Nathan Dominitz|Savannah Morning News
So many wonderful things have been said and written in the last few days about the late Hank Aaron whose greatness in transcending his sportcannot be measured in baseball's currency of statistics, awards and titles.
Aaron, who died Friday at age 86, was a model for us to admire and emulate through hisdignity, integrity, humility, philanthropy and perseverance through times good, bad and ugly.
He literally spoke softlyand carried a big stick. When he did speak, pointedly truth-telling when silence meant acceptance, the Hammer'swords also carried awallop.
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From strictly a sports perspective, people tend to focus on the shiniest objects. For one, Aaron'spursuit and capture of what was thought to be an unreachable target, the 714 career home runs by the bigger-than-life Babe Ruth. It'shard to overstate the lasting impact Ruth has hadas the first superstar professional athlete in America, a true original as a ballplayer and cultural phenomenon.
When Henry Louis Aaron hit his715th career homer, he wasn't replacing George Herman Ruthatop baseball's Mount Olympus;he was joining him and very few others. Aaron didn't let ugliness the racism he endured then and over his lifetime ruin what should have been a pure celebration of a extraordinary accomplishment.
There's a lot to praise about Aaron and his career, but perhaps not getting enough attention is hislongevity. He played in the majors from 1954 to 1976. How many of today's athletes will play 23seasons in any professional sport? Not that they "need" to.
The economics of the game aren't the same, of course, and the motivation of an athlete to reach financial security can be satisfied in onestroke of a pen. Even adjusting the salaries of Aaron's era to today's dollars, ballplayers didn't have the leverage, and thus the earning power, to build that nest egg in similar fashion. According to research reported by baseball-reference.com, Aaron is listed as earning $6,000 as a Milwaukee Braves rookie in 1954 and his top base salary was $240,000 each of his last two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers.
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The durable Aaron not only played a long time, he wasconsistently productive. Whether you consider him (755 home runs in the pre-steroid era) or Barry Bonds (762) the reigning Home Run King, Aaron still is No. 1 in runs batted in (2,297), extra-base hits (1,477) and total bases (6,856).
He didn't perform any less magnificently on the bigger stage of the playoffs.His Braves teams didn't get to the postseason often they wonthe World Series in 1957 and lost in 1958, both against the dynastic New York Yankees.Hammerin' Hank made a pretty good accounting of himself, batting.362 (25 of 69) with six home runs and 16 RBIs in 17 playoff games.
Compare him to his contemporaries.He didn't make the All-Star Game only twice as a 20-year-old rookie and as a 42-year-old designated hitter but was selected each of the 21 years in between. He played in 25 total, as there were multiple games some seasons. Imaginetrying to cracktheNational League's lineup withoutfieldersthe likes of Willie Mays,Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson and Aaron.
Want a fantastic stat? He never struck out 100 times in a season. Yet he hit at least 20 homers for 20 consecutive seasons, including eight seasons of 40 with a high of 47.
So he didn't win more than one MVP award (NL in 1957). The career .305 hitter did win two batting titles, four HR and RBI crowns, three NL Gold Gloves and was the first player to reach the milestones of 500 homers and 3,000 hits (he totaled3,771). There's a reason that since 1999 the top hitter each season receives the Hank Aaron Award.
You know when Aaronwasn't the first? He was not unanimously selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He got in on the first ballot in 1982but received only 97.8% of the votes nine short. There wassome misplaced sense of baseball history,ignorance or worsegoing on with those nine voters.
There's no debate whether or notAaron is one of the greatest, and it canbe argued he is the greatest all-around player. He could do it all hit for average, hit with power, run, field and throw in a rare combination of talents and, rarer still, the ability to reach one'spotential as a player and a person.
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Contact him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter @NathanDominitz
MORE: MLB Hall of Famer and baseball's former home run king Hank Aaron dies at 86
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Appreciating all that Atlanta Braves legend Hank Aaron gave to the game of baseball - Savannah Morning News
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