Hall of Fame outfielder Hank Aaron, one of baseball’s most iconic sluggers who held Major League Baseball’s cherished career home runs record for 33 years, died on Friday at his Georgia home at the age of 86.
The Atlanta Braves, the team where Aaron spent all but two of his 23 major league seasons, confirmed the franchise icon's passing in a statement.
"We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank," said Braves chairman Terry McGuirk. "He was a beacon for our organisation first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts. His incredible talent and resolve helped him achieve the highest accomplishments, yet he never lost his humble nature."
Aaron was named to a record 21 All-Star teams and won two National League batting titles and the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1957, but his most notable accomplishment came near the end of his distinguished career. On April 8, 1974, the then 40-year-old homered off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Al Downing at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium to surpass Babe Ruth's MLB record of 714 home runs – a mark that had stood since 1935.
The achievement was met with both fanfare and vitriol in some cases, with Aaron often subjected to overt racism in the form of hate mail and even death threats from those who objected to his pursuit of Ruth's record.
Following a two-year stint with the Milwaukee Brewers, Aaron retired in 1976 with 755 homers. Though Barry Bonds would later exceed that number in 2007, "Hammerin' Hank" still ranks as MLB's all-time leader with 2,297 RBIs, 6,856 total bases and 1,477 extra-base hits.
"Hank Aaron is near the top of everyone's list of all-time great players. His monumental achievements as a player were surpassed only by his dignity and integrity as a person," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
"Hank symbolised the very best of our game, and his all-around excellence provided Americans and fans across the world with an example to which to aspire.
"His career demonstrates that a person who goes to work with humility every day can hammer his way into history -- and find a way to shine like no other."
Born in Mobile, Alabama. In 1934, Aaron broke into professional baseball at age 17 as a shortstop with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League in 1952 and had his contract purchased by the then-Boston Braves shortly afterward. He reached the majors in 1954 with the Braves then having moved to Milwaukee, and won his first NL batting crown two years later after hitting .328 in 153 games.
Aaron followed up with a sensational 1957 campaign in which he led the majors with 44 homers and 132 RBIs while batting .322 to claim his only NL MVP. The Brewers capped that season by defeating the New York Yankees in seven games for the franchise's lone World Series title in Milwaukee.
Aaron would lead the NL in both homers and RBIs three more times during his career and won another batting title in 1959. He also won three straight Gold Gloves from 1958-60 and completed his career with 3,771 hits, third in MLB history behind Pete Rose and Ty Cobb.
One of only four players in MLB history with 600 homers and 3,000 hits (Willie Mays, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez), Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1982. He was named on nearly 98 percent of ballots.
"Henry Louis Aaron wasn't just our icon, but one across Major League Baseball and around the world," McGuirk added.
Aaron returned to the Braves as an executive following his playing career and was further honoured by MLB in 1999 with the establishment of the Hank Aaron Award, given to the top offensive performer in both the American and National Leagues.
A strong advocate of civil rights, Aaron received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2002.
Aaron joins a list of several Hall of Fame members who have passed away in the past calendar year, a group that includes Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, Tom Seaver, Tommy Lasorda and Don Sutton.
Niekro and Sutton also had extensive ties to the Braves, as Niekro pitched 20 seasons for the franchise and Sutton spent several years with the team as a television and radio analyst.
Meadows' slam in ninth lifts Tigers past Padres
The San Diego Padres were one strike away from padding their lead atop the NL wild-card standings.
The Detroit Tigers' Parker Meadows changed that with one swing of the bat.
Down 3-0 with two outs and two strikes in the top of the ninth inning, Meadows hit a grand slam to stun the Padres and send the Tigers to a thrilling 4-3 win on Thursday.
Parker hit a 101 mph four-seam fastball off Robert Suarez that travelled 361 feet and landed just over the short left-field fence in San Diego.
San Diego (80-62) lost for the first time in four games and its lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks shrunk to just one-half game for the NL's top wild-card spot.
Jurickson Profar and Xander Bogaerts each homered for the Padres, who end the regular season with a three-game series at Arizona.
Meadows' homer was just his sixth of the season and lifted the Tigers (71-70) back over .500 and within five games of the Royals for the AL's final wild-card spot.
Braves lose, now tied for final NL wild card spot
The Atlanta Braves suffered a 3-1 loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies to drop into a tie for the league's final wild-card berth with the idle New York Mets.
Atlanta and New York have identical 76-64 records with 22 games remaining.
The Braves, who got their lone run on Ramón Laureano's RBI single in the first inning, managed just five hits with Orlando Arcia's second inning-double the only one going for extra bases in the finale with the Rockies (52-89).
Colorado's Michael Toglia and Ezequiel Tovar each hit solo homers off Atlanta starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez, who gave up three other hits while striking out 11 without a walk in his six innings of work.
Rockies starter Austin Gomber went eight innings, yielding a run and five hits without issuing a walk while striking out six.
Phillies push winning streak to five
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 5-2 to extend their winning streak to five games and increase their lead atop the NL East to eight games.
Bryson Stott hit an RBI single in the first inning and a long solo homer during Philadelphia's four-run sixth inning.
Kody Clemens knocked in a pair of runs with a double in the sixth and later came around to score on a wild pitch.
Ranger Suarez gave up three hits over five scoreless innings for the Phillies (84-56), who have won 10 of 12.
The Marlins (52-88) scored their first run in the seventh on an RBI single by Jesús Sánchez and plated their final run an inning later on a throwing error by Clemens.
Giants, 3B Chapman agree to 6-year, $151 million contract
Third baseman Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract on Wednesday night.
Chapman, 31, will earn $25 million each season from 2025 to 2030 and additionally will receive a $1 million signing bonus in 2025.
He joined the Giants as a free agent in March, agreeing to a contract guaranteeing $54 million over three seasons. That deal gave him the right to opt out after 2024 and 2025. It included a $2 million signing bonus and a $16 million salary for 2024.
Chapman is hitting .247 and leads the Giants with 22 homers, 69 RBIs, 90 runs and 33 doubles. He is a four-time Gold Glove winner and has a .241 career average with 177 homers and 495 RBIs for Oakland (2017-21), Toronto (2022-23) and the Giants.
An All-Star in 2019, Chapman hit a career-high 36 home runs for Oakland and finished sixth in the American League MVP voting. He was traded to Toronto in March 2022.
MLB: Imanaga, 2 relievers combine on no-hitter as Cubs rout Pirates
Shota Imanaga threw seven no-hit innings and two relievers finished a combined no-hitter in the Chicago Cubs’ 12-0 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Imanaga struck out seven and walked two over seven innings. He threw 66 of 95 pitches for strikes.
The left-hander, who threw a season-high 103 pitches against St. Louis on June 15, needed 25 pitches to get through the second inning.
Nate Pearson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Porter Hodge a perfect ninth in the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter, the first since Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel combined to hold Los Angeles hitless at Dodger Stadium on June 24, 2021.
This was the fourth no-hitter this season after complete-game efforts by Houston’s Ronel Blanco against Toronto on April 1, San Diego’s Dylan Cease at Washington on July 25 and San Francisco’s Blake Snell at Cincinnati on April 2.
Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong each had three hits, including a home run, and three RBIs for the Cubs, who collected 17 hits to win for the seventh time in nine games. Cody Bellinger also homered and Nico Hoerner added three hits.
Domingo Germán, who pitched a perfect game last year for the Yankees against Oakland, allowed seven runs and nine hits in three innings.
Winker’s slam powers streaking Mets
Jesse Winker hit a first-inning grand slam and the Mets’ bullpen pitched five scoreless innings in their seventh straight victory, 8-3 over the reeling Boston Red Sox.
The Mets completed a three-game sweep of Boston and have won 14 of their last 19 games to pull within a half-game of Atlanta for the third NL wild-card spot.
New York had just four hits after Winker’s first-inning slam against Tanner Houck, but relievers Alex Young, Huascar Brazobán and Danny Young induced inning-ending double plays in the fifth, sixth and seventh before Phil Maton retired Masataka Yoshida on a liner to strand runners at the corners in the eighth.
Francisco Lindor led off the game with a single and added a double in the fifth inning, extending his hitting streak to 15 games, tying the career high he set with Cleveland in 2018. He has also reached base in a career-best 33 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors.
Jarren Duran had two hits and an RBI for Boston, which lost its fifth in a row to drop to .500 for the first time since June.
Pham’s first homer with Royals the difference
Tommy Pham hit his first home run for Kansas City, a tiebreaking, three-run drive in a four-run fourth inning, and the Royals stopped a season-high, seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
Seth Lugo allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. He is one win behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who are tied for the major league lead. Lugo is 11-1 with a 1.40 ERA in 15 starts with four days’ rest.
Kansas City closed within one percentage point of Minnesota for the second AL wild card spot. The Royals and Twins are both 4 1/2 games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland.
During the seven-game skid, the Royals had scored three runs or fewer in six straight games, the team’s longest such streak since Aug. 15-21, 2022. The Royals had scored two runs or fewer in five straight, their longest span since June 7-13, 2018.
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