Hank Aaron will be the guest editor on Life.com this week.
LIFE.com features Hank Aaron, known to many as the greatest living baseball player, as its "Guest Editor" this week, commemorating the anniversary of his last game in the major leagues. . For 23 years, Aaron put up numbers that few other players will ever approach: a record 6,856 total bases; a record 2,297 RBIs; a record 17 consecutive seasons with 150 or more hits; and, in the end, the number that matters most-755 career home runs. Barry Bonds or no Barry Bonds, for many fans, Hank Aaron remains baseball's true Home Run King.
Now, in an online exclusive, Aaron acts as a "Guest Editor" for LIFE.com, choosing a series of wonderful baseball photographs to illustrate his own career and the careers of other players -- many of them Hall of Famers, and many of them good friends -- who helped make his life in baseball (and the lives of fans who follow baseball) so rich, and so much fun, for so long. His commentary includes memories of other greats including Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson. On Robinson Aaron notes, " "He is the reason I am where I am. I was in school in Mobile, Alabama, when I heard he was going to the Dodgers, and I was so happy. I wanted to be a ballplayer myself, and I knew that what he was doing was a long way off from where I was, but I also knew somebody had to do it before I got there."