Hank Aaron dies, Obama mourns

The former US President, Barrak Obama, has expressed condolences to the family of the famous US baseball player, Hank Aaron, who died at age 86.

While expressing his condolences, Obama stated that Hank Aaron was one of the best baseball players “we’ve ever seen and one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

“Whenever Michelle and I spent time with Hank and his wife Billye, we were struck by their kindness, generosity and grace—and were reminded that we stood on the shoulders of a previous generation of trailblazers,” Obama wrote on his Facebook page.

“Today, Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Aaron family and everyone who was inspired by this unassuming man and his towering example,” he added.

A child of the Jim Crow South, Hank quit high school to join the Negro League, playing shortstop for $200 a month before earning a spot in Major League Baseball. Humble and hardworking, Hank was often overlooked until he started chasing Babe Ruth’s home run record, at which point he began receiving death threats and racist letters—letters he would reread decades later to remind himself “not to be surprised or hurt.”

Those letters changed Hank, but they didn’t stop him. After breaking the home run record, he became one of the first Black Americans to hold a senior management position in Major League Baseball. And for the rest of his life, he never missed an opportunity to lead—including earlier this month, when Hank and Billye joined civil rights leaders and got COVID vaccines.

Aaron, known as “Hammer” or “Hammerin’ Hank,” was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 following an illustrious MLB career highlighted by 755 home runs — a career record that stood for more than three decades.

Aaron famously broke Ruth’s longstanding home run record on April 8, 1974, hitting his 715th homer at home in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As he was chasing Ruth’s record, Aaron was taunted daily at ballparks, received threats on his life and was sent thousands of pieces of racist hate mail. He said he didn’t read most of the mail but kept some as a reminder.