Famous come to mark Aaron's 75th birthday
ATLANTA — Barry Bonds trudged back to court again to plead his innocence. Hank Aaron dined alongside a former president on his 75th birthday.
The contrast between the current and former home run kings couldn't have been more striking.
From Bill Clinton to baseball commissioner Bug Selig, the famous came together Thursday night to celebrate a landmark birthday for "Hammerin' Hank," the modest man who hit 755 homers during his Hall of Fame career.
"This means an awful lot to me," Aaron said after posing for pictures with some of his birthday guests. "It means you tried to carry yourself in such a way that people have respect for you. That's the most important thing. I don't try to do anything special. I just try to share whatever I've been able to accomplish with other people."
On the other side of the country, Bonds entered a San Francisco courtroom to plead not guilty to charges he lied when he told a grand jury he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs as he was chasing Aaron's record.
Aaron declined to discuss Bonds' legal woes, nor the perception that his record of 762 homers is tainted by allegations of drug use.
"I haven't been keeping up with it. I really haven't," Aaron said of the Bonds case. "I haven't thought about it one way or the other. Really."
Selig, a longtime friend of Aaron who watched him play when the Braves were in Milwaukee, wouldn't comment on Bonds' court case. The commissioner balked, as well, when asked whether there was any chance the baseball record book could be altered — an asterisk, perhaps? — if the former San Francisco Giants slugger is convicted on federal perjury charges.
"Well, let's not get into hypotheticals," Selig said. "This is a night to enjoy. Let's see how that all plays out."
Clinton, who dined at Aaron's table, credited him with helping to carve a path of racial tolerance that led to the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama.
"We're a different country now," Clinton said, noting the racist letters that Aaron received while chasing Ruth's mark of 715 homers, some even threatening to kill the black man if he broke a white hero's record.
"You've given us far more than we'll ever give you," Clinton told Aaron.
The former slugger said he was thrilled with Obama's election but doesn't spend much time dwelling on the past.
"I am extremely happy with what happened in the country with having a black president," he said. "I don't think about 15, 20 years ago. I don't have time to. I think about the good time I'm having now. I've got the respect of people. That's the most important thing, trying to do everything I can and do it right."
