Home Run Hero Jessica Morrison Crabtree Publishing Company Hank Aaron HOME RUN HERO By Jessica Morrison Crabtree Publishing Company www.crabtreebooks.com Crabtree Publishing Company www.crabtreebooks.com Author:Jessica Morrison Photographs and reproductions: Publishing plan research and development: Corbis: Bettmann Archive: page 41 (main); Bettmann Archive: page 65 Sean Charlebois, Reagan Miller Flickr Creative Commons: page 103 Crabtree Publishing Company Getty Images: Dave Martin: page 15; National Baseball Hall of Fame: page 35; Rogers Photo Archive: page 39; Richard Meek: page 55; Transcendental Editors:Mark Sachner, Lynn Peppas Graphics: page 63; R. Bennett: page 79; Herb Scharfman: page 85 Proofreader:Wendy Scavuzzo Public domain: front cover (main); page 4 (inset); page 30; page 31; page 33; Indexer:Wendy Scavuzzo page 37; page 38; page 45 (all); page 48 (right); page 67 (inset); page 73; Editorial director:Kathy Middleton page 74 (all); page 75 (all); page 77 (inset); page 86 (right); page 93 (inset) Photo researcher:Ruth Owen Shutterstock: front cover (background); page 4 (background); page 6; page 7 Designer:Alix Wood (background right); page 8; page 9 (background); page 12; page 13; Production coordinator:Margaret Amy Salter page 14; pages 16-17; page 22; page 23; page 24; page 25; page 32; page 36; Production: Kim Richardson page 40; page 41 (right); page 42; page 43; page 48 (left); page 52; page 56; Prepress technician:Margaret Amy Salter page 57; page 58; page 60; page 61; page 62; page 66; page 67 (background); page 68; page 69 (background); page 72; page 76; page 77 (background); page 82; page 83; page 84; page 85 (background); page 86 (left); page 92; Written, developed, and produced by page 93 (background); page 96; page 98; page 99; page 101; page 102 Water Buffalo Books Water Buffalo Books: page 1; page 7 (top); page 46; page 47; page 53; page 69 (left); page 95 (top); page 97 Publisher’s note: Wikipedia (public domain): page 5; page 7 (bottom); page 9 (main); page 11; All quotations in this book come from original page 15 (bottom); page 21; page 29; page 49; page 51; page 71; page 89; sources and contain the spelling and grammatical page 91; page 95 (bottom) inconsistencies of the original text. Some quotations Cover:When 18-year-old Hank Aaron first stepped onto the train in Mobile that may also contain terms that may be considered would to take him to his dreams, he had no idea how his life would turn out. His inappropriate or offensive. The use of such terms career in baseball spanned the generation that saw the United States move from is for the sake of preserving the historical and literary segregation, through the civil rights movement, to an era of greater understanding. accuracy of the sources and should not be seen as Revered by fans and reviled by bigots, Hank Aaron was determined to leave a endorsing the use of such terms. legacy that was more than just “Baseball’s Greatest Hitter.” Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morrison, J. A. (Jessica A.), 1984- Morrison, Jessica. Hank Aaron : home run hero / Jessica Morrison. Hank Aaron : home run hero / Jessica Morrison. p. cm. -- (Crabtree groundbreaker biographies) (Crabtree groundbreaker biographies) Includes index. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-7787-2547-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- Issued also in an electronic format. ISBN 978-0-7787-2538-1 (reinforced library binding : alk. ISBN 978-0-7787-2538-1 (bound).--ISBN 978-0-7787-2547-3 (pbk.) paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4271-9470-1 (electronic (pdf)) 1. Aaron, Hank, 1934---Juvenile literature. 2. Baseball players--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. 1. Aaron, Hank, 1934- --Juvenile literature. 2. Baseball players- 3. African American baseball players--Biography--Juvenile -United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. 3. African American literature. I. Title. II. Series. baseball players--Biography--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series: Crabtree groundbreaker biographies GV865.A25M665 2011 796.357092--dc22 [B] GV865.A25M67 2011 j796.357092 C2010-903034-6 2010018111 Crabtree Publishing Company Printed in China/082010/FC20100531 www.crabtreebooks.com 1-800-387-7650 Copyright © 2011 CRABTREE PUBLISHING COMPANY. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Crabtree Publishing Company. In Canada: We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities. Published in Published in Published in Published in Canada the United States the United Kingdom Australia Crabtree Publishing Crabtree Publishing Crabtree Publishing Crabtree Publishing 616 Welland Ave. PMB 59051 Maritime House 386 Mt. Alexander Rd. St. Catharines, Ontario 350 Fifth Avenue, 59th Floor Basin Road North, Hove Ascot Vale (Melbourne) L2M 5V6 New York, New York 10118 BN41 1WR VIC 3032 Contents Chapter 1 Two Homers, Two Moments in History............4 Chapter 2 Big Dreams in A Small Town............................11 Chapter 3 Movin’ On Up........................................................29 Chapter 4 The All-Around Brave …....................................51 Chapter 5 A Change of Scenery— and Bearing Down on the Babe.......................71 Chapter 6 Swinging Away at Fastballs and Bigotry......91 Chronology...................................................................................104 Glossary........................................................................................106 Further Information....................................................................108 Index.............................................................................................110 About the Author........................................................................112 4 Chapter 1 Two Homers, Two Moments in History On September 23, 1957, young Henry (Hank) Aaron stepped up to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the 11th. Focusing on the ball in Cardinal pitcher Billy Muffett’s hand, Hank ignored the screaming Eventually, Hank became the major- league all-time leader in home runs. fans. As the ball sailed his way, he readied himself and swung. With that swing, he hit the 109th home run of his big-league career. But it was much more than that. After a tense fight to the finish, that blast won the game and the National League pennant for the Milwaukee Braves. For the first time in its history in Milwaukee, the team was off to the World Series. Hammerin’ Hank had no idea what would be in store for him, but he knew he would come out swinging. Opposite: Hank Aaron's 1958 baseball card. 5 Troubled Times T That same day, a group of African-American HE children tried without success to enter all- C white Little Rock Central High School in Little OLOR Rock, Arkansas. These nine students simply wanted an education, but they were refused at L INE the door. The next day, they would be escorted by U.S. National Guard troops ordered into Major League Little Rock by the U.S. government. These Baseball has never armed escorts were needed to protect the kids had an official from violence at the hands of an angry mob of policy banning white people who were determined to keep African-Americans. black kids out of all-white Little Rock Central. But nearly all of organized baseball (the major leagues The Toast of the Town and their minor- Aaron would win the 1957 National League league affiliates) Most Valuable Player award, and the Braves had an “unwritten” went on to defeat the American League’s New rule excluding York Yankees in a thrilling seven-game World black players from Series. Eventually, Hank became the major- the late 1800s league all-time leader in home runs (755), runs through 1946. batted in (2,297), extra-base hits (1,477), and That was the year total bases (6,856). That day, however, ten that the Brooklyn years after Jackie Robinson had broken the Dodgers signed color line in big-league baseball with the Jackie Robinson. Brooklyn Dodgers, Henry Aaron was carried The terms “color off the field by his ecstatic teammates, white line” and “color and black alike. At the same time that Little barrier,” which apply to any Rock was erupting in racial hatred, Hank exclusion of Aaron became the toast of Milwaukee. people on the basis of race, have Some Hard Truths become a part of Sixteen years later, the Braves had moved from the sport’s historic Milwaukee to Atlanta. Hank Aaron was still record—and its hitting home runs—a lot of them—now for the vocabulary. 6 Hank Aaron counts the home run he hit on September 23, 1957, to give the Braves their first pennant in Milwaukee, as the most prized of the 755 he hit during his legendary career. He later described being carried off the field by his teammates (including Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn, shown with Hank above) as “my shiningest hour.” He told of the moment as one that would remain forever frozen in time for him: “I can’t tell you who was carrying me because you know something? I don’t remember that at all. But I remember looking up at the clock and seeing 11:34.” T M F T WO OMENTS ROZEN IN IME During that same 24-hour period, another moment became frozen in time. That moment was captured by a photo that would become a symbol of racial hatred in the United States at the dawn of the civil rights era. At that moment, Elizabeth Eckford found herself dropped off a block away from Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High School. Cut off from the other African-American students in her group, Elizabeth endured the taunts and threats screamed at her by the all-white crowd around her (below) as she calmly and purposefully walked to school with her head held high. 7 Atlanta Braves. Unlike Milwaukee in 1957, Atlanta in 1973 was a place where baseball’s segregationist past was more in evidence than in the North. As he approached Babe Ruth’s all-time record of 714 homers, it was Hank, not high school kids, who needed an armed bodyguard this time. Throughout most of the 1973 season, Hank received thousands of letters a day. Most of the mail he received consisted of hate mail, some of it (like that shown on the page opposite), containing death threats against him and members of his family. Hank spent most of that season cut off from his teammates, surrounded by bodyguards, unable to bask in the glory of his assault on the home run record. Despite all this, Hank finished the 1973 season with a .301 batting average, 96 RBIs (runs batted in), and 40 homers—leaving him one short of tying Ruth. Beating the Babe On the opening day of the 1974 season, Hank Aaron hit home run number 714 to tie the Babe’s home run record. It had been a long and draining road, and he had almost become accustomed to the hate mail that was piling up. As Hank said, “There’s no way to measure the effect that those letters had on me, but I like to think that every one ... added another home run to my total.” Just a few days later, on April 8, 1974, Hank socked number 715. He knew he would never have another moment like it. But he also knew his work, and his legacy, were just beginning. 88