Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves was my childhood hero. I first became a baseball fan in the early 1970’s. Hank had already been playing in the major leagues for about 15 years by then, and had been the MVP of the only World Series he was to win. But, by the time I was able to understand the game, Hank Aaron was pursuing something even bigger. He was on the verge of passing Babe Ruth’s all time career home run record. In 1974 he hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth’s total of 714.

Looking back after all these years, I see that Hank was as good a hero as a young boy could have had. Not only was he one of the all-time greatest at his sport, he accomplished what he did with consistency, dignity, humility and fair play. He had one of the most outstanding all around careers without the aid of steroids or corked bats. The likes of Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Hammering Hank.

In the 1960’s and 70’s, Georgia was hardly a bastion of racial tolerance, and Hank faced his share of racial prejudice. I remember a 60 minutes report shortly before he broke the home run record that shared some of the examples of the abundant hate mail he had received. It seems many good ol’ boys were angered that a black man would break the record of the legendary Babe Ruth. Hank’s response to such hatred was always one of humble strength.

I remember one news story, though, about a reporter who pushed too far. Hank, fed up with the constant scrutiny from the press threw a bowl of strawberries into the reporters face. As an 11 year old loyal fan, my first reaction was ‘the reporter deserved it’. But, over the next few days, as I thought about the story, I learned a life lesson. Even heroes aren’t perfect. Hank’s loss of temper was extremely out of character for him, but, I came to understand, he still is only a man. If perfection was a requirement for heroism, there would be a real shortage of heroes. But a life typically characterized by such dignity and class is still worthy of a little boy’s respect.

Working with young people, I realize there is a natural tendency for them to adopt heroes. This is not a bad quality, but tweens and early teens also tend to see their heroes as infallible, and many ‘heroes’ encourage this thinking with their arrogance and vibrato. All too often followers of these same arrogant egomaniacs are crushed when they fall. As Steve Taylor wrote:

“Heroes die
When they ain’t as big as life
When they hitch their second wife
Where’s a boy to go?”

I believe Hank Aaron, with his quiet but strong humility, was able to remain a positive role model after the strawberry incident because he was humble and never presented himself as anything more than a mere mortal, albeit a tremendously talented one. That's someone I can still respect today.