In the world of sports, Babe Ruth was a cultural icon. Hank Aaron was bigger than baseball.
The night he broke arguably the most fabled record in all of North American sports, April 8, 1974, when an Al Downing fastball found its way over the left field fence in Fulton-County Stadium, Hank Aaron had done the unthinkable.
His words following that historic moment, not only for the game of baseball, but for an entire race of people so unfairly marginalized, give credence to why the man they called Hammerin’ Hank was as beloved as he was.
“I’m not trying to make anyone forget the Babe; but only to remember Hank Aaron.