Hammerin Hank Should Finally Get His Due
August 8, 2007 – 10:12 am | by adminAs Barry Bonds broke Hank Aarons record, we should finally come to realize how great Aaron was. We all know that, right. Guess again.
This morning, I was listening to Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and something he said really grabbed me. By the way, I’m a fan of the Mike and Mike show.
Greenberg was talking about the breaking of the record by Bonds and how important the record was. He said something to the effect that when I was growing up 715 was always the number referring to Ruth’s record. Think about this - Greenberg was born on August 6, 1967 which means that he was 6 when Aaron was crowned the Home Run King. I would wonder how many black 6 year olds in the country after Aaron broke the record thought that 715 was the number. It’s amazing to me to think this but after that night in April 1974, how many white sports fans including this one actually crowned Hank Aaron as the Home Run King. Because when Mike Greenberg was growing up ( and I actually think that he was referring to the ages between 6-12, not 3). the number should have always been Hank’s new number. What do you think?
2 Responses to “Hammerin Hank Should Finally Get His Due”
By Rob on Aug 8, 2007 | Reply
I think Greeny, in referring to 715, was referring to Aaron being the record holder, since Ruth only hit 714. Likewise, many people may consider the “new” mark to be 756, at least until Bonds retires and sets his final home run total.
By admin on Aug 8, 2007 | Reply
Hi Rob:
That’s an excellent point and thank you for the comment. However, don’t you think that he would have referred to 755 as the number instead of 715 because that’s really the number. Remember, Greeny was 6 in April 1974. He actually said that 715 was the number when I was growing up. When you’re 5 and as nitpicking as this may sound, no 5 year old can count to 755, never mind understanding the number. My point and I don’t really fault Greeny for this is that in his mind when he was growing up, Ruth was the real home run King. In fact, it took 33 years for Aaron’s feat to be significant because Bonds actually made the Babe’s feat less important in the baseball record books although the Babe will always be an immortal.
On the other hand and let’s face it, very few people ever refer to Hank Aaron as one of the top 10 players of all time but wasn’t he?
Thank you for the comment. Interesting debate?