He was my hero as well, along with Knucksie. At some point, my father turned into a racist. I think at work someone black was promoted over him, he worked for the State.
If we watched a game and I said anything positive about Aaron, my dad would run him down, say he was lazy, he smoked, anything bad. I was old enough by then to suffer silently and not argue. When I was much younger, my dad made various comments about how it wasn't right how blacks were suppressed.
I am friends with some former Braves now who knew Hank personally and well and they all have had moving stories about him. It's a pity someone has to die for us to celebrate them this way, but it's reality. They told me he had not been doing well over the past couple of years.
We had Rico Carty at camp two years ago, he had some great stories about Hank, one how they got into a fight on a plane.
