Hank Aaron's legacy brings former black baseball players together – and Scape

Atlanta – Henry Aaron's statue in the Old Turner Field lives a somewhat lonely existence. Behind the gates of the Center Parc Credit Union Stadium, the statue that broke the man who broke Babe Ruth's Homerun record was only a quarter mile removed, the only memory of the public that this was once a baseball stadium of an agreement.

Now football in the state of Georgia houses everywhere. So if you want to deal with history in full in history, you have to go on a hike to the Truist Park in Cobb County to remember the fame that was once the Franchise of the Atlanta Braves.

The former Stadium of Atlanta-Fulton County, in which Aaron Karrei Home Run No. 715 to survive Ruth, was a parking space for the facility that was originally built for the Olympic Games three decades ago.

But on this sticky Sunday afternoon, in the intestine of the one park, in which the team did not win a World Series title, four men sit with direct connections to Aaron in the old team Clubhaus, where photos of Aaron's historic night in April 1974 decorate the walls. You gathered to have a conversation about your late friend/mentor/teammate and to have light for the Players Alliance organized by the former MLB outfield Curtis Granderson.

There is Dusty Baker who was on deck when Aaron hit 715; Ralph Garr, generally seen as one of the best friends of Hank in the team. Gary Matthews Sr., also a teammate from Aaron in Atlanta; And Cito Gaston, who played several seasons for the Braves. They were all together with the former MLB pitcher Edwin Jackson, a Columbus, Georgia, born and Hall of Fame Pitcher CC Sabathia, with whose idea this was at the beginning.

“Baseball just revolves around numbers. I felt that we would miss an opportunity not to tell this story, right? And if you have it 7/15, and, they know that it is in Atlanta, it just makes so much sense,” said Sabathia. “It's just for me. I love to sit around and hear your stories. And we have a chance [as players]But it is never in front of the camera. It is never in the recording. “

This time it was and the stories are not disappointed. The 44 -year -old Sabathia, who will be included in the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27, understands that the privilege of only knowing that history is not sufficient. The privilege of being in the game is fantastic if you only want to serve yourself. But the memories of the spoken word are often taken for granted and in some cases deliberately deleted.

Hearing stories about Aaron from her colleagues is an experience that you cannot simply create again. Personally, there is something very familiar. Although I am sitting in a former changing room with a large league, the joke and the tone of the convo feel familiar. Be it the uncle at the card table or in the backyard of the family or the church or with their old high school friends around and sat over the old days, these boys liked to take an afternoon to document their own memories, NEEMEMING HANK AARON.

“I mean, I didn't know what we got into, but I knew that it would be fun, right? I mean, with all the brothers who are here with boys I grew up with whom I grew up, you know that I helped me help.

“It feels great, but they also recognize that they get older and they know that they realize that some of the sizes continue. I think it is even more necessary to continue and return the processes that were ahead of us because we are gone when we are gone.”

Monday evening in the MLB Home Run Derby – 7/14, if you like – the warm -up that the players wore in the field were numbered either 3 or 44, after Babe Ruth and Aaron. Major League Baseball will not have these two names forgotten.

But for people like Gaston, who took over a 12-24 team from Toronto Blue Jays in 1989 and won a division, later won a back-to-back World series in 1992 and 1993, but somehow never had a manager of the year excellent dye kind of conversations felt very like everything you have. He openly admits that he believes that he will be dead before his name is selected for the Hall of Fame.

“Oh man, that was a ball,” said Gaston, 81, an all-star in 1970, after recording. “We laugh like this all the time. We had a great time and love to give each other a little shock. I remind people that they know that this has not been going. This is certain. Really appreciate that they have invited us to do so.”

It is really sad to see so many facets of the game that titans have contributed to creating only a kind of craziness. While the numbers for black players have continued to drop across MLB, they lose so many parts of life and culture that were fundamental factors for why some children initially wanted to play sport.

“Dusty put up with me practically in this game, I know that it will be something special or just the stories that come out of it, the inspiration that people can get, only to understand where these men came from and what they had to endure to play the baseball game. I don't think one of us could have done it.

“I know I couldn't have done what Dusty did: a child outside the high school to come from Northern California to go to the south during this time. I would not have made it. I have to thank you and pay these boys and always make sure that your stories would be told because I would not be a baseball player if it wasn't for these men.”

When you step back and look around the world and look around the condition of the matters and see how the whole history of mankind was wiped out, it feels more than just a fun connection between old boys. Being there personally was almost emotionally overwhelming. It is quite possible that so many people who knew Henry Louis Aaron well will never be at the same time again.

The conversation was happy but determined. Spirited without feeling chaotic. Full of purpose, without being a preaching. All characteristics that the men said that Aaron was eradicated to everyone, no matter who they were.

Origin stories of boys from nicknames really enjoyed, and Dusty once threw a couple of times to remind the boys that the names for which they were known were not necessarily the first.

Ralph “Roadrunner” Garr, 79, who actually officially licensed this nickname by Warner Brothers, was known as a “alligator” when he was in the minor. Dusty still calls Gator to this day. For Matthew's Sr. – known as coffin, a nickname of Reds Legend Pete Rose – Baker reminded him that he was known as “sweet” in San Francisco because of his swing, although he was somewhat defensive at the time.

And of course the actual name of Cito is not at all. A guy who knew him as a teenager who worked at a petrol station told him that he looked like a Mexican wrestler with this name when he grew up in Texas. To quote a famous film: his real name is Clarence. After his first year he officially changed it to the bigs. When Gaston was asked by a guest reporter in the following spring training, Log Gaston casually and said he didn't know anyone with this name. A+ bit.

They exchanged stories about everything, including the place where you would like to eat most on the street: Peachtree in Kansas City, the busy bee in Atlanta in the 1960s and 70s, where they served ham. Sweetie Pie's in St. Louis.

My personal favorite memory came to Hijinks when Dusty and Gator were killed with the day that they told the story of the time when they were waiting for their manager to check their room and then sneak into Hank's rooms to hang out. Well, the first place where Skipper Eddie Mathews went to her room was Aaron. They hid in a closet for hours because Mathews said he liked to drink beer with Hank, and the hammer would not rat it, but he would not let her off the hook and ask his manager. Funny again.

Despite all the conversations about Aaron's character, his performance and uncanny ability to meet tons of Homern, without ever blowing up the kind of moon shots that we saw in Truist Park on Monday evening, his determination and the will to play was the topic that struck the most.

After he had badly helped a teammate at the end of the season, which his car got out of a ditch from a ditch and smashed the taillight with his mere hand thickness, he seemed dubious. And the playoffs were on. Aaron made three shots of Novocaine, each between the rooms of his non -increasing hand fingers and scored in the series with three Homeruns .350.

“I said [to myself ever since]He is not a person, ”Garr, still remembered, still incredulously.

Aaron had no sons that made the majors. Dusty's son is currently in the Washington Nationals' system. For a long time, this was a way that was just as feasible as any other to get to the big ones for black players. Generations -Talents took generations. Since this was becoming increasingly rare, for Matthews Sr., who became the 14th father-son combination with his son, in an all-star game when Matthews Jr. Es made it in 2006 he made the greatest catch in the history of the position of the midfield position, as I see it seems to be a sad opportunity for our culture and our community.

Matthews Sr., 75, complained of playing just an all-star game and constantly being said that if you could take another guy, he would have been a feeling that many black people know well.

“[It’s] Always great when you can get together and talk to former players about baseball. I think that should be a celebration to talk about boys. Therefore you can keep the story ” [are] Bring to another level. It really means a lot because I don't want to say that they bring us to the pasture, but we are close to it. “