The Greatest Athlete To Wear #44 is baseball’s all-time home run king Henry Aaron.

Notable #44’s- in all the numbers from 99-to 44 that we have covered so far-no number has the total amount of greats as #44 does. Hank Aaron to me is a no-brainer as far as the best but this is a crowded number. In baseball-“Mr. October” Reggie Jackson one of the great home run hitters and dramatic players I’ve ever seen. They didn’t call him “Mr. October” for nothing. Willie McCovey was one of the most powerful and deadly power hitters in the National League in the 1960’s and early 1970’s for the San Francisco Giants. Both Jackson and McCovey of course are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In basketball- Jerry West is one of the ten greatest players in NBA history. {He is my runner-up behind Aaron for best at this number} West was so great -he is the logo of the NBA. The Ice-Man George Gervin was one of the great NBA scorers of his time. Dan Issel was an outstanding ABA-NBA center. All of those guys are basketball Hall of Famers. In football John Riggins and LeRoy Kelly are Hall of Fame running backs. Dick Lebeau was one of the top defensive backs of the 1960’s. He is in the Hall of Fame. In hockey- Chris Pronger is one of the greatest defenseman in recent times. A sure Hall of Famer when he is eligible.

The Greatest Athlete To Wear #44 is Henry Aaron. Aaron is one of the greatest players in baseball history. He was consistently great during his entire career. He wasn’t the most exciting player. His home runs were usually home runs that cleared the fence not tape-measure jobs but the end results were just the same as Ruth, Mays, Williams, DiMaggio. He didn’t get his due in publicity until he was at the end of his career and chasing and then beating the Ruth home run record. To me the record is still Aaron’s. Bonds totals aren’t legit.  Aaron’s career stats are mind boggling. He ended up with 755 home runs, 3771 hits. a .305 lifetime average, he had 2297 RBI’s. He was a 25 time All-Star.