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it rained today, which meant I had some down time on my hands. Considering we’re in the midst of baseball HOF talk, I went to visit to the @Mobile_BayBears who play at Hank Aaron Stadium. Come along, I’ll show you
if I’m being perfectly honest, the best perk about doing my job in this business is that every once and again you can just show up somewhere and ask to look around, and they’ll let you. So I tried it, and they said come on in, but joked “dont you have a show to do?” It was funny
now, why does that matter? Because I found myself - by myself - in the childhood home of Mobile, AL native Hank Aaron, which is now a museum, next door to the ballpark. It was a borderline out of body experience.
mind you, this is a home moved by professionals to the ballpark for obvious reasons but its got just about every single piece of Hank memorabilia that any fan could reasonably care about seeing and it’s pretty incredible.
it starts with a display about the history of baseball in Mobile, which is certainly very rich
but there are also an incredible amount of personal items from the Aaron family, which was honestly kind of spooky in a good way. Felt sort of like a Field Of Dreams kind of scenario tbh. I was a little overcome with emotion (shocker) seeing all this stuff
and throughout the small house, the voice of Hank telling his life story plays on the speakers. He recounts the story of how he had to convince his mother that he had to leave in order to make his mark on the world
now, if you dont know, Hank’s younger brother Tommie was a ballplayer too, who played in the bigs. They were actually the first siblings to play in the LCS as teammates, which is just an amazing stat as far as I’m concerned
but when Hank describes how his mother didnt even go to the train station with him because she couldnt bear to see him go, I just burst out crying. He had $2 in his pocket and one change of clothes. I cant imagine how hard that must have been for the whole family
the house, is obviously small, but there is a display of the kitchen that features actual original items from their home. It’s fascinating.
and I’m not going to give away the whole shop because technically they do charge admission, but there are a couple things I did want to highlight. Let’s start with Hank’s “hammer.”
check out this lumber
second is some of the random memorabilia related to his chase for the HR record. Look at this letter. What a time.
lastly is a personal essay about Jackie Robinson, which standing by myself in that home reading on the wall, gave me chills.
there’s all sorts of other stuff, including a portrait that is downright beautiful
the @Mobile_BayBears guys showed me around the park itself, but the last thing I noticed that truly struck me, was the sign outside of stadium. Look at it.
it would be ten years after that park opened that Aaron’s record would be “broken” but many baseball fans still believe that last sentence on the sign to be true
why is that important? Because as Bonds approached the record. Aaron said publicly that he didnt approve of steroids in the game. But when Barry finally did it, Hank was classy enough to congratulate him.
and not just any congratulations. He recorded this message, which played at the park after Bonds hit 756. Aaron was such a dude. Pure fucking class. Watch it.
Also: It’s the team’s final season at the park, so if you get a chance, go check them out. Quite the yard, too.
anyways, just wanted to say thanks again to the @Mobile_BayBears for giving a baseball fan a great day. I’ll never forget it.
anyways, just wanted to say thanks again to the @Mobile_BayBears for giving a baseball fan a great day. I’ll never forget it.
