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Hank Aaron‘s closest friends and teammates joined to pay their respects to the late baseball legend on Tuesday … with the Atlanta Braves hosting an emotional memorial service.
Hammerin’ Hank — who famously finished his career with 755 home runs — died last Friday of natural causes.
Atlanta Braves
Names like Chipper Jones, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Marquis Grissom spoke at the ceremony in person.
Chipper told the story about how Hank told the Braves to draft him back in the day.
“Y’all better draft that Jones boy. I’ll never forget that,” Jones regaled … “That comment must carry some weight.”
Jones added, “I respected the man so much. I wouldn’t want to disappoint him or his family.”
Rob Manfred explained why it was destiny for Hank to break Babe Ruth‘s career home run record.
“Just like Jackie Robinson was the perfect person to change our game forever, Hank Aaron was the perfect person to see the historic moment he created in 1974.”
Other stars like John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Dusty Baker, Dale Murphy, Freddie Freeman and more paid tribute via pre-recorded videos.
Glavine said, “We’ve all seen the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ … if there is a baseball team in heaven, they just picked up one heck of a clean-up hitter.”
Other Braves alum in attendance include Ron Gant, Gary Matthews and Jeff Francoeur.