It’s hard to believe that it’s been 48 years since Henry Aaron hit his 714th home run at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, off the Reds’ Jack Billingham. Seems like it was about five minutes ago.
Still, it was a great, great moment — as was Aaron’s 715th home run a few days later, off the Dodgers’ Al Downing.
Henry Aaron is the home run champion. Period. There is no debate. This despite the fact that I am now a Giants fan, having gone through a rather painful divorce from the Reds during the Marge Schott disaster. The “prevailing wisdom” suggests that because I support San Francisco now, I should also support the fraud who got all jacked up and statistically “passed” Aaron.
No. Effing. Way. Not in our lifetime on this planet.
Henry Aaron had class and dignity and put up with more crap than anyone should as he put together a great, great career. And let’s not forget that he was much more than a home-run hitter: he was one of the best all-around players the game has ever seen.
How about a .305 lifetime batting average? Three Gold Gloves? 240 stolen bases? Almost 2,300 RBI? 6,856 total bases?
Take away all of his home runs and he still had more than 3,000 hits.
One of my favorite baseball memories is seeing Aaron hit one of his final home runs, against the Rangers at Arlington Stadium. It wasn’t a tape-measure blast — few of his home runs were — but it was a cool thing indeed.
So here’s to the champ — and to 714, 715, and 755: the real benchmark for home-run hitters.
