I believe that video is from a home run derby program where one slugger from the AL vs NL. It was like a Wide World of Sports insert on dull Saturdays.??
Nothing like a Saturday afternoon with Home Run Derby, Roller Derby, and Florida Championship Wrestling and Gordon Solie signing off with "So long from the Sunshine State".
As a kid we would skip school and head over to Municipal Stadium in WPB for spring training. Got to meet many of the Braves including Hank. Aaron gave me two broken bats. Drove a nail in them and used those bats in pickup games. Do kids still play pickup baseball games? Honestly haven’t seen a group of kids playing pickup games in decades. We would play for hours.
Hank was so steady and so consistent that his climb to 715 never really set off any alarm bells until he was only a couple of years away from breaking the record. All of a sudden, some time around 1971, people woke up and took notice that this seemingly merely good-but-not-great player who never came close to threatening the single-season home run record was on a collision course with baseball immortality. He never hit more than 47 home runs in a single season. Even if he averaged that, it would have taken him over 16 seasons to collect 755 home runs.
agree with all of it but where as Ruth was universally loved, Hank had an extreme amount of hate and his mail (which he kept) had to wear on him.Was he better than Ruth? Ruth's numbers were so good compared to the competition that "dwarfed" wasn't a good enough descriptor. "Ruthian" entered the lexicon to describe someone whose accomplishments utterly shatter all the competition. Plus Ruth could pitch and do it well. It's tough to compare different eras but Aaron was the best of his era and if not the greatest of all time, then certainly on the very short list. Rest in peace, Hank Aaron.
Did you ever actually chew the gum? We usually threw it away.Did similarly. Spring training. Jax was pitching to be worthy of a spring team. So, St. Louis played an exhibition and Stan Musial gave me his broken-bat - one nail autographed Louisville Slugger = heaviest bat I've ever known. Baseball was King them days. Tops bubble-gum baseball cards = 5 per gum-pack. Read the stats-on-back so much had 'am all memorized. Before getting a TV, so vacant days.
That gum was like chewing on a brick.Did you ever actually chew the gum? We usually threw it away.
Did similarly. Spring training. Jax was pitching to be worthy of a spring team. So, St. Louis played an exhibition and Stan Musial gave me his broken-bat - one nail autographed Louisville Slugger = heaviest bat I've ever known. Baseball was King them days. Tops bubble-gum baseball cards = 5 per gum-pack. Read the stats-on-back so much had 'am all memorized. Before getting a TV, so vacant days.
Great memories. My brother used to quiz me on the stats. I knew them all. Baseball reigned supreme back then. Now I never watch a game. There have been instances where I’ll ask who someone is and find out they are an 8 time all star with 2 MVP’s and I never heard of him. Crazy
While the death threats from knuckle-draggers was extreme in content and concerning, it wasn't extreme in volume. In 1973, the year Aaron came within one of Ruth’s record, he received almost one million letters, 99-1 positive.agree with all of it but where as Ruth was universally loved, Hank had an extreme amount of hate and his mail (which he kept) had to wear on him.
Nothing like a Saturday afternoon with Home Run Derby, Roller Derby, and Florida Championship Wrestling and Gordon Solie signing off with "So long from the Sunshine State".
I hated when the gum came brittle & shattered first bite. At first the gum-sheet was pliably fresh. I could fold it over = fresh sealed. After they started cranking out the volume they were careless on sealing up the packet. But still, I loved how those cards always smelled.That gum was like chewing on a brick.
I have no reason to make excuses for Bonds. He was a polite and slight smooth-hitting kid when I interviewed him during an ‘88 spring training trip to Clearwater. He ended up the greatest jerk and home run hitter in history — on paper.
The fact remains, hitting a baseball consistently well involves more than raw power. Timing, rhythm, form, bat speed. This guy was a great hitter before he bulked up. He would have likely had a HOF career had he not juiced. It may not have lasted as long, be he was awfully good before he became a home run hitter.
He was a superb player in his youthful prime, no doubt, and among the best to play in his era and all-time. Like Griffey Jr.
It’s not the raw strength or power but really the ability to recover quickly from the physical stresses and strains professional athletes endure.
And a HR counts whether it’s 360’ or 430’. The unfair advantage lies in the ability to extend his career at that highest level for years.