I remember rushing home on April 8 from Boy Scouts (we ended the meeting early)

to hopefully get to see #715. He didn't disappoint!



As Costas just said on MLB, the elite of the elite. Mt Rushmore elite.

Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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I remember his slow walk to the plate almost dragging his bat; the quiet body language which, when combined with those droopy, almost sleepy looking, eyes led you to believe he was only partially awake. He'd deliberately plant his back foot, and then his front, and then do a single cough/throat clear (Tim McCarver relayed that part) and then never leave the box until required to.

So while Willie Stargell had all that bulk and kinetic energy in his set-up, and McCovey had the classic trim-hipped, wide-shouldered build, the only hint of menace from Aaron came if you got a glimpse of the set of wrists and forearms which he obviously swiped off some career longshoreman back in Mobile Bay somewhere.

And then came that whip-fast swing ... one which never seemed to desert him and nor did his body which allowed him to play nearly every day for nearly a quarter century and rack up all those numbers.


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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Chad ochoseis wrote:

I still have the following day's Daily News with the 715! AARON DOES IT! banner headline somewhere. I think it's in storage. I'm just slightly too young to remember 1969, so it's the first time I ever saw sports on the front page.




I saved that newspaper too, which might be the first newspaper, or magazine I ever saved. Still have it.



[FIMG=555]https://secure-images.rarenewspapers.com/ebayimgs/5.55.2012/image080.jpg[/FIMG]



There's another version, or edition, featuring a Bill Gallo portrait.





[FIMG=555]https://iconicauctions.com/ItemImages/000043/43076a_lg.jpeg[/FIMG]



Aaron and Seaver were close friends.


Johnny Lunchbucket Draft Eligible

Johnny Lunchbucket

Old-Timey Member
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I don;t believe it was the 1st game I ever went to, but the first I have a clear memory of attending was the Don Hahn-Theodore collision game in 73. My dad made a point of saying we'd go to that one so I'd see Mays and Aaron before it was too late to do so.



Looking up the boxscore now, neither guy started but both entered in the late innings, both were 1-for-1 with singles.



Frayed Knot had the poster that came with Sports Illustrated commemorating the 714 game tacked to the wall in his room


Edited by Guest
Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

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Though Bud Selig is a self-made dude from an immigrant Jewish family and and Joan Payson was a blue blooded WASP heiress, it's amazing how their stories as owners unfolded so similarly, with both stepping up when the team they loved left town, fought to get an expansion franchise to replace the lost team, but neither could be satisfied until reacquiring the legendary player who they saw as definitive of the town's baseball legacy, even if they could only get two creaky years out of the guy.



　　　　　　　* * *



So the Braves are going to be renamed "The Hammers" now, right? And they're going to make slight alterations to the tomahawk on the front of the uniform to turn it into a sledge hammer ... right?



And because hammers and tomahawks are swung the same way, they can keep their stupid chop, but instead of doing it to old Western movie cues, they can do it to "Hammer to Fall" by Queen.



Right?


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

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Posted
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Albert Pujols turned 41 a week ago, and has one season left on his contract. He's third all-time in RBI, 114 short of Babe Ruth and 197 short of Aaron.



As a DH, he's been pretty much a replacement-level player the last four seasons. Does somebody carry him across the finish line to get the record?



The Angels have still been batting him in the middle of the order, and as replaceable has he has been, the RBI still accumulate. Playing with Mike Trout is nice that way.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
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Frayed Knot wrote:
This near one-per-week pace of HoF culling has got to stop or they'll be no one left.

Last one leaving Cooperstown turn out the lights.


Kaline, Seaver, Brock, Gibson, Ford, Morgan, Niekro, Larsorda, Sutton, Aaron. You don't lower the flag in Cooperstown; you bury it under the sub-basement.



Dick Allen, who may well be enshrined soon, as well.


dinosaur jesus Prep Ball

dinosaur jesus

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Edgy MD wrote:

Kaline, Seaver, Brock, Gibson, Ford, Morgan, Niekro, Larsorda, Sutton, Aaron. You don't lower the flag in Cooperstown; you bury it under the sub-basement.




All obvious Hall of Famers, at least three of them inner circle Hall of Famers. It's devastating. If you went to the ballpark in 1967, you could have seen all of them play (Lasorda aside)--Ford's last year, Seaver's first.


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Fellow Mobile native Cleon Jones, other Mets react to Hank Aaron's death



Anybody here who could decipher this lede is a better man than I.


Cleon Jones, the Mets legend, was born in Mobile, Ala., eight years after Hank Aaron and the two became friends.


https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-cleon-jones-mets-hank-aaron-20210122-2hva3g5gl5e7zivv773styvu6a-story.htmlhttps://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-cleon-jones-mets-hank-aaron-20210122-2hva3g5gl5e7zivv773styvu6a-story.html



Hank died 20 years to the day that fellow Mobile Alabamian and legendary Met Tommie Agee died.



Little know Met themed Hank Aaron trivia:



In 1974, Aaron traveled to Japan to face off against Sadaharu Oh in a home run hitting contest. When Aaron realized that he forgotten to bring his bats with him, he borrowed one of Ed Kranepool's bats to use in the contest. Kranepool's bats were very similar in weight and length to Aaron's bats and the Mets happened to be touring Japan after the '74 season.



[FIMG=444]https://i.redd.it/6fqop8tgeqa51.jpg[/FIMG]


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Benjamin Grimm wrote:

It's not so hard to understand. It says that by the time Cleon Jones was born, he had already been friends with Hank Aaron for eight years.


That's what I was afraid of.



Here's my very first strong Hank Aaron memory, which I still remember vividly to this day:



It's 1970 and it's the first year I'm following baseball and collecting baseball cards. I walk to the neighborhood candy store to buy a few packs of baseball cards. I've already collected practically the entire current series and I'm down to needing two or three players to complete that series. So now I'm walking back home with my packs and I begin opening the packs in stride. The first player in the pack is a "double". I already have that card. I don't "need" it to complete the series, so I throw it away as I'm walking home. I do the same with the next card. And the next card. And the next 10 or 20 cards. There's a trail of brand new mint condition bubble gum smelling baseball cards with sharp pointy corners on the sidewalk in my wake. Eventually I come across a brand new 1970 Hank Aaron card. I stop for a few seconds to linger over this card. Stare at it. I'm a baseball newbie but I somehow know that Hank Aaron is one of the great ones. Still, I already have an Aaron card so I throw this double on the sidewalk, too, like I did with every other card from that haul of packs. That card, in that condition would be worth close to $1,000.00 bucks today.


G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

Old-Timey Member
Posted
  • Author
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Benjamin Grimm wrote:

It's not so hard to understand. It says that by the time Cleon Jones was born, he had already been friends with Hank Aaron for eight years.


That's what I was afraid of.



Here's my very first strong Hank Aaron memory, which I still remember vividly to this day:



It's 1970 and it's the first year I'm following baseball and collecting baseball cards. I walk to the neighborhood candy store to buy a few packs of baseball cards. I've already collected practically the entire current series and I'm down to needing two or three players to complete that series. So now I'm walking back home with my packs and I begin opening the packs in stride. The first player in the pack is a "double". I already have that card. I don't "need" it to complete the series, so I throw it away as I'm walking home. I do the same with the next card. And the next card. And the next 10 or 20 cards. There's a trail of brand new mint condition bubble gum smelling baseball cards with sharp pointy corners on the sidewalk in my wake. Eventually I come across a brand new 1970 Hank Aaron card. I stop for a few seconds to linger over this card. Stare at it. I'm a baseball newbie but I somehow know that Hank Aaron is one of the great ones. Still, I already have an Aaron card so I throw this double on the sidewalk, too, like I did with every other card from that haul of packs. That card, in that condition would be worth close to $1,000.00 bucks today.


My first flipping experience included risking and losing a 1970 Aaron double (Hank, not Tommie) because I wanted to show off that I had an Aaron. It occurred to me shortly thereafter that this was a pointless exercise in bravado and I never played fast and loose with a superstar again.


kcmets Draft Eligible

kcmets

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


MLB Channel Monday trivia question: What pitcher did Hank Aaron hit the most

HR against in his career? They even gave a hint, it's a HOF'r.


kcmets Draft Eligible

kcmets

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


No to Carlton, answer at 5:00 unless I see someone gets it - I'll be off and on.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
Posted


I gotta go with Fergie Jenkins.



Played a lot of years in the National League, gave up a lot of homers for a HoFer, switched to the AL around the time Aaron did, and played for a team who called the Friendly Confines home.


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