Baseball legend Hank Aaron passed away the morning of Thursday, January 22, 2021. He was 86 years old.
A private funeral will be held at Friendship Baptist Church Wednesday at 1 p.m. Local TV stations will stream the memorial service.
Aaron, one of the most iconic players in Major League Baseball history, started his career in the Negro Leagues before making his Major League team, the Milwaukee Braves.
Hank Aaron, Baseball Legend, Dead At 86
The 23-year-old was a force of nature. Shy and reserved from a small town, Aaron didn’t give interviews in the early years of his career.
In 1958, he took the Braves one game short of a championship. By that time, Aaron’s confidence was brimming.
“I felt extremely proud that I knew all the pitches like the back of my hand, and so I thought any time that I wanted to when I walked up to the plate that I could hit the ball as hard as I wanted to or could hit it out of the ballpark,” he once said.
Playing for nearly two decades, Aaron would rewrite the history books to become one of the most prolific hitters of all time.
The night he broke the homerun record in Atlanta-Fulton Stadium — smashing his 715th — remains one of the most electric feats in all of sports.
His record as the homerun king continues to stand in the MLB pantheon. His offensive prowess is unparalleled. Aaron holds many offensive records. He is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times.
Despite Success, Hank Aaron Suffered Years Of Abuse
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Aaron always engendered himself to regular folks and never hobnobbed with the elite.
But despite his success, Aaron said he spent years suffering racially motivated death threats and ridicule from opposing fans and people intent at hating him.
Aaron said the years of abuse took a toll on him.
“I never thought that playing baseball would bring out so many negative and bigoted thoughts in people’s minds. I thought that they would be behind me 100%, but that was not the case,” he said.
Even on the fateful night he broke Babe Ruth’s homerun record, indicative of the racial climate at the time, his bodyguards had instructed the ushers to turn to face the crowd rather than the field during his record-breaking feat.
He spent his latter years as a vice president of the Atlanta Braves, his hometown team.
Funeral arrangements have been confirmed. He was to be laid to rest in a private ceremony on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 in a humble Baptist church.
Around Atlanta, the state and baseball world, condolences poured in for Aaron, a true son of the South.
“This is a considerable loss for the entire city of Atlanta,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement. “While the world knew him as ‘Hammering Hank Aaron’ because of his incredible, record-setting baseball career, he was a cornerstone of our village, graciously and freely joining Mrs. Aaron in giving their presence and resources toward making our city a better place. As an adopted son of Atlanta, Mr. Aaron was part of the fabric that helped place Atlanta on the world stage. Our gratitude, thoughts and prayers are with the Aaron family.”
The Atlanta Braves also released a statement, commenting on the gentle nature that Aaron always displayed.
“We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank,” Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk said. “He was a beacon for our organization first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts. His incredible talent and resolve helped him achieve the highest accomplishments, yet he never lost his humble nature. Henry Louis Aaron wasn’t just our icon, but one across Major League Baseball and around the world. His success on the diamond was matched only by his business accomplishments off the field and capped by his extraordinary philanthropic efforts.