Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Is there a brief encounter or an insignificant remark that stuck with you?

I don’t have many stories of encounters with celebrities, so the ones I have tend to stick with me. Given how much of a baseball fan I am, the story I’m going to tell today has stuck with me for decades.

The time frame on this encounter is a bit blurry for me. Insisted it was around 1982 or even 1983, as I could not have been more that 8 or 9 year old – at most. It may have even been 1981. But one time, at a baseball game card show, I briefly met Hank Aaron.

For those of you not familiar with a “baseball card show” it not unlike a comical book show or an antique show. People get together to buy, sell and trade baseball cards and other sports memorabilia. They would often have former players appear to sign autographs. I’m not sure how common these card shows, or the special appearances are now – as I know shop owners will also set up “meet and greets” for their customers as well. Also, bear in mind this was over 40 years ago. My dad was heavily into collecting baseball cards just as the hobby was about to explode in the 1908s and 1990s.

The Old Man would occasionally get his own table to sell some things from his personal al collection. But this time, if I recall correctly, he was going to shop for himself. He would take me, Guillaume or Phred to the shows from time to time. This time, it was just me and the Old Man. While I enjoyed collecting baseball cards myself, the shows were a little much. The idea of spending a few hours in a hall filled with rows of baseball cards myself dealer talbes, with a bunch of guests who often embodied the stereotypical “smell, socially inept guy who lives in his parents basement” was not appealing, even to Young Rob.

I don’t recall the exact circumstances that led to me getting in line for an autograph. I believe the Old Man was in one line for one autograph and he sent me to get a separate one at the same time; as to get twice as many autographs.

I knew who Hank Aaron was even then. The magnitude of meeting the “all time Home Run King” was not lost on me. I was a little star-struck, as I believe this was my very first “celebrity encounter”.

It’s important to note here that I grew up in a relentlessly middle-class, racially-homogeneous suburb. As a young boy, I didn’t personally know any people of color. At this point in time, Hank Aaron was still an above average sized man. He was a world class athlete who was less than 19 years removed from his playing career. I remember approaching the table and shaking his hand. He had the largest hands I think I had ever seen at that point. If you look at photos of Aaron, you would see that he has a particularly dark complexion. My student would refer to him as a “dark skinned” man.

At that moment, I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of everything: being in the presence of an all-time great ballplayer, getting a few moments of his time, an autograph. I wasn’t ready for how soft-spoken he was. Even as a kid, I could tell that Hank Aaron was a very humble man.

The then- all-time homeroom king. The Hall of Fame baseball player. The last superstar to emerge from the Negro baseball leagues. The man who told us all “I don’t want you to forget Babe Ruth; I just want you to remember Henry Aaron” had every right in the world to have an ego of the size of a Third World country, and yet he was an incredibly down to earth guy.

I think that we as “normal people“ have a skewed perception of celebrities. We think that we know what our favorite musicians, TV and movie stars and athletes are like because we see them perform; which is to say that we see them at their jobs. But I can tell you that, even from that brief encounter, I had with Aaron as a young boy, he is basically the same guy I’ve seen in every interview or every TV appearance I’ve ever seen him in.

In 2007, when Barry Bonds was inching closer to, and eventually surpassing Hank Aaron‘s career home run record, Aaron made numerous television appearances. Even with the Spectre of PEDs hanging over Binds as he marched toward immortality, Hank Aaron was always very gracious. He was always very kind and supportive of Barry Bonds, at least publicly. He never spoken ill word of him. Of course, when the time finally came, and Bonds broke his record on this date in 2007, Aaron was not in attendance. He did have a pre-taped congratulatory speech for Bonds, which was played on the Jumbotron at AT&T park. But this Hank Aaron, who I saw on numerous TV interviews during the 2007 season was the same guy who shook my hand, signed an autograph for me, and briefly spoke to me all those years prior.

As the forty “celebrity gossip counter” I recall having, meeting Hank Aaron was an illuminating experience. Thankfully, this encounter didn’t leave me falsely believing that every celebrity was a nice person. At the same time, it taught me that humility was possible for all of us. Clearly, if I’m still writing about this experience more 40 years later, it left an indelible impression.l upon me.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “Rob Meets Hammerin’ Hank” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.