In the wake of the death of baseball icon Hank Aaron, an unlikely suspect shared a connection with "Hammerin' Hank" that inspired one of the most famous names in rap music.
MC Hammer (formerly known as Stanley Burrell) was a batboy for the Athletics as a child. According to Hammer, former Brewers second baseman Pedro Garcia saw the young Burrell and thought he looked markedly like the then-40-year-old Aaron (for the record, he wasn't wrong).
According to Hammer, Garcia decided that from then on, Burrell was to be known as "Little Hammer" after Aaron's nickname. A's great Reggie Jackson liked the name too, and according to Hammer, Jackson was the one who coined it.