Aaron Was Simply Aaron

For a stretch of the 1960s, the Dodgers had the two most feared arms in the National League. One was a left-hander whose fastball seemed to rise and whose curve seemed to vanish. The other was a sidearming right-hander who believed part of the plate belonged to him and made sure hitters knew it.

Most hitters were happy just to survive them. Hank Aaron had other ideas.

Against Koufax, Aaron walked more often than he struck out. Against Drysdale, a pitcher who held the league to a .645 OPS over his career, Aaron posted a .925, almost exactly his career mark. Big D was the pitcher Aaron faced more than any other, 249 times in all, and it barely moved the needle. Aaron was simply Aaron.

And after all that, when Aaron talked about the best pitchers he ever faced, he still ranked Koufax number one.

That's the thing about 755. It wasn't built on the soft spots in the schedule. It was built against Hall of Famers, night after night, by a man who never let the name on the mound change his swing.