When the discussion of “greatest baseball player of all-time” comes up, names like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and a slew of other names come to mind. Another name that pops up a lot is Hank Aaron. Frankly, we should be talking about him more.
While looking at various lists and rankings, Aaron is constantly ranked in the top five, or right outside of it. Offensively, there might not have been a better ball player. In 23 years, Aaron totaled a .305/.374/.555 slash line with an almost 1.000 OPS for his career. He has smashed 755 dingers, swiped 240 bags, tallied over 3,700 hits, and is the all-time MLB leader in RBI (2,297) and total bases (6,856). He led the Majors in RBI four times, doubles four times, hits two times, runs three times, homers four times, slugging percentage four times, OPS three times, and has two batting titles under his belt. In 1957, Hank would go on to win the National League MVP, as well as winning the World Series. In that World Series, #44 was by far and away the best player for the Braves. In a seven game series, in which the Braves scored 23 runs (just over three runs a game), Hank produced seven of those runs. Roughly 33% of the Braves’ runs were driven in by their star 23 year old. He added three homers, seven RBI, a batting average of .393, and a slugging percentage of .786.
Unfortunately for Mr. Aaron, that was one of only three times in his career making the postseason. A year after winning the World Series, he returned to face the Yankees again in another seven game series. After that, he wouldn’t return to the postseason until his age 35 season, where they would lose in the NLCS to the Miracle Mets of 1969. Hank Aaron not only put up god-like numbers in the regular season, but he also showed up in the postseason, though his sample size is small. In 17 career postseason games (14 of those were World Series games), he has a career slash line of .362/.404/.710, with 25 hits, four doubles, 1 triple, six home runs, and an OPS of 1.116.
With all of this success, why is Hank not talked about all of the time like Babe is, or like Willie is, or even Ken Griffey Jr.? Well, look at the man himself. Hank was to baseball back then as what Kawhi Leonard is to basketball now. A player with all of the talent in the world, mixed with a reserved and humble personality. He focused more on equality and being a voice in the fight for civil rights and using his celebrity in that way, instead of being the face of the Majors. Hank faced racial slurs and harassments in his times in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. He broke the most important record in sports history during one of the nastiest times to be a black man in this nation's history. He stood up, he stayed reserved, he played it as perfect as he could have. Jackie Robinson gets the shine for dealing with these atrocities. Yet, dozens of other players, including Hank, still saw that horrible treatment as well.
Add to that, segregation was present for about half of his career, and the fact he shared a diamond with all-time greats such as Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Roberto Clemente, and many other legends of the game.
20 straight years of 20 or more homers. .300 batting average in 14 different seasons. 30 homers in 15 different seasons. A man who fought for the rights of all humans just as hard as he hit baseballs. Even with all of that, Hank was remembered by his character, large heart, and being the nicest man his peers had ever met. These are all-time numbers produced by an all-time player. These are all-time praises given to an all-time man. We should be talking about Hank Aaron way more.
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