LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Mallex Smith, the Braves’ speedy center-field prospect, can be a bit of a chatterbox, full of upbeat energy and always giving as well as he gets when razzing with teammates such as spring-training locker partner Tyrell Jenkins.
But when Hank Aaron walked through the Braves clubhouse before the team’s first full-squad workout Thursday, things got quiet.
“You know how Mallex likes to talk?” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He was speechless when Hank walked through for a little bit on his way out to the dugout. Mallex just stopped. He couldn’t say a word. And a lot of the other guys, too. It’s an honor, it really is, to be around Hank.”
The legendary Braves slugger, now 82, came to Orlando with CEO Terry McGuirk and others for the team executives’ annual spring-training visit and meeting. Gonzalez wanted to make sure that Aaron, a Braves senior vice president, knew how much the manager wanted him to be at the workout Thursday morning when Gonzalez addressed the team and its staff in his pre-first-workout speech.
“We had dinner together with the executives last night, and I was working on him,” Gonzalez said, recalling how he said to Aaron, “Hank, you’ve got to come out. Him and Bobby (Cox) are such humble people. ‘No, I don’t want to come out.’ So we begged (Aaron) and begged him. I saw him this morning, and he took us up on our offer. To have him there, in the locker room, is really a special treat for us.”
Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte, who was traded from Arizona to Atlanta in December, said on his Twitter account later Thursday, “What can I say? I got to meet Hank Aaron today.” He added a smiley-face emoji.
Braves pitching prospect Tyrell Jenkins posted this on Twitter: “Saw Mr. Hank Aaron at camp this morning & couldn’t breath for about 4 seconds! #Legend”
Gonzalez never had an audience for his first-workout speech as large as this one— all 70 players who are in camp, including a majors-leading 30 non-roster invitees, plus nearly 50 coaches, team officials and other staff members. They had the meeting in center field, since there were too many folks to fit into the clubhouse.
Gonzalez said he’d also never introduced two Hall of Famers at such a meeting, as he did Thursday with Aaron and Cox. He also introduced them to Andruw Jones, the 10-time former Braves center fielder who’ll go into the team Hall of Fame this summer and is in camp as a guest instructor.
Aaron didn’t speak to the team, and Gonzalez said he didn’t need to.
“Just having the presence of him out there was good enough,” he said.
