Mark Madden's Hot Take: Hank Aaron was one of sports' most important figures

Hank Aaron is not the all-time home-run king. The numbers don’t lie and can’t be qualified. It’s a matter of who hit the most.

The scoreboard reads Barry Bonds 762, Aaron 755.

But Aaron was about so much more than setting a record, even if it is baseball’s most fabled.

Aaron was raised in heavily segregated Mobile, Ala. He played Negro League baseball. He battled racism and Jim Crow.

That fight continued when Aaron entered Major League Baseball in 1954, and it never really stopped. In fact, the struggle intensified in the months leading up to Aaron passing Babe Ruth as MLB’s all-time home-run leader April 8, 1974.

Aaron was buried under an avalanche of racism: Death threats, hate mail and incredibly vile language. It was the worst this country has to offer.

Aaron didn’t break. He didn’t crack. He didn’t even flinch. Aaron kept producing.

When Aaron, playing at home in Atlanta, hit the home run that surpassed Ruth, two white teenagers jumped on the field and rounded the bases with him. It was a marvelous scene. But for all Aaron knew, those kids intended to kill him.

But Aaron did what he always did. He never broke stride. He just kept going.

As play-by-play icon Vin Scully famously said when making the call: “A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world.”

That moment was everything Scully said, and even more.

When Bonds broke Aaron’s home-run record in 2007 under the cloud of steroids, Aaron congratulated Bonds by video. Aaron was all class, even when he didn’t have to be.

It’s ironic Aaron was called “the real home-run king” after Bonds surpassed him, because that same effort was made on Ruth’s behalf before and after Aaron hit No. 715. “Aaron had 3,000 more plate appearances than Ruth!” (It was 3,315 more, to be exact.)

But Ruth never batted against a Black pitcher or a relief specialist. Ruth was a left-handed pull hitter, and his three home parks (Fenway Park in Boston, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York) measured just 302 feet, 258 feet and 295 feet, respectively, down the right-field line. Those dimensions turned a few routine-length fly balls into homers.

But the record is “most career home runs.” Not how, but how many.

But while Bonds has seven more home runs than Aaron, Aaron had tenfold the impact.

Aaron’s chase, and the example he set, affected society. A Black man was the face of baseball while playing on a team in the Deep South. Aaron greatly influenced culture, civil rights and charity.

Ruth changed baseball. Bonds changed nothing. Aaron changed America.

Henry Louis Aaron died Friday. He was 86. He will be missed, and will always be one of sports’ most important figures ever. RIP.