Rich Dubroff

Aaron’s loss is the biggest and saddest in baseball’s awful year

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In a time that’s been devastating for baseball fans, another awful loss, the worst one yet, was reported early Friday morning. Henry Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s lifetime home run record and held it for 33 years, died in his sleep at 86.

In less than 10 months, baseball has lost 10 Hall of Famers, all of whom had some association with Aaron: Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Tommy Lasorda, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, and Phil Niekro, a longtime teammate.

For those too young to have seen Aaron, whose major league career lasted from 1954-1976, they missed perhaps the greatest all-around player in the game’s history and one who defied racism.

Fans could argue the relative merits of Aaron with those of Willie Mays, whose prime years coincided with Aaron. Both had great power and speed and played outstanding defense.


If you look at Aaron’s statistics, it’s mind-boggling. He hit 755 home runs and never more than 47 in a season. His 2,297 RBIs were the most in baseball history.

Not only was he a power hitter, but Aaron hit for average. A lifetime .305 hitter, he led the National League in hitting twice, and walked about as often as he struck out (1,402 walks, 1,383 strikeouts).

Unlike many stars of the past, his stats are even more impressive in the analytic age. His WAR of 143.1 was fifth all-time, behind only Barry Bonds, who broke his home run record in 2007, Ruth, Mays and Ty Cobb.

Aaron’s OPS, which wasn’t tracked when he played, is .920, and he led the NL three times.

He was a 25-time All-Star and won the Gold Glove three times.

Considering that Aaron played with Mays, Roberto Clemente and Mickey Mantle, and stood out is even more remarkable.

When Aaron was approaching Ruth’s lifetime home run record, he received thousands of hate letters, and rose above them to become a true American hero.

There were limited opportunities to see Aaron play in person if you were a Baltimorean. He started the 1958 All-Star Game at Memorial Stadium. In his final two years, he played 13 games there as a designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers.

On May 19, 1976, Aaron hit his 747th lifetime home run against Mike Cuellar and only 4,839 were there to see it.

Aaron came to Baltimore in 1995 to see Cal Ripken Jr. surpass Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games played record, marveling at Ripken’s durability.

Those who observed Aaron, marveled at the strength, dignity and grace he demonstrated throughout his baseball life and especially when he was on the cusp of breaking Ruth’s record. After he hit his record-breaking home run off Al Downing on April 8, 1974, he said, “Thank God, it’s over.” He then thanked the fans, ever gracious in every circumstance.

 


Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

View Comments

  • Definitely a classy individual, NEVER knew him to take the low road, many of today’s players would learn a lot about how to act watching him, someone referred to Harper as a generational player, not close, Hammering Hank definitely was...god bless...go O’s..

  • This is still the Home Run king in my opinion. And he hit for a .305 average?

    These guys were baseball players. The modern behemoth of an athlete has absolutely nothing on this man, or quite a few others of Aarons generation for that matter.

    RIP Hank

  • The passing of so many of baseballs legends in the past year has had me reflecting back to my youth and the sheer joy I had watching them play. I still enjoy baseball but there’s nothing like the wide-eyed awe of a child seeing the players on his baseball cards playing live, thinking that Memorial Stadium surely was the grandest building in the world. It makes me think about my grandfather, the greatest man I ever knew, taking me to see these heroes of mine. Time stands still for no one. I’m sure it’s just the old, admittedly jaded man I am about sports now but I truly believe those were the glory days of baseball. I hope the youth of today can capture the same joy I had watching baseball 50 years ago.

  • Hammerin’ Hank always represented his sport as well as his community with grace, fairness and dignity in a time when others couldn’t. He will be missed. RIP

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Rich Dubroff

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