Hammerin’ Hank Aaron dead at 86

Okeechobee Joe

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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".
 

rogdochar

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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".

Don't forget bowling, both the men's and the ladies' leagues.
 

Marine1

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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.
 

rogdochar

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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.

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 'em all memorized. Before getting a TV, so vacant days & nights.
 
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Spurffelbow833

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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.
 

78

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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.

Spot on.
 

stephenPE

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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.
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.
 

Gator By Marriage

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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.
Did you ever actually chew the gum? We usually threw it away.
 

Marine1

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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. But baseball was a huge part of my childhood.
 

stephenPE

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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

That was me with football and basketball. College and pro.
 

wrpgator

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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.
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.
Let's not forget too that in pursuit of Ruth's single season HR record, Roger Maris received hate mail daily.
 
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NVAGATOR86

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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".

For those of us who remember the old HR Derby show it was great. Definitely the highlight of any young boy playing LL ball and dreaming of the big leagues. I remembered Hank as winning most of his matches . But I had to use the Wiki Machine to confirm. He was the big winner at 6-1. No surprise. For those interested in more info see the link below.
RIP Henry Aaron. You gave this once young boy many wonderful memories.

Home Run Derby (TV series) - Wikipedia
 

rogdochar

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That gum was like chewing on a brick.
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.
 

Theologator

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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.
 

78

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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.

Yep.
 

Spurffelbow833

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I like the idea of a permanent hammer shoulder patch with Aaron's initials. I like the idea of replacing the tomahawk on their jerseys with a hammer just for the 2021 season. But if the Braves ever change their name, I'm done with them. You don't have to cancel Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy, Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, not to mention Skip, Pete and Ernie, in order to honor Hank. If you really want to honor Hank, give him back his record and rightful title.
 
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