Hank Aaron is known as being one of Major League Baseball’s greatest hitters. He batted .305 for his career with 3,771 hits, and 2,297 RBIs. His most famous accomplishment was the setting of the All-Time Major League Career Home Run Record by breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 715 career home runs in 1974 after having to put up with months of racist threats from extremists warning him not to break the record. Not only did he break the record but he shattered it by finishing his career with 755 home runs before retiring in 1976. This record stood until 2007 when Aaron’s home run record was broken by Barry Bonds. (Note: Aaron is still the all-time home run leader as far as I’m concerned)

However, something many fans of baseball don’t know is that Hank Aaron worked as a batting instructor and promoter for the Samsung Lions of the newly created Korean professional baseball league for a short stint during his retirement from baseball. Shortly after being inducted into the Pro-Baseball Hall of Fame in August 1982, Hank Aaron boarded a plane to South Korea to spend nearly a month in the country promoting the Samsung Lions and working as a batting instructor for their hitters:

Aaron while traveling around the country attending baseball games with the Samsung Lions held autograph sessions where children waited in long lines to meet and receive autographs from baseball’s all-time home run leader:

I would have to imagine that Hank Aaron touring around Korea, meeting Koreans, and signing autographs for kids must have been a significant experience for the people in Korea because there has probably never been a more prominent African-American to visit Korea up until this point:

Besides working as a batting instructor for the Samsung Lions and traveling around the country signing autographs Hank Aaron also took the time to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and meet with US soldiers stationed there:

Aaron was also taken to the then famous pagoda in the Joint Security Area (JSA) to take in a view of nearby North Korea:

Interestingly enough the man who escorted Aaron on his tour, commander of the JSA Lieutenant Colonel Richard A. Pack, was at the age of 12 a former batboy for the Milwaukee Braves spring training camp in Palmetto, Florida. As a kid LTC Pack had the opportunity to see Aaron participate in his first spring training with the Braves and years later attended the game that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Now here was LTC Pack leading his boyhood hero on a tour of one of the world’s most dangerous places, the Joint Security Area:

While visiting the JSA Aaron met with South Korean military policemen and judging by their uniform and gear they appeared ready to prevent any hijinks from the North Koreans during Aaron’s visit:

Aaron also met with US military policemen to include signing an autograph for Specialist James Salley:

Aaron even found time to throw out the first pitch for a softball game played in the Joint Security Area:

After visiting the JSA, Aaron continued to tour around the DMZ area and meet with soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division. After completing his tour around the 2nd Infantry Division area Hank Aaron had this to say about US forces in Korea:

“You don’t realize what a tremendous job our armed forces all through Korea are doing until you come here,” Aaron said. “It’s a tremendous job and I know a lot of people take it for granted. But I’ve always felt that wherever the presence of the U.S. is, it’s always a presence of peace.”

Hank Aaron is truly a legendary sports hero in America, but he may be an even greater man considering how he has lived his life and treated others he has been around, including the people of Korea.