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Hank Aaron in 2016: “I don't want people to forget Babe Ruth.
I just want them to remember me "
Photo:
David Goldman / AP
Muhammad Ali only needed one sentence to describe Hank Aaron.
"He's the only man I adore more than myself." A statement as precise as a chin hook from the former boxing legend.
Henry Louis Aaron passed away on Friday at the age of 86.
America mourns a man who was not only a great baseball player, but also an ambassador and civil rights activist.
For Howard Bryant, who published the book “The last hero: A life of Henry Aaron” in 2010, Aaron's story is “the American story par excellence.” A story of the supposed dream and its simultaneous contradiction.
America, says Bryant, “tells you not to complain, but to work hard.
And that you should make the most of your talent.
Then everything will be fine. "
But by the time Aaron did all of this and made it to the top, "a fair amount of the country wanted to kill him for it," says Bryant.
a review
Aaron was born on February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama.
There, in the deep south of the USA, there is strict racial segregation.
And prejudices against black people still exist 40 years later, when Aaron is close to making sports history.
After completing the 1973 Major League Baseball season, he hit 713 home runs.
Aaron has been playing in the MLB since 1954, first for the Milwaukee Braves, with whom he became champions in 1957 - and since the club moved to Georgia in 1966 for the Atlanta Braves.
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Hank Aaron against the Los Angeles Dogders in 1974
Photo:
HARRY HARRIS / AP
The home run leaderboard is America's holiest sports statistic.
And everyone knows who's leading them: Babe Ruth.
The legend of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
Ruth had hit 714 home runs in his career.
The record has existed for almost 40 years and was considered unattainable.
Actually.
But the record can be broken in 1974 - by a black man.
Unimaginable for many Americans at the time.
“He had the audacity, if you will, to chase Ruth's record.
Half of the country therefore said: 'You are black, you do not have the right to do so.
What are you thinking of? ”Said baseball journalist Claire Smith at ESPN.
Aaron receives up to 3000 letters a day during the season break.
Almost all of them are racist, and some even contain death threats.
“Stand back or you will die.
The Atlanta Braves travel all over the country and I will follow you everywhere, ”said a letter listing the exact dates of the June-August away games in Montreal, New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
And the sentence: “You will die in one of these games.
I'll shoot you. "Aaron kept saying," I don't want people to forget Babe Ruth.
I just want them to remember me. ”Many years after retiring from his career, he admits that he had nightmares about being shot before the first game of the season.
Right at the start of the 1974 season, he succeeded in home run number 714. On April 8 of that year, he hit the record against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Atlanta.
Aaron thrashes a ball thrown by pitcher Al Downing behind the perimeter fence in the outfield.
Not only is it a homerun for the MLB history books, but perhaps at the same time a liberation for many blacks in the country.
When Aaron then runs from base to base, two young, white men suddenly sprint onto the field.
In the stands, Calvin Wardlaw sees them get closer to Aaron and are right behind him between second and third base.
Wardlaw is the baseball star's bodyguard and picks up the pistol that he brought into the stadium in a binocular case.
Should the death threats actually come true?
Now of all times?
But the men are simple fans and just want to celebrate with Aaron.
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America Mourns Hank Aaron: A Fan Left A Ball That Said "Thank You Mr. Aaron"
Photo:
John Bazemore / AP
"I thank God it's all over," Aaron said afterwards.
He told the New York Times in 1994 that his historic home run had led to a distance from baseball.
All the previous experiences, he emphasizes, left a "bitter aftertaste in my mouth" and "cut out part of my heart."
A historic home run - and 40 more
Up to the end of his career in 1976, Aaron hit 40 more home runs - but none was as special as the one on April 8, 1974 in Atlanta.
“What a wonderful moment for baseball.
What a wonderful moment for the country and the world.
A black man gets a standing ovation in the deep south for breaking the record of an unprecedented baseball idol, ”TV reporter Vince Scully said on his live broadcast.
Jackie Robinson was the first black man in MLB in 1947.
But alongside him, Hank Aaron was probably the "most important contribution of baseball to the civil rights movement," writes USA Today.
Former US President Jimmy Carter called Aaron a "dear friend who broke records and racial barriers." Barack Obama said that the numerous threatening letters "changed Aaron, but not stopped".
Aaron's MLB record of 755 home runs was broken by Barry Bonds in 2007.
But its record is still associated with doping allegations.
Aaron, on the other hand, is in the MLB history books as a humble and honest athlete.
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