Hank Aaron is a baseball icon. Forty years ago he broke Babe Ruth’s all-time homerun record of 714. He ended his career with a total of 755. Barry Bonds surpassed Aaron’s record with a total of 762. Since there are claims that Bonds was “juiced,” the record is viewed as suspect.

When Aaron was getting close to Ruth’s record, the racists came out similar to the way they did when Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier in 1945. They wrote nasty letters to him. Aaron says he still has them in his attic.

After hearing about the racist attacks on Robinson and Aaron, a majority of Americans felt great sympathy for them and cheered them on. The sport of baseball was changed forever.

Hank Aaron is spoiling that sentiment with his recent remarks about Republicans who he claims are not much different from the KKK because of their opposition to President Obama who is black.

Here are some of his comments:

• “Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated.”
• “The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”
• “To remind myself that we are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record. If you think that, you are fooling yourself. A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There’s not a whole lot that has changed.”

Before I go on, I want to point out that Hank Aaron’s net worth is around $25 million. “Aaron now owns Hank Aaron BMW of south Atlanta in Union City, Georgia, where he gives an autographed baseball with every car sold. Aaron also owns Mini, Land Rover, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda dealerships throughout Georgia, as part of the Hank Aaron Automotive Group.”

I guess he’s right. There’s not a whole lot that has changed. Give me a break.

Let’s get something straight. My opposition to President Obama is over his policies and his executive overreaching. It has nothing to do with his race. There are any number of black men who would make great presidents, and I other conservatives would vote for these men because of their policies not their race.

Of course, for people like Aaron, these black men aren’t real black men. They are Uncle Toms and can’t qualify as black when it comes to politics because they are not in the oppression business.

Where was Aaron’s type of outrage when Ronald Reagan and George H. and George W. Bush were president and were being attacked by Democrats and liberals? Aaron needs to go back and read some of the vitriol that was written and said about these white presidents.

Here’s another comment from Aaron:

“When I first started playing, you had a lot of black players in the major leagues. Now, you don’t have any (7.7% of big-leaguers last season). So what progress have we made? You try to understand, but we’re going backward.”

Who’s to blame for these numbers? White people? Who’s keeping blacks from playing baseball? Nobody.

For whatever reason, black athletes have turned to football and basketball. The majority of players in this year’s national college basketball championship game are black. The University of Connecticut has 12 black and 3 white players. This works out to 80 percent black players.

In the NBA, blacks dominate with 78% even though they make up only 13% of the population.

Blacks also dominate in the NFL with 67% of players on the roster.

Who’s watching these mostly black basketball and football players participate in their sport? Mostly white people!

If Aaron has a beef with what’s going on in baseball, he needs to recognize that while baseball is still a white man’s game (62%), Latinos and Hispanics make up 27% of the players. I don’t hear him saying anything about this since he might sound like a racist.

Baseball would love to have more black players, but the unfortunate thing is, most blacks aren’t interested.

Whatever goodwill Hank Aaron had with me, it’s over. It’s time for Hank Aaron to apologize. And if you’re in the Atlanta area and looking for a new car, check out who owns the dealership before you buy.