At TIAH Blog, we mourn the passing of Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves baseball legend Henry (Hank) Aaron, who passed away at the age of 86.
Hank Aaron was already a superstar when I began watching baseball in 1967 (when the terms "superstar" and "legend" were not thrown around with the casual abandon they are today), but will be forever remembered for the day in 1974 when he hit home run #715 - passing Babe Ruth's lifetime total of 714.
But, if the record could not belong to a New York Yankee, it couldn't have belonged to a finer man!
Over his long career, he faced all sorts of adversities with dignity and class - and, in view of an almost endless tide of threats and hate, with extreme bravery!
Aaron went on to hit 755 home runs before he was done!
If I was "unhappy" on the day Hank Aaron achieved the home run record, I was all the more so on the day his record was eclipsed by someone who cheated by ("allegedly") using a baseball-illegal enhancer that Hank Aaron never had - or NEVER NEEDED!
To me, and to many other baseball fans, Hank Aaron is still the LEGITIMATE home run champion - and the REAL Home Run King!
Thank you, Mr. Henry Aaron, for all the great moments I was able to witness and/or read about, and for being such a fine and exemplary human being.
5 comments:
An interesting footnote: Charles Schulz created a series of Peanuts strips printed in August 1973 in which Snoopy attempts to break Babe Ruth’s record, only to be besieged with hate mail. Lucy says in the August 11 strip, "Hank Aaron is a great player ... but you! If you break Babe Ruth's record, it'll be a disgrace!" Coincidentally, Snoopy was only one home run short of tying the record (and finished the season as such when Charlie Brown got picked off during Snoopy's last at-bat).
That’s very interesting, Deb!
In the summer of 1973, I was physically as far away from what I regard as “civilization”, or expressed more nicely – “my normal surroundings”, as I could possibly be – and have ever been since (…when I think back on it, I *have* had an “interesting” life) and, thus, was out of touch with a great many things – baseball and Peanuts (the *strip*, not the food) among them.
Given that Hank Aaron broke the record on April 08, 1974 – in (without looking it up) what would likely have been the first or second week of the 1974 Major League Baseball season – it would be entirely reasonable to believe that he would have done so toward the latter part of the 1973 season, late August or September. So, nice timing of the strips on Schulz’s part!
But what fascinates me is the “hate mail” aspect!
That was, unfortunately, true to life in Hank Aaron’s case! Today’s TV coverage showed some of it on camera, and it was horrifying to see that such a thing still prevailed in 1973-1974 – which, unlike when Jackie Robinson was the victim of the same type of hate, were considered by me to be “more enlightened times”! …Perhaps there is no such thing as “more enlightened times”, and it’s only the same old “less enlightened times” taking on new forms, as we continue to see.
I’d never dare to presume what might have been in Charles Schulz’s head at the time but, with “If you [Snoopy] break Babe Ruth's record, it'll be a disgrace!" , did he consider that situation ripe for parody? I wonder if I would have viewed it as such, had I read it at the time? …Or, read it “cold” today, for that matter?
In any event, the way he resolved the plot, was absolutely classic – and perfect – Peanuts, and I commend him for that… especially if it had quite the build-up toward getting there! …Aaugh!
ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: I’d like to see Number 44 Tribute Armbands worn by the players, throughout the 2021 MLB season.
Very fascinating parallels between the events of that "Peanuts" story arc and what was going on in the world of baseball around the same time, Joe and Deb. I read "Peanuts" every day. The story arc Deb describes re-ran not too long ago, but I had no idea about Hank Aaron's simultaneous strides toward breaking The Bambino's record in the face of hatred. I confess I don't really follow baseball.
Could this be another way in which "Peanuts" battled racism? (The other way that comes to mind being Schulz introducing the African-American character Franklin in the face of opposition from Southern newspapers). After all, in the X-Men series, the conflict between humans and mutants alludes to the struggles of marginalized groups for acceptance in mainstream American society. So could Snoopy and the hate mail he received have been a deliberate reference to the racist obstacles Aaron faced? We'll likely never know, of course. Certainly, it makes the hate mail Snoopy received more intelligible to me. When I read the story, I thought the hate mail Snoopy received was amusing, but I didn't understand why someone would feel so strongly about Snoopy breaking Babe Ruth's record. I chalked it up to Babe Ruth being such a beloved figure in the pantheon of baseball. But the Hank Aaron story certainly provides a different lens through which to view this "Peanuts" story arc. Viewed through this lens, the hate mail Snoopy gets is anything but funny.
In any event, RIP Hank Aaron.
Sergio:
You write: “Could this be another way in which ‘Peanuts’ battled racism? ” (-and-) “So could Snoopy and the hate mail he received have been a deliberate reference to the racist obstacles Aaron faced? ”
As I said above “I’d never dare to presume what might have been in Charles Schulz’s head at the time…”, but my perspective from this point in time, more than 20 years out from his death (!), would most likely be YES!
Schulz may have chosen to address it with satire (something much more common today than it might have been in 1973) – and something, I might add, that I probably would have questioned in 1973 – but today I believe this was his way of calling attention to a terrible situation, and using the popular (and powerful) forum he had to do so!
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