Hammerin' Hank left a lasting impact on me, and the brick wall in my backyard

We all need a little Hank Aaron in our lives.

Especially in this day and age when we all seem to be at each other’s throats, looking for something to be mad at. Sadly, Hammerin’ Hank — the very definition of a baseball legend — died Friday at age 86. But his legacy lives on, like a beacon for the rest of us.

As a kid, I loved baseball — still do actually — and Hank was one of my favorites. The house I grew up in had a rather nondescript backyard. Our neighbors had a swimming pool in theirs, and I was jealous of that, especially on hot Texas summer days. But our backyard had something I used almost every day in the spring and summer.

The day I made Tommy Lasorda laugh

I became a Los Angeles Dodgers fan fairly late in life. In fact, you could probably accuse me of being a bandwagon jumper (I’m wincing just a little as I type the words). 

When the Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Oakland A's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, it was easily one of the craziest things I'd ever seen in sports. I was already a serious baseball fan, but Gibson’s homer was just so astonishing — so exhilarating — I fell in love with Kirk, the Dodgers and famous manager Tommy Lasorda right then and there.

I’ve never looked back.