Aaron not impressed with home-run obsession
Hank Aaron, baseball’s second all-time leader in home runs, is not impressed with the current obsession players have with hitting the long ball.
Hammerin’ Hank clubbed 755 home runs during his career, thus earning himself that nickname, but his intentions were never to go out and constantly hit home runs and he has criticised the current crop of major league players for not understanding the concept of batting.
"I don't think they understand the role of what they need to be doing," Aaron told The Associated Press.
"I'm not saying all of them, but I think some players need to understand that they're never going to hit 50 home runs or 45 home runs [a year]. They've got to learn how to hit the ball to the opposite field and do the little things to help their ballclub win championships."
Aaron might be pointing towards the high increase in number of strikeouts batters now tend to accumulate - Arizona’s Mark Reynolds being the chief culprit, striking out a record 223 times in 2009.
Aaron also expressed his displeasure at the way players conduct themselves in their private lives and says he tries to teach the young players good moral values.
"The ones that think that they can have a shortcut in life, that's when they're going to get themselves in trouble, no matter who you are," he said.
"No one can tell me that you can consistently hit 60 and 70 homers, because the league is not made that way. This is the big leagues and every team has the best players they can. If you hit 30 home runs, that's fine, but don't think that you will hit 70 home runs because there is no shortcut. Eventually, things are going to catch up with you,” he added.
He held the career record for home runs from 1974 until 2007 and even with all the negativity surrounding Barry Bonds and his alleged steroid use, Aaron has refused to be drawn into the debate always choosing to remain silent and even recorded a video congratulating Bonds when he broke the home run record.
However Aaron does comment on other aspects of baseball and is not happy with the amount of time games take in the modern era.
"It bothers me one inning can last, I don't know, 25 minutes or 30 minutes, when they keep bringing relief pitchers out and the catchers keep going out talking. That bothers me more than anything,” he said
"They're supposed to be in the batters' box and be ready to hit," he said. "And the pitchers ought to be ready to pitch."
He even went on to voice his displeasure about the economic imbalance in baseball and has called for a more level playing field.
"I think the imbalance as far as the structure of finance is concerned -- I think that it should be a little more level. I'd like to see the players, the union and everybody get along a little bit more.
“If you talk to players, they're angry with the management. If you talk to the owners, they are angry with the union. It's just not enough unity there,” he said.
If you listen to what Aaron says a lot of it makes sense and if baseball really wants to improve its image and level the playing field, listening one of the all-time greats wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
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