ATLANTA – Brian Snitker swallowed his tears as he remembered Hank Aaron’s affection for those who lacked his unparalleled talent on the baseball field.
During his career after playing the Atlanta Braves’ corporate system, the Hammer had a penchant for looking beyond the can’t-miss outlook.
“He always wanted to push a player forward, and he preferred that it wasn’t the so-called bonus babies,” said Snitker, who has been leading the Braves since 2016 and got his start in the dugout thanks to Aaron. “He wanted to get that miller, the man who over-accomplished.”
Snitker was one of those who spoke Tuesday at a memorial service in honor of Aaron, who died of natural causes last week at the age of 86.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and former Braves outfielder Marquis Grissom were among those speaking at the ceremony, which was held in front of a small, socially distant crowd – including Aaron’s widow, Billye, and other family members – in the hall right behind home plate at Truist Park.
The comments were delivered in an exhibit known as Monument Garden, which prominently features a statue of Aaron supplying the swing that produced 755 homers.
Others sent videotaped tributes, including Baseball Hall of Famers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, one-time Aaron teammate and current Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker, reigning National League MVP Freddie Freeman, and former Braves Great Dale Murphy, who back-to- back MVP awards in 1980.
Aaron’s famous No. 44 was painted in the sleeping grass of the midfield. Braves chairman Terry McGuirk noted the unusually warm weather in January – the temperature soared into the upper 60s – as a mark from above in honor of one of the game’s greatest icons.
In view of the 10 Baseball Hall of Famers who died in the past year, Manfred said that Aaron “belongs on the Mount Rushmore of our sport. He stood – on and off the field – above all others.”
Most memories focused on Aaron’s humility and the impact he made after he retired as a player in 1976. Few spoke of being the one who famously overshadowed Babe Ruth’s home run record, or the unprecedented, two-decade streak of enduring excellence that helped establish several other traits that still stand today.
Snitker recalled being a low-profile minor leaguer who was given a chance at another calling when Aaron offered him his first managerial job with the Anderson Braves, a Class A Sally League team, in 1982.
“The reason I’m here today is because of Hank Aaron,” Snitker said, pausing to keep his composure.
Snitker toiled in minor league obscurity during most of his coaching and management career before finally getting the call to become a Braves skipper at the age of 60. 2018.
“I’ll miss the times he came by, drop by my office and we could just sit and talk,” Snitker said. “I will miss the friend and mentor I had in my life.”
Jones recalled how Aaron prompted the Braves to select him with the # 1 overall pick in the 1990 amateur draft, when many considered pitcher Todd Van Poppel the lead candidate.
“Hank was instrumental in becoming the Atlanta Brave,” said Jones. “The Braves decision-makers’ room was divided as to who they were going to take with their first choice. As legendary scout Paul Snyder once told me, the vote came to Hank. He paused, looked at everyone in the room and said: “You better prescribe Jones’s boy.” I will never forget that. That comment must weigh heavily. “
Van Poppel didn’t do much in the big league and finished with a 40-52 record. Jones spent his entire career with the Braves and was shot in Cooperstown in 2018.
“His swing, his smile, his mind. They were all beautiful.”
Chipper Jones, Braves Hall of Fame third baseman
Jones said he once asked Aaron – who played in an era with such dominant pitchers as Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal – if he was ever intimidated at the plate.
He said, ‘Chipper, I’m not afraid of anyone when I have a bat in my hand,’ said Jones with a smile.
According to the former Braves third baseman, Aaron could be summed up in one word.
Beautiful.
“His swing, his smile, his mind,” Jones said. “They were all beautiful.”
A private funeral service will be held for Aaron on Wednesday. He will be buried in the historic South-View Cemetery, the city’s oldest black cemetery, where he will be buried alongside civil rights leaders such as John Lewis and Julian Bond.
The Braves plan to honor Aaron next season. McGuirk announced the first of those initiatives: a $ 1 million donation to establish the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, which will work to increase minority participation among players, managers, coaches and front office staff.
That was an issue that Aaron had been interested in all his life. He often criticized the lack of black managers and general managers in Major League Baseball. He was concerned that fewer black people were playing the game.
The Braves’ donation will be doubled by $ 500,000 each from MLB and the players association.
Manfred pointed to a “strong desire to continue the good work he has done throughout his life, especially by encouraging the participation of minorities in baseball.”
Grissom said he will always remember the advice Aaron gave him during his college days at Florida A&M, when the team was given an impromptu tour of Hammer’s Atlanta home on their way to a game in North Carolina.
“If you get the chance, do your best,” Grissom recalled Aaron saying. ‘Those words have stayed with me. They lit a fire in me that is still burning. ‘