Tonight, Barry Bonds hit his 755th home run, tying Hank Aaron’s record. Having lived in San Francisco for almost nine years, I’ve become a pretty solid Giants fan. But Bonds’s feat tonight strikes me as somewhat bittersweet, in that Hank Aaron is from my hometown of Mobile, Alabama. He had seven siblings, one of whom, Tommie Aaron, also played major league baseball. Hank played for the Mobile Black Bears, an independent Negro League team, during his junior year of high school, earning $10 per game (Wiki). A stadium in Mobile is named after him.
From Wiki:
Aaron’s consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. In addition to the home run record, Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477); and the most career total bases (6,856). He is also in the top five for career hits and runs.