Revered baseball legend Hank Aaron did not succumb to the novel coronavirus as many suspected, according to the autopsy report.
Henry Louis Aaron Jr., whose place on the Mount Rushmore of baseball legends is undisputable, passed away on Jan. 22, 2021. Because he died just two weeks after taking the first of the coronavirus vaccine at the esteemed Morehouse School of Medicine on Jan. 4, many reflexively, yet erroneously, assumed it was due to a bad reaction to the vaccine.
But the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office in Atlanta concluded that the baseball demigod died in his sleep from natural causes on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, at age 86.
Aaron’s last public gesture in life was just how he lived it during his barrier-breaking and record-setting career and then during his post-playing career as a businessman, philanthropist and dignitary.
“I don’t have any qualms about it at all, you know. I feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this,” Aaron said on Jan. 4 alongside Ambassador Andrew Young and other Black luminaries as they were administered the vaccine. “It’s just a small thing that can help zillions of people in this country.”
This is why the larger-than-life Muhammad Ali proclaimed that Aaron was the only man he admired more than himself. And it is why his passing leaves a gaping hole in humanity.
“We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank,” Atlanta Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk said in a statement, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He was a beacon for our organization first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts.”
