Hank Aaron

[Greg McCary]

I thought I would share this article that I found on MSN. I find it interesting because it brought back childhood memories. I remember some of these events happening. Living in the Atlanta area I had the chance to go see Hank play several times. He was pretty much a childhood hero.
I remember one homerun that he hit in dead center field. I was on the third base side and the ball never seemed to get more than ten feet of of the ground and hit the wall on the other side of the the fence with a loud thud. Most of the homeruns that I saw him hit were line shots that didn't take long to get out of the park.
I also saw him throw a man out at second base, from right field, almost lying on his stomach.
But I also remember when he came up to bat drunken fans yelling racial slurs at him. Only being nine years old this left quite an impression on me. As young as I was, I saw what a great ballplayer he was a just couldn't understand why he was treated the way he was or why some of the fans weren't thrown out of the park. Or why Hank even chose to stay in Atlanta.
The reason that I am posting this is that I don't think that people really think that Hank was treated this way, but I am a witness to the fact that he was. Hank has never gotten the recognition he deserves, at least by many here in Georgia, for his accomplishments.
I think Hank has grown bitter in his old age due to it all. The world we live in has came a long way since 1970...
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7029864

[Medley]

Thank you Greg, for bringing those memories back. Like you, I was an big fan. Unlike you, I had no idea at the time, of the things that went on. He was just a great ball player. At eight years old, that was all that mattered to me.

- Joe U.

[mwfanelli]

Yes, Hank was a great ball player. I had a "signed" baseball bat when I was a kid.

Hank was always a little bitter because he never got the same recognition as the Babe. But that was his fault! The Babe was a story in himself: flamboyant, outrageous, always in the public eye. The same with many other ball players, such as Berra and Mantle (one of my favorites as a child). Sitting back, quiet and polite, expecting people to flock to you is unrealistic.

Barry Bonds is a drug addled pretender. He may go into the history books but cheating is never something to be proud of or someone to look up to.