Hammerin' Hank

    Yet another baseball Hall of Famer passed away as part of what seems to be a sad trend as the "Real" home run king has passed on as Hank Aaron passed away at the age of 86.

Aaron is the tenth member of the Hall of Fame to pass away since last April.

Besides being regarded by many fans as the actual home run leader due to the PED use of Barry Bonds, Aaron has always seemed to be a class act and ambassador of the game that moves beyond only his on-field performance.

Aaron led the National League in homers four times and despite never hitting more than forty-seven in a season, it was the consistency of Aaron's power that helped him to set the record previously held by Babe Ruth.

Aaron hit forty or more homers seven times, seven more times Aaron hit between thirty and thirty-nine (Thirty-nine twice in 1959 and 1967), and on five occasions Aaron hit between twenty and twenty-nine longballs.

Add it up and you have nineteen times that Hank Aaron hit more than twenty homers in a season.

Hank Aaron hit twenty or more homers every season after his rookie season in 1954 (13) until his final two seasons in 1975 and 76 in his return to Milwaukee with the then-AL Brewers (12 and 10), Aaron hit 20 or more homers.

When you are consistently putting those numbers on the board, you must be in the lineup every day as well.

Aaron didn't play fewer than the 122 games that he played as a rookie in 1954, until his 120 games at age 39 in 1973.

All-Star appearances come with the territory for great players and during much of his career, it was the players that decided who played in the All-Star game and Aaron was named to the All-Star game twenty-one times and only the final three appear to be charity elections to the game.

Aaron also led the National League in RBI on four occasions (1957, 60, 63, and 66) and won two batting championships as well hitting .328 in 1956 and .355 in 1959.

Aaron was more than a slugger for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.

From 1955, Aaron's second season through 1971 when he hit .327 at the age of 37, Aaron hit under .300 only four times with the down seasons being nothing to be ashamed of ( .298, .292, .287, and .279).

Surprisingly, Aaron would win only one MVP award, winning it for the only World Championship that he ever won as well- the 1957 Milwauke Braves.

You could make arguments that Aaron should have won more than one award.

Aaron finished third in the voting on SIX occasions and one stands out as a glaring omission- 1959 when Aaron hit .355 with 39 homers, 123 RBI and an OPS over 1,0000 would have likely won him the MVP had Eddie Mathews and Aaron split the Braves vote.

Aaron tolerated a lot of ridiculous garbage as he approached Babe Ruth's record and he didn't fire back, but he has been reported to have kept much of the hate mail from that time.

That's sad, both that it happened and that Aaron was bothered to the point of keeping those letters.

I don't blame him for being upset, but I would have considered the source and tossed them in the wastebasket.

Aaron was traded before the 1975 season as he wished to finish his career where it began-Milwaukee where he would serve as the team's designated hitter for two seasons before retiring after the 1976 season.

Aaron would return to Atlanta and work in the Ted Turner-organization until his retirement working for the Braves and for the Turner media side in which Aaron would have a crossover role with pro wrestling when then-WCW boss Bill Watts saw an older interview of his sent to Aaron by Pittsburgh media member Mark Madden and asking Aaron if this is what he believes as part of the Turner organization.

Aaron reportedly took the interview to Ted Turner and shortly after Watts was relieved of his duties with the company.

Aaron also was a long-time fan of the Cleveland Browns, attending games in both luxury boxes and occasionally even in the Dawg Pound incognito. 

A movement has begun to request that the Atlanta Braves use this time to change their name to the Hammers to honor Aaron.

I'm generally not in favor of such things, but this may make some sense.

A hammer logo resembles a tomahawk and perhaps fans could live with a name change considering it would be honoring the greatest player in the history of the franchise.

Perhaps the time is right in Atlanta.

The all-time home run king, over 3,000 hits, and extremely well-liked, Hank Aaron will be missed by all and hopefully, his name will be the last baseball great that passes away for quite a while.