Hank Aaron made one last visit to the place where he hit 715 runs at home.
On Wednesday, after a three-hour funeral attended by two former presidents, a former baseball commissioner and an icon of the civil rights struggle, Aaron’s coffin float left the boulevard that bears his name and headed for the site. where Atlanta -Fulton County Stadium was once found.
There, Aaron broke the record at home on April 8, 1974, passing Babe Ruth.
The stadium was demolished with explosives in 1997, when the Braves moved across the street to play at Turner Field. The old stadium was left as a parking lot for the new one.
But the old park’s outer isolation fence remains, along with a modest sign in the parking lot, marking exactly where Aaron’s record ball passed over the wall in the left field.
Several fans used to stop at the site, where there is a small fence section and a baseball sign, which reads “Hank Aaron, Home Run Number 715”. The number of visitors has risen since Friday, when Aaron died at the age of 86.
The wall is now covered with flowers, letters and souvenirs.
And the funeral procession of the expeloter passed, on the way to the funeral at the South-View cemetery.
“His whole life has been a home,” former President Bill Clinton said during the opening ceremony. – Now, he’s done wandering the bases.
Bud Selig, who has been a Major League Baseball commissioner for more than two decades, said one of his fondest memories was going to Milwaukee County Stadium as a fan to watch the home run that sent the Braves at the 1957 World Series.
“The image of the great Aaron, delirious with happiness, when he was lifted on the shoulders of his teammates to leave the field, is imprinted in his memory,” said Selig.
Only about 50 people attended the ceremony at Friendship Baptist Church, due to restrictions due to the pandemic. Others sent video messages, as in the case of another former president, Jimmy Carter, aged 96.
Andrew Young, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s best collaborators during the civil rights movement, said Aaron helped transform his adopted city into one of America’s most influential.
Young was mayor of Atlanta.