Hank Aaron: The Greatest

“Greatest” is usually an adjective. But there is a line, beyond which, it becomes a noun. It is no longer a qualifier, no longer a comparative. Perhaps other languages have a distinct word for this.

Hank Aaron was the greatest.

There are others. It’s easiest to find them in sports. Willie Mays. Babe Ruth. Michael Jordan. LeBron James. Johnny Unitas. Wayne Gretzky. Yes, you can still compare. The Michael vs. LeBron argument will go on for a long time. But look. The qualifiers are superfluous. They all crossed that line, wherever that line is. Michael is the greatest. LeBron is the greatest. I have no compunction about saying as much.

Hank Aaron was the greatest.

Hank Aaron was not merely the “one-time home run king”. He was much, much more than that.

I can provide statistical arguments galore. Consider just this one, the all-time leaders in total bases:

3. Willie Mays 6,066

2. Stan Musial 6,134

1. Hank Aaron 6,856

His total is more than 10% larger than the next man on the list. And that is just one category.

When Joe Posnanski counted down the 100 greatest players of all time last year, he made a seemingly absurd argument: that, somehow, Hank Aaron was underrated. This was the man who broke Babe Ruth’s record. How could he possibly be underrated?

And the answer was layered. Hank was not just a home run hitter. Home run hitters today are often in the “three true outcome” category. But Hank hit for average as well. He was a model of consistency for as long as anyone before or after. He was also an upstanding, dignified man, who won the Lou Gehrig Award in 1970.

When he hit #715, he did so with the weight of the country on shoulders. He received death threats for daring to tread there. That most hallowed of records, broken by a Black man, in the heart of the South. That singular moment - the fans who inexplicably ran onto the field, the solemnity with which he circled the bases - understandably came to define him.

But he was more than that home run, more than all of total bases, more even that the sum of all the power and grace and dignity he brought to bear.

Henry Louis Aaron was the greatest.

It may all seem like such a simple thing to say that I may as well have just put it in a tweet. But this is not just a thrown down sentence. Here was a man whose accomplishments exceed the very word accomplishments. As a country it would do us well to pause and take, as a nation, a collective moment of silence. Hank represented not just what was possible on the field, but what was possible of humanity writ large.

Hank Aaron was the greatest.

May he continue to inspire us all to greatness.