Even the great Braves players who came after him knew they could never reach the greatness of Hank Aaron.
“He played for the galactic All-Stars, you know,” Chipper Jones said Friday. “We’re just mere earthlings, and he’s on a different level.”
Aaron’s death at age 86 “absolutely devastated” the Braves organization, as team chairman Terry McGuirk put it. Jones, himself a Hall of Famer, described Aaron as “a transcendent baseball player” and “a transcendent person in American history as well.” Another former Braves All-Star player, Brian Jordan, said he “almost dropped down to my knees” upon hearing Aaron had died.
“I lost a hero,” Jordan said. “As a Black boy growing up loving the game of baseball, Hank Aaron was ‘That Guy.’”
Aaron last played for the Braves in 1974, the year he broke Babe Ruth’s career home-run record, but his place in the heart of the franchise was forever secure.
“He’s a guy who in most ways, in every way, basically is the Braves,” said Derek Schiller, the team’s president and CEO. “Our brand and our team are who we are because of Hank Aaron. I know there are a lot of guys who have worn the uniform, but none like Hank, obviously.
“On behalf of Braves Country,” Schiller added, “we lost a legend. But more importantly, we lost an unbelievably great person, one of a kind.”
As the Braves reflected on Aaron’s life Friday, they expressed appreciation both for what he accomplished on the field -- the 3,771 hits, the 2,297 RBIs, the 755 home runs, etc. – and off the field.
“When you can take all those home runs away and he’d still have 3,000 hits,” Jones marveled, “to this day I have to look at (Aaron’s statistics) and remind myself because some of the numbers just get lost.”
Over the years, Jones got to know Aaron far beyond the amazing statistics.
“All the interactions I’ve had with him through the years, I have treasured each and every one of them,” Jones said. “I can remember the first time I shook his hand, and, my God, his hand just engulfed mine. He truly taught me that the game was played not only in your head, but also from the shoulders to the wrist.
“I consider myself very lucky that Hank Aaron was a part of this particular organization because he set the bar not only for what you should strive for as a baseball player but as a human being. He spread his grace on everything and everyone that he came into contact with.”
Jordan, 7 years old when Aaron broke Ruth’s record, finally met his hero upon joining the Braves as a free agent before the 1999 season.
“To meet Hank for the first time in the dugout in spring training, I was scared to even talk to him,” Jordan recalled. “And he came over and talked to me first. … To break the ice and have that conversation, he was such a humble man. We became really good friends. … He was my mentor. He was fun to talk to.
“Everybody loved Hank Aaron,” Jordan said. “To hear the news (Friday) morning, it just crushed me. I lost a family member.”
Braves executives McGuirk and Schiller both talked with Aaron on the phone last week. Aaron told Schiller he’d be in the office soon and that they’d talk more then.
“Even when he wasn’t here physically, he was with us all the time,” Schiller said. “When we went to the postseason last year, he was calling and asking how things were going. He told me he watched every game on TV.”
Former Braves executive Bob Hope learned of Aaron’s death when he attempted to call his friend of more than 50 years Friday morning to set up a meeting about Georgia State’s plans to build a new baseball stadium.
“I’m upset, stunned,” Hope said later. “Such a good man, so gracious. He is one person you can actually say treated everyone absolutely the same ... whether royalty or a kid he ran into in the grocery store.”
