One year ago: Remembering Braves legend Hank Aaron

ATLANTA — It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since Hank Aaron died. Aaron was always seen around Atlanta and it seemed he was a part of the Braves and the city since forever.

On Jan. 22, 2021, the Braves, Atlanta and Major League baseball lost one of its greatest ambassadors and the city lost one of its greatest heroes.

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There are no events scheduled to honor “Hammerin’ Hank” this weekend. But if you are an Atlanta Braves fan, it’s a good day to at least give a tip of the cap to a Baseball Hall of Famer and a baseball lifer who ended his 23-year playing career in 1976 with 755 home runs and still is the game’s all-time leader in career RBI’s, extra base hits and total bases.

Aaron would go on to hold a variety of titles in the Braves front office and to this day, his statue sits in front of the team’s current home, Truist Park. A short drive back into downtown Atlanta and you can visit the memorial to Aaron’s 715th home run, which sits in a parking lot where Fulton County Stadium used to stand.

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Over the past year, the Braves and the City of Atlanta honored “Hammerin’ Hank” in a variety of ways:

• In April of 2021, Atlanta Public Schools changed the name of one of its schools to Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.
• Aaron’s widow Billye was honored at the 2021 All-Star game originally slated for Atlanta but moved to Denver.
• Aaron’s number 44 was on the field at Truist Park for the entire 2021 season.
• The Braves devoted an entire weekend series to Aaron at the end of July. The team hosted a game for elite high school players and a series of Hank Aaron bobbleheads were highlights of the weekend.

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After the Braves won their second-ever World Series in November, nine months after Hank’s passing, Channel 2′s Tom Jones spoke to Billye Aaron, who said her greatest wish was that her husband could have been there to see it.

“I think he would have just been happy, happy about it,” Aaron said. “To have it come at this time, and especially I know how Henry would have felt about it, so I think it was just good luck and God’s blessings,” she said.

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Atlanta school renamed in honor of Hank Aaron (NCD)

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