Profile - Henry “Hank” Aaron

This week on the Bill Bradley Collective, your hosts consider the life, career and legacy of recently passed baseball icon, Henry “Hank” Aaron. The subject of this season’s individual profile, Aaron’s twenty-three year career is among the most accomplished across any sport. The panel delves into his many accolades and achievements, as well as his standing among the game’s other titans, but not before examining his youth in Mobile, AL, his entry into the pros with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League, and the circumstances that led him to the Braves instead of the Giants and a possible career partnership with fellow legend Willie Mays. The conditions of Aaron’s career and the conditions of this country over his lifetime lay at the center of conversation, as while he chased baseball’s most hallowed record, he experienced death threats, an voluminous amounts of hate mail and racist vitriol from all corners of the nation. Aaron’s professional merits are outshone only by his courage and resoluteness in overcoming the bigoted hostilities from so many of his fellow countrymen. Few athletes are almost too grand in stature and legacy to attempt to do justice with words in remembrance. Hank Aaron was one of them, and we’ll try our best to do just that, this week, on the Bill Bradley Collective.