I made a mental note at the time to remember what I thought was a cool moment in my sports viewing life...seeing Hank Aaron hit his 701st home run against the Reds in 1973. As a Reds fan growing up in Lexington, it was logical to see the Reds when they would come to Atlanta where my brother lived. It was great fun then, being a baseball fanatic, and seeing superstars like Aaron, Mays and all others of the 60's and 70's. I hate the fact that he had to endure any kind of racism and hatred of those times--I was too young to know what he and others experienced daily during and perhaps even after their careers were over. Much of that kind of ignorance has been taken out of life--at least I would hope--but I know we still do have much to do by everyone involved. I certainly only thought of him as one of the greats, and did avidly watch his assault on the home run record, with Los Angeles pitcher Al Downing finally delivering a pitch for him to hit 715 that broke Babe's record. While a Braves member of the front office, I was disappointed to know he had turned my brother down for an autograph when they were on the same airplane--he said it was against company policy. I can understand all of that and don't feel too bad about it, but it would have been a great autograph to have.
