Who Cares About Hank Aaron?
That headline will anger old Black baseball fans who worship the great players of the past. But how many of those old Black baseball fans are still around to punch me in the mouth?
Henry Aaron died last month at the age of 86. He played his last game 45 years ago. There’s nothing named after him to keep his memory at the top of our minds. Why should anyone care about Hank Aaron?
One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting in the basement with my dad watching on that fuzzy, black-and-white TV with the rabbit ears wrapped in aluminum foil as Hank Aaron hit the homer that broke Babe Ruth’s record. Dad was a laid-back guy. He didn’t jump up pumping his fist or break into a dance in the middle of the floor, but the room did explode with a thunderous clap from his huge hands. The crack of the bat told us that ball was gone.
At 13 years old, I loved baseball and was good at it, as proven by my Little League MVP plaque hanging on the wall not far from the TV. I had learned the game from my father, sitting by his side and watching tons of baseball games on that black-and-white TV. The day after my father bought me my first glove, he went out and bought me another one. The first had been plastic — a toy. But when he (and I) realized I had a knack for the game, he knew I needed a real, leather glove.
That summer was my last in Little League. I would soon learn if I had what it took to play baseball on the grown man-sized field, the kind the professionals play on, as I graduated into the Babe Ruth League.
First, though, I had a question, the most innocent childhood question of them all: “If Hank Aaron just bypassed Babe Ruth’s home run record, aren’t they going to change the name from the Babe Ruth League to the Hank Aaron League?”
I was really that naive.
When you compare their careers, you see that Ruth played far fewer games than Aaron yet ended up with comparable stats. Babe Ruth’s name deserves to stick around.
Years played: Aaron 23, Ruth 22.
Games played: Aaron 3,298, Ruth 2,503.
At-bats: Aaron 12,364, Ruth 8,399.
Home runs: Aaron 755, Ruth 714.
Hits: Aaron 3,771, Ruth 2,873.
RBIs: Aaron 2,297, Ruth 2,214.
Runs: Aaron 2,174, Ruth 2,174.
Strike outs: Aaron 1,383, Ruth 1,330.
Black American men don’t play baseball much these days. Only 7.7% of Major League Baseball players are Black. That’s a lot of the reason that today’s Black boys don’t get too excited about watching or playing baseball. Blacks never exceeded 19% representation in Major League Baseball, a percentage surpassed by Hispanics (who now represent 27.4% of the league) back in 1993. In 1974, the year Hank Aaron broke the home run record, the league was 17.4% Black.
Baseball is a hard game to learn to play. Unlike basketball, track, or football, it’s not a sport you can pick up in high school and expect to be competitive at.
Chester runs a Jackie Robinson Little League for baseball, but, with Amateur Athletic Union basketball played all summer, it’s hard to attract the talented young athletes to what used to be called the national pastime. Coaches, equipment, and parental involvement are hard to come by, too.
Today, Mookie Betts is the LeBron James of Major League Baseball. He just won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and in 2018, when he played for the Boston Red Sox, he became the first player in the history of the game to win MVP, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, batting title, and World Series in the same season. He’s considered one of the best players of his generation and maybe the best player in baseball today.
The Dodgers signed Betts to a 12-year, $365 million contract which included a $65 million signing bonus. Top NBA contracts are over $200 million for 6 years, so I guess that’s reason enough to ignore the $30 million per year Betts earns. Or not! There’s about 180 more jobs in MLB than the NBA.
During his career, Hank’s largest salary was $240,000 which he earned in both the 1975 and 1976 seasons. Adjusted for inflation, that’s the equivalent of $1.2 million per year in 2020 dollars. Aaron earned a total of $2.12 million during his career. How much would he get paid if he played today?
Baseball is a great sport. It would be great if all this attention to Hank Aaron would get neighborhood kids back on the diamond. But it’s not going to happen. No one cares about Hank Aaron except the old heads.
Stefan Roots blogs at Chester Matters.
