Since February 29th, comes around every four years I thought I would take a look at what happened this day in sports history. There was no buzzer beater in basketball or a last second goal in hockey. What I did find was something significant for it's time, back in 1972, 40-years ago Hammerin' Hank Aaron became Major League Baseball's highest paid player.
He signed a three year deal with the Atlanta Braves worth $200,000.00 a year. Today his salary would be a little over one-million dollars, which would have been a bargain for a player like Hank Aaron.
When he signed his history making deal he had just turned 38 and was coming to the end of his career. Hank Aaron was 76 homeruns away from breaking Babe Ruth's long standing homerun record.
Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Even with the strides made in the Civil Rights movement during the 1960's, racism still had a strong presence in 1972. Here you have the "All-American" sport of baseball with an African-American as its highest paid player and who was on the cusp of breaking the holy grail of all baseball records. Hank Aaron would receive numerous amounts of hate mail that contained racial slurs and death threats.
"On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again."
Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Hank Aaron, Source: Hammerin' Hank (Dan Schlossberg)
Hank Aaron would go on to break Babe Ruth's homerun record in 1974. When he retired in 1976 it would not be his end in baseball, he would continue to breakdown barriers working off the field in management and front office positions.
Attached is a link to learn more about Hank Aaron. It is about the making of the 1995 Oscar nominated documentary, "Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream".