Hank Aaron

I just thought about this yesterday. I think I saw the last home run Hank Aaron ever hit. It wasn't a major league home run. It was in Portland at an old-timers game. First of all, if I was invited to play, I would insist on a name change, but I guess they didn't mind.

He was probably 50 at the time, but still looked like he could play. He comes up and hits a home run. Granted 1.) It was at a minor league ball park, 2.) Whoever was pitching was an "old-timer" himself and probably was giving him a good pitch to hit, 3.) It was technically a home run. Technically, because a fan reached over the wall and touched the ball. It didn't go out of the ball park, but that gets ruled a home run.

I can't imagine he hit many home runs in his 50s or later, so I bet I saw his last.

By the way, he is the all-time home run leader. Juiced up Barry and his bogus last 3 or 4 hundred home runs don't count in my book.

I was always confused by who he really was when I was a kid. I heard of Hank Aaron and I knew he was really good. But there was a guy, Henry Aaron, who they talked about and seemed really good, too. Could they be brothers? That was before I learned that Hank and Henry are kind of interchangeable names. By the way, there is no reason for that, e,g. Katherine, Kate, Kathy, Katie, etc. What was even more confusing is he did actually have a brother, Tommie Aaron, that played in the major leagues at the same time.

Trivia Stat of the Day: Hank (or Henry) and Tommie have the most home runs by brothers. Hank had over seven hundred and Tommie had like 12 or so. Tommie died young, but gets to share in an all-time record. Good for him.