...hitting #715 off the Dodgers' Al Downing in Atlanta.

You have to understand when i was growing up MLB only had 2 x 8 team leagues. The Angles and Astros, Mets and Blue Jays were added in the 60's. As a kid, we had our favorite teams and players, but the players were not necessarily or always on our favorite teams. Henry Aaron and Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, the Cepeda Brothers and Alou Brothers, Sachel Page, Gibson, Marshal, Seaver, Spahn, Banks, Yogi Berra, Bench, Rose, Yastrzemski, Ford, were beloved by almost every kid. Sure in LA and Brooklyn the Dodgers were loaded too, Kofax, Drysdale, Sutton, Moon, Hodges, Howard, Tommy and Willie Davis, Jacky Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Roy Campanella, Roseboro, Reese, Wills...these were unbelievable players. But when I read a little blurb in a London Newspaper Sports section about Aaron's home-run, I teared up. Henry Aaron was just simply one of the greatest players that did or ever will live and not just because of his bat and gold gloves, but because he is such a gentle giant of a man in every way.

It's about time that MLB realized that the greats from every walk in baseball needed to be honored and recognized.
Now if only MLB will set aside its angst towards one of the players I hated and loved the most, Pete Rose.