Hank Aaron is a Classy Guy

Hank Aaron played ball for the Atlanta Braves back when I was a kid.

I used to go the the park with my brother and dad in one of dad's car's of the month.

We had the same old stuff that everyone has at a ballpark. Cotton candy was a favorite along with crackerjacks. Coke was king in Atlanta, so while all the men drank cold beers the kids got Cokes.
We had a great Team back then. I don't think we won a lot of games when I was growing up but I always had so much fun. It felt like I was a part of something that had always been. I didn't know at the time but the Braves had moved to Atlanta the year I was conceived.
Hank Aaron was the baddest slugger around, Phil Niekro was throwing great. I think he was one of the last great knuckleball pitchers. We had Gene Garber and Darrell Evans. I think Dave Johnson got 43 homers one season. Bob Horner signed on, but the club was not really able to make Atlanta feel proud.
We felt satisfied I think.
Satisfied that we had such a good team. Nobody was getting arrested for dogfighting or punching a fan. People were just happy that they could go to the ballpark and have some fun with their families. We won enough to make it worth the risk of caring about the team.

Dad had this habit of driving off one morning in our new car and coming home with a different new car. We had a Nova, Dasher, Duster, Dart, Gremlin, Pinto, MGMidget, Etc...
One I remember was this old OLD car, I think it was a Plymouth.
Huge!
I got lost in the back seat. It smelled amazing! Oh my god it had to have been like twenty years of sex, ciggies and suds, but to me it was exotic. We would take the car to the game and I always felt invincible.
Hank Aaron got older and a little slower but he would hit that ball so hard. Every time he connected it was like a little explosion.
The Atlanta Stadium had, as an homage I'm sure, a full sized tepee in the stands out in I think right field. That was the domain of Chief Knockahoma. I swear to god that was his official name. He would go out and dance around while stereotypical Injun music played and wave his tomahawk around whenever there was a home run. The kids could go and meet the Chief. I met him and I was awed by him. Even at that young age I think I could tell that he was fighting for his Country. He had a lot of wrinkles. I remember wondering how people got so wrinkly. We hadn't learned the truth about the Trail of Tears or any of those stories. They were so unflattering to our ancestors.
A lot of people might think that he was being mocked but it wasn't that way. At least not for me. I always felt a lot of respect for him.
Fun Times. Ahh yes.
So I guess I was thinking about all this because I read that Hank Aaron made a statement about the steroid abuse scandal. To this day he remains a real classy guy. He made it clear to point out that he didn't think that steroids could ever make a person hit the ball better, or at all for that matter. He just said that there was a limit to how fast he could recover after giving it his all. I think there was certainly a big factor there. Bonds will always be unquestionably a great batter. But I think it diminishes his effort knowing that he was not man enough to go to the plate game after game to slug away without a little booster. Just a little extra kick that no one will ever have to know about. I'm sure he had to struggle with that. But in the end I think he gave in because he was weak minded. He was too afraid to face the possibility that he was not man enough to beat Hank Aaron outright. So he cheated.
Thank You Hank Aaron. Thank You for being a classy guy after all these years. You will always be the best slugger in my book.