Hank Aaron passes at 86

I have another question, especially for Atlanta fans. I understand Aaron spent multiple years as head of Atlanta's minor league system. What years did he hold that post and who are the players who credit Aaron with their development?

Yet you say Giants employed a radical shift. Could you share some stories how Aaron handled that. Did he show signs of taking advantage of the weakness a shift introduces?

Well a double header in 1967 stands out when the Giants used a shift on Aaron in both games and it was less radical in some of his at bats. So it must have been situational based on runners on base. I was nine years old so my level of baseball sophistication was not all that good. I do remember him homering and doubling in the double header. I had seen the shift used against McCovey by several teams and my dad regaled me with stories of the “Williams shift”. I also recall the Giants using it against Aaron in 69 and 70 but nothing stands out about those games. So early in his career, and Aaron has said this, he did hit the ball to all fields when he was winning batting titles but later he learned to pull the ball. Jim Rivera, who played winter ball with him, said he hit to all fields then in the early 50s when he was in the minors. Rivera said that it surprised him he he started to pull the ball later in his career.

Watched an interview where HOF official talked about the Henry Aaron exhibit. He says they asked for a hate mail letter to document that. Aaron said yes but insisted they also include some positive letters because for every negative letter there were many more positive letters. I had never heard that before. It helps me understand something that always felt off. How could someone supposedly hated by all white people be so beloved by a a fan base that has been increasingly white with the rise of the NBA and NFL with their popularity? Answer majority were not haters.

I often hear about how much players like Robinson, Aaron, etc helped black people. But I believe their more important contribution was the contribution they made to unity between black and white people. I wish we could see more highlighting of this aspect of their legend. We cannot overlook what they went through as an example of what should never have been but we need to do a better job of acknowledging the contribution they made toward unity.

lanier64, I saw a segment this morning partially explaining my shift confusion. It quoted Aaron as giving the park in Atlanta credit for his HR total advantage over Mays who was hurt by his park. One thing jumped out at me about that interview. He said when he first took batting practice in the new park he saw how easy it was to hit HRs to the pull side and started focusing on pulling the ball more. That fits your memory.

How many of Aaron's records will never be broken. We all have a fascination with such records.

He played in 25 all star games. That was of course helped by some years having 2 all star games. Unless they go back to that 2 game format I doubt anyone will have a chance at that.