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Hank Aaron Passes Away at 86
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Post by Addam603 on Jan 22, 2021 10:32:40 GMT -5
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 22, 2021 10:38:51 GMT -5
I am so sad to hear of this. All of these legends passing away recently has been hard to handle but this one is really hitting me hard. Hank Aaron was one of my favorite all-timers, a class act, an all-time great, and the true all-time HR champion.
RIP Hank Aaron, #44. So sad. 2021 has been nothing but a continuation of 2020.
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Post by Canseco on Jan 22, 2021 10:46:17 GMT -5
God bless you, Hank. What a wonderful role model and baseball ambassador.
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Post by greenmonster on Jan 22, 2021 10:52:30 GMT -5
Only One Hammerin Hank!!
Rest in Peace!!!
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Post by alexcorahomevideo on Jan 22, 2021 10:57:39 GMT -5
Awful. RIP to the legend.
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Post by bucksmatthew on Jan 22, 2021 11:14:38 GMT -5
I saw Hank play for the Brewers in Fenway, and thanks to great seats a row or so behind the dugout got to really see him up close - that video of his 715th seems as familar to me today as it did when it happened..... RIP Mr Aaron.
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steveofbradenton
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Post by steveofbradenton on Jan 22, 2021 11:15:27 GMT -5
It seems like every day someone I followed religiously in my childhood dies. Aaron, especially, is a real smack to my head (and heart). Great ambassador to baseball and a real gentleman. Holds so many records but for me, holds so many memories. I was a HUGE fan of his starting in Milwaukee.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jan 22, 2021 11:28:41 GMT -5
Hank Aaron (1934-2021)
Hank Aaron RF/1B | 1954 - 1976 | MLN, ATL, MIL Hall of Fame MVP 25x All-Star 1957 World Series 3x Gold Glove 2x Batting Title Hank Aaron WAR: 143.1 Better than 97.4% of HOFers Black Ink: 76 Better than 91.5% of HOFers Gray Ink: 408 Better than 98.3% of HOFers HOF Monitor: 421.0 Better than 98.7% of HOFers JAWS: 101.71 Better than 92.6% of HOFers at RF Atlanta's CBS station reported this morning that Hall of Famer Hank Aaron has passed at the age of 86. "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron set the major league record of 755 career home runs, a mark that stood for three decades after his retirement. He remains the record holder in total bases, extra-base hits and runs batted in. Aaron appeared in a record 25 All-Star Games during his long career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot with 97.8% of the vote in 1982, the second-highest vote share any HOFer had received up to that point.
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manfred
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Post by manfred on Jan 22, 2021 12:27:08 GMT -5
Crazy at it sounds, I feel like Aaron remains one of the most underrated stars in baseball. His postseason numbers, in limited time, sadly, are outrageous.
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Post by jl1947 on Jan 22, 2021 12:51:19 GMT -5
Crazy at it sounds, I feel like Aaron remains one of the most underrated stars in baseball. His postseason numbers, in limited time, sadly, are outrageous. It is outrageous that 3% of HOF voters thought he was unworthy of a first-time induction! It would not be unfounded to say that he is in the pantheon of all-time baseball players, worthy of the Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Willie Mays and Ted Williams plateau. His classy conduct in the face of extraordinary social pathology directed squarely at him during vast portions of his career enhances his placement as an extraordinary baseball icon. We never knew the full weight of his burden until he retired. Thank you Hank: you made baseball look ridiculously easy! RIP Henry Louis Aaron!
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Post by jerrygarciaparra on Jan 22, 2021 13:10:27 GMT -5
A legend of the Game. RIP.
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Post by electricityverdugo99 on Jan 22, 2021 13:17:08 GMT -5
RIP Champ.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jan 22, 2021 15:33:51 GMT -5
Crazy at it sounds, I feel like Aaron remains one of the most underrated stars in baseball. His postseason numbers, in limited time, sadly, are outrageous. This. One of the great falsehoods that somehow entered my mind as a kid was that he wasn't that good and just broke Ruth's record because he played for a long time. That he was very good and not truly great. What a lie! Dude holds the total bases record by like, several seasons' worth of total bases. Made the all star game in all but his first and last season. Just nuts. Never mind the racism and other nonsense he dealt with. One of the greats on the field. Transcendent off of it.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 22, 2021 15:52:52 GMT -5
Crazy at it sounds, I feel like Aaron remains one of the most underrated stars in baseball. His postseason numbers, in limited time, sadly, are outrageous. This. One of the great falsehoods that somehow entered my mind as a kid was that he wasn't that good and just broke Ruth's record because he played for a long time. That he was very good and not truly great. What a lie! Dude holds the total bases record by like, several seasons' worth of total bases. Made the all star game in all but his first and last season. Just nuts. Never mind the racism and other nonsense he dealt with. One of the greats on the field. Transcendent off of it. Some of the reasons this occurred was not understanding the numbers. You see lifetime BAs of .342 for Ruth and several other all-time greats who had seasons in the .400s, etc. Playing in the 1920s-1930s lead to those all-time high BAs, and yes I know Cobb played in the dead ball era, but by time he was supposed to be fading, like others, he benefited from the live ball and the numbers stayed sky high. Eventually pitchers adjusted and even gained the upper hand, especially with rule changes and strike zones favoring pitchers, so guys playing in the era Aaron played in weren't going to have the gaudy numbers that were previously occurring. So the baseball experts of the day see a .305 lifetime BA and see no signature seasons the way Ruth had his 60 HR season or Williams batted .406 or whatever, and they see a very good player who compiled stats, but they really missed the big picture of what he was. If he had played in the 1920s-1930's he was a good enough player he probably would have had a lifetime BA in the the .330s. If he played in this juiced ball era, he probably would be bopping 55-60 homers/year, but the fact was that he was an all around great offensive player. Plus the man could play defense as well in RF. He truly was underrated as a ballplayer. He was quiet on the field and steady so he didn't provoke the flashy image that Willie Mays projected. Such a spectacular player. I still get goosebumps when I see the video of him hitting #715. I must have seen that video at least 50 times. By contrast, I think I've seen the video of Bonds hitting his 756th maybe once or twice and don't care if I see it again. Hank Aaron is still the HR king in my book. And he is one of my all-time non-Red Sox favorites.
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Post by unitspin on Jan 22, 2021 17:39:57 GMT -5
Crazy at it sounds, I feel like Aaron remains one of the most underrated stars in baseball. His postseason numbers, in limited time, sadly, are outrageous. 100%. He does not get the same press as many of the greats of the game. His consistency over his career jumps off the page.
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Post by James Dunne on Jan 22, 2021 18:30:34 GMT -5
In 1973 at 39 years old, Aaron hit .301/.402/.643 with 40 homers, good for a 4.7 bWAR. By that measurement, it was the 18th best season of his career.
If the Braves are looking to move away from the Native American imagery on their uniforms, some sort of stylized hammer could be a fitting tribute.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 22, 2021 18:57:29 GMT -5
Just as an aside, for those of us who remember MC Hammer, he got his name from Hank Aaron. When MC Hammer was a kid, he would hang out near the ballpark in Oakland and their owner Charlie O Finley took a liking to him, so he gave the kid a "job". He was kind of a snitch who'd report to Finley what was going on in the clubhouse.
The players couldn't help but notice a facial resemblance the kid had to Hammering Hank Aaron, so they gave him the nickname "Hammer" and the name stuck.
I wish I was old enough to have seen Hammering Hank play. The only HR I ever saw him hit that wasn't before my time was on the original MacGyver.
So sad. Heaven got one helluva cleanup hitter. The players we've lost since last year. It's a HOF team.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jan 22, 2021 19:22:19 GMT -5
Some thoughts from those who played with him, and against him, taken from a tribute at the Washington Post:
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jan 22, 2021 19:51:50 GMT -5
I saw Aaron homer off of Bill Lee on 9/14/75 from a seat in the bleachers, the memory etched into my brain. I spent the rest of the season watching him go homerless, and the early part of the off-season thinking I'd seen the last of his 745 career homers.
Still, it's my #2 memory of a non-Sox legend, #1 being Juan Marichal warming in the bullpen (I got up and watched him from the railing until the ushers shooed me away) before getting win # 241 of 243 with a 6 2 2 2 2 4 line in relief. But it tells you everything about Aaron and his legendary quality that I was 400' from him and 4' from Marichal.
R.I.P.
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Post by greenmonster on Jan 22, 2021 20:00:05 GMT -5
Was just watching MLB Network who was doing a piece "Remembering Hank Aaron". Very good segment that I would definitely recommend watching if you haven't already. One thing that struck me about how good of a baseball player he was is the following..........He had 3771 career hits. If you were to take away every home-run (755) he still had over 3000 hits which is regarded as key milestone to get into the Hall of Fame. .....Think about that. The guy is known for hitting home-runs and if you took them all away he would still be a Hall of Famer!
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 22, 2021 20:51:30 GMT -5
In 1973 at 39 years old, Aaron hit .301/.402/.643 with 40 homers, good for a 4.7 bWAR. By that measurement, it was the 18th best season of his career. This eloquently articulates what I was thinking about him. It is a true statement that he was never the best player in the league at a given moment, I can't argue with someone on that. He never led the league in fWAR and his highest fWAR was 8.9, which Willie Mays exceeded 7 times and Mantle did 4 times. But how much can one really knock him for that? The guy was one of the top 5 players in baseball every season from 1955 to 1969. He was top 5 in fWAR for the vast majority of the years, usually 3rd to 5th. He then followed that up with 4 more above average years after that.
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Post by Don Caballero on Jan 22, 2021 20:53:56 GMT -5
The GOAT. RIP king.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jan 22, 2021 22:15:18 GMT -5
In 1973 at 39 years old, Aaron hit .301/.402/.643 with 40 homers, good for a 4.7 bWAR. By that measurement, it was the 18th best season of his career. This eloquently articulates what I was thinking about him. It is a true statement that he was never the best player in the league at a given moment, I can't argue with someone on that. He never led the league in fWAR and his highest fWAR was 8.9, which Willie Mays exceeded 7 times and Mantle did 4 times. But how much can one really knock him for that? The guy was one of the top 5 players in baseball every season from 1955 to 1969. He was top 5 in fWAR for the vast majority of the years, usually 3rd to 5th. He then followed that up with 4 more above average years after that. We have a terrific comp right at hand for how good Aaron was at his peak: Yaz. Averaging bWAR and fWAR, Yaz averaged 8.6 WAR in his best 5 years and Aaron averaged 8.5.
Furthermore, both guys played exactly forever. Yaz played 10 more games (0.3% more!), and had 51 more PA.
But here's the catch. The two guys had the same skills and played just as long ... so how did Aaron accrue 46% more WAR?
Aaron's career was worth all of Yaz's plus Nomar's, or Chuck Klein's, or Hack Wilson's.
The combination of longevity and consistency is staggering. Here's a guy who was "just" the 3rd best player at his position (after Ruth and Musial), but in terms of total career value ...
He's still third, after Ruth and Mays.
(Cobb accrued more WAR, but if you adjust him three or four different ways he falls behind.)
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manfred
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Post by manfred on Jan 22, 2021 22:50:24 GMT -5
This eloquently articulates what I was thinking about him. It is a true statement that he was never the best player in the league at a given moment, I can't argue with someone on that. He never led the league in fWAR and his highest fWAR was 8.9, which Willie Mays exceeded 7 times and Mantle did 4 times. But how much can one really knock him for that? The guy was one of the top 5 players in baseball every season from 1955 to 1969. He was top 5 in fWAR for the vast majority of the years, usually 3rd to 5th. He then followed that up with 4 more above average years after that. We have a terrific comp right at hand for how good Aaron was at his peak: Yaz. Averaging bWAR and fWAR, Yaz averaged 8.6 WAR in his best 5 years and Aaron averaged 8.5.
Furthermore, both guys played exactly forever. Yaz played 10 more games (0.3% more!), and had 51 more PA.
But here's the catch. The two guys had the same skills and played just as long ... so how did Aaron accrue 46% more WAR?
Aaron's career was worth all of Yaz's plus Nomar's, or Chuck Klein's, or Hack Wilson's.
The combination of longevity and consistency is staggering. Here's a guy who was "just" the 3rd best player at his position (after Ruth and Musial), but in terms of total career value ...
He's still third, after Ruth and Mays.
(Cobb accrued more WAR, but if you adjust him three or four different ways he falls behind.)
That is an amazing comp. I’d never put together that those two played almost the exact number of games! Wild to think how gaudy Yaz’s stats are... then see them absolutely dwarfed.
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 22, 2021 23:12:24 GMT -5
Agreed great comp, and great perspective. As I was looking at comparables, the only one who I think could have matched or exceeded this would have been Ted Williams, had he not gone to the wars. Imagine 5 more elite seasons added to Ted's counting stats.
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