Apparently slugger Hank Aaron took one too many “bean balls” at the plate.

This week we should have been celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s 715^th career home run. That homer shattered Babe Ruth’s previous career record and retiring with 755 total home runs. 

“…[O]n April 8, 1974, a crowd of 53,775 people showed up for the game—a Braves attendance record [all hoping to witness Aaron set a new HR record]. The game was also broadcast nationally on NBC. In the fourth inning, Aaron hit home run number 715…. Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully addressed the racial tension — or apparent lack thereof — in his call of the home run:

"'What a marvelous moment for baseball; what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia; what a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron. ... And for the first time in a long time, that poker face in Aaron shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have been like to live with for the past several months.’” (Emphasis added).

But what does Aaron say when the Atlanta Braves had a pre-game ceremony Tuesday night prior to the game? (He was given a standing ovation as he strode to the podium Tuesday night, by the way.) Does he step to the mike and thank those “deep South” fans then who cheered in ‘74 and the fans now who cheered him? Does he talk about the game which he loved and gave so much of his life to?

No.

Sadly, Aaron chose the occasion to race bait and jerk politics into the mix when it had nothing to do with his great accomplishment. Instead Aaron chose to disgrace himself with the following buffoonish statements from the podium:

• “Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated.”*
•  Regarding race relations and civil rights, Aaron continued “"We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods”*
• Mr. Aaron apparently saved some racist letters he got for breaking Ruth’s record in ’74 “to remind myself that we are not that far removed from [that time]. If you think that, you are fooling yourself. A lot of things have happened in this country but we have so far to go. There’s not a whole lot that has changed.” He said he only has to look to the baseball fields nowadays for proof. “When I first started playing, you had a lot of black players in the major leagues,” he said…. Now you don’t have any. (7.7 percent of big-leaguers last season). So what progress have we made? You try to understand, but we’re going backward.”**

Really? Seriously? Does he not know that the Democrats control the executive branch of our country’s government (President), half the legislative branch and the judicial branch is stacked with liberal judges from top to bottom, to say nothing of how sold out to their role of Liberal Propaganda Ministry the “mainstream” press is anymore. And he has the gall to blame the failures of Obama’s failings as a president on the Republicans? How about blaming Obama for Obama’s policies? 

The inference to the KKK in Aaron’s insults is all but impossible to miss when he says the GOP now “wear neckties and starched shirts." Is he kidding us? Can you imagine if a conservative white guy had said something that racially charged? But is he really expecting us to believe that anyone who is a registered Republican and/or who opposes Obama does so because they’re a clandestine KKK member? He expects us to believe that a non-black person cannot oppose Obama for reasons like his policies are socialist and in some ways, communist? That we can’t oppose him because he doesn’t have respect for Constitutional process requirements in attempting to implement these “pink” or “red” policies (as they would’ve been known in the past) and disregards these procedures – aka the law – every chance he gets?

And has he even seen any kind of professional baseball game in the past 20 years? There’s a whole bunch of minority players – black and Hispanic and even Asians – these days. Where has Hank Aaron been? Does he seriously expect us to believe this presence is due to racism? And on the part of whites and the KKK? While it is true, the percentage of black players has been declining since 2004, it hasn’t been due to any racism I can see in the demographic stats. Instead it’s been because the % of Hispanic and Asian players has been steadily increasing.*** (Gee, I thought superior talent put athletes onto team rosters in major league sports anymore. Period. Silly me.)

It’s obvious that Hank Aaron has no concept of KKK history and founding – in that this racist terror organization was founded and conducted by Southern Democrats. “Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks…. …the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s.”****

Tragically, apparently one of Hank’s old Louisville Sluggers has more objectivity and common sense and tolerance than he does. How sad to see a great American sports hero stoop to such uncalled for race baiting and political excuse making.

If there’s any “color” issues at the cause of why America’s first black president has been a dismal failure thus far it’s because his politics and policies are pink and red and that he and his cronies – apparently like Aaron now – aren’t afraid to throw race into the mix as the excuse for everything. 

*Aaron, H. (8 April, 2014) as quoted on cbs.com, Hank Aaron compares Republicans who oppose Obama to KKK, Retrieved 10 April, 2014 fromhttp://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24519807/hank-aaron-compares-republicans-who-oppose-obama-to-kkk

**Aaron, H. as quoted by Chumley, C. (8 April, 2014) The Washington Times, Hank Aaron suggests GOP is modern-day KKK, Retrieved 10 April, 2014 fromhttp://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/8/hank-aaron-modern-bigots-wear-starched-shirts-and-/#ixzz2yV2Vt6rV

***Amour, M. and Levitt, D. (Unk.) Society for American Baseball Research, Retrieved 10 April, 2014 from http://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/baseball-demographics-1947-2012

****History.com Staff (2009) History.com, Ku Klux Klan, A+E Networks, Retrieved 10 April, 2014 from http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan