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June 12, 1952-only a local sportswriter showed up at the Eau Claire airport to greet a newly signed eighteen-year-old shortstop from Alabama toting a cardboard suitcase. "I was scared as hell," said Henry Aaron, recalling his arrival as the new recruit on the city's Class C minor league baseball team.

Forty-two years later, as Aaron approached the stadium where the Eau Claire Bears once played, an estimated five thousand people surrounded a newly raised bronze statue of a young "Hank" Aaron at bat. "I had goosebumps," he said later. "A lot of things happened to me in my twenty-three years as a ballplayer, but nothing touched me more than that day in Eau Claire." For the people of Eau Claire, Aaron's summer two years before his Major League debut with the Milwaukee Braves symbolizes a magical time, when baseball fans in a small city in northern Wisconsin could live a part of the dream. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

when no one was looking
The most important things happen when nobody is looking. It has ever been so.

Jerry Poling's winsome and poignant tale of an 18-year-old, skinny-as-a-rail African American boy from Mobile, Alabama making his break into professional baseball in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1952 rescues some of those things from the obscurity that otherwise enshrouds.

My father was a relief pitcher for the Superior (Wisconsin) Blues that year. He too was breaking into professional ball with a wicked curve ball that by some accounts had the future Hank Aaron stymied. Raymond 'Cool as a Cucumber' Baer is not mentioned in Poling's eminently readable volume. Yet the fact that Dad was on the field during some of the games that Poling narrates provides corroboration of boyhood memories of tales spun that is almost eery in its impact.

Eau Claire, like most of the decent cities that dot the heartland of this nation, was in 1952 capable of racial pettiness as well. Few whites in the industrial core of Wisconsin had met a black man. Aaron, more boy than man, walked uninvited into their lives, struggling to decide whether it was worth all that. But boy could the kid from Mobile hit a baseball.

Truth be told, Poling--a gifted, almost lyrical writer--tells more than one tale here. There is Aaron breaking a color barrier that Jackie Robinson had, for all his formidable courage, barely begun to erase. There is the pennant race in central and northern Wisconsin, won in the end by my father's Blues in spite of the hard-hitting shortstop who now bolstered the Eau Claire lineup.

There is, as well, Poling's journey with his son in more recent times to discover what remains of professional baseball in the upper Midwest. There is the tracing of the trajectory of the man who would become 'Hammerin' Hank', enigma abounding along the way.

But most of all there is the gentle probing under the rocks and topsoil that was and remains Midwestern America. Fittingly, Poling ends his chronicle by touching upon Aaron's belated phone call to Susan Hauck, the daughter of an Eau Claire family possessed of an untimely recognition that we humans are all the same, regardless of race. Aaron had held hands with young Susan, a man's black hand encasing the soft whiteness of a young woman in his, on the front porch of the Hauck home. The best of America appears in the lines with which Poling narrates the Hauck family's embrace of Henry Aaron as a man just like them.

In reading this fine piece of sportswriting, I come across the names of two Cubans teammates of my Dad about whom I heard stories as a kid: José Bustamante and Alfredo Ibáñez. I will find them one day, or their families if they are already gone, in Cuba, a country I visit frequently. I will present them with photos and newspaper clippings from the summer of '52. My pursuit, not unlike Jerry Poling's, is one of recovery, of rescue, of honoring a past that--while no one is watching--disappears from all recall.

There is gold in them thar' hills. Poling sifts for it with the confidence of a grizzled miner. Henry would go on to baseball immortality, leaving teammates and competitors like 'FiremanRay' to remember Aaron's brief, blazing ascent to glory while they themselves accommodated themselves to more ordinary altitudes.

It would all be forgotten were it not for the Jerry Polings of this world, a place in which journalism still matters because men showing up night after night to play ball for half the salary of a factory worker, Iowa field trips, extra innings in Carson Park, and a Home Run King's earliest innings once mattered.

'Still do. 'Still must.

Early Hank Aaron
The information provided prior to purchase was accurate and sufficient. The product is a great book describing the early days of the great Hank Aaron. A superior product that every baseball fan should consider adding to their collection.

Wonderfully well-written addition to baseball history
This book is incredibly well written and offers the reader insight into an early part of Hank Aaron's life, but the book is so much more than that.It also vividly describes minor league baseball and its impact on one community.It delves into race relations in one Wisconsin city in the 1950s and today.It offers story after story, engagingly told, of how baseball affected lives of individuals and how individuals had an impact on the world of baseball, often through simply accepting someone like Aaron into their homes in an era where racial tension led too many to stare rather than welcome him.Poling's book is one of the most well-written sports histories I've read; I read the book in a day as I couldn't put it down.Granted, partly I was interested in it because I went to college in Eau Claire and lived in Duluth, Minnesota, for a couple of years (another city in the Northern League he discusses).However, I really believe that even those with no ties to Wisconsin but rather a love of baseball or an admiration for Aaron as a person and a baseball player will enjoy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Baseball Digest, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1665 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Satch Davidson: the game I'll never forget: former major league umpire was behind the plate for Hank Aaron's 715th career home run and Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.
Author: Al Doyle
Publication: Baseball Digest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 64Issue: 8Page: 66(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Baseball Digest, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2007. The length of the article is 449 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hank Aaron--exhibited amazing grace in his HR pursuit.(Baseball Notes)(home run)
Author: Tracy Ringolsby
Publication: Baseball Digest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 66Issue: 6Page: 72(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Chapters: Hank Aaron, Clint Hartung, Bill Bruton, Johnny Mostil, Red Hardy, Harry Hanebrink. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 38. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: MLB Records: Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama) is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned the years 1954 through 1976. Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players." After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his major league career in 1954. (He is the last Negro league baseball player to have played in the major leagues.) He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (197576) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs. During his professional career, Aaron performed at a consistently high level for an extended period of time. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series, his one World Series victory during his career. Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14321 ... Read more

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Behind the scenes with the big league stars and a preview of this year's pennant races - lifetime statistics - fast action photographs ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 975 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 621 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world's first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains region of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. ... Read more

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Two young baseball fans can't get tickets to Henry Aaron's last game of the year, but instead they unexpectedly meet the famous athlete in person. ... Read more

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This is the lavish celebration of the life and times of the greatest baseball player who ever lived. Consisting of 350 photographs, The Babe recounts the classic rags-to-riches tale of Babe Ruth.Amazon.com Review
He was a big man, and The Babe is a big book--a four-bag celebration of the Bambino, the greatest baseball legend of them all. Lawrence S. Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times, theclassic oral history of America's national pastime in the first decades of the 20th century, weavestogether a workmanlike, often elegiac, narrative of Babe Ruth's life and career. But it is theall-star collection of photos--of the Babe in action, the Babe just hanging around being theBabe, and rare Ruth collectibles--that sends this volume where the Babe used to send highfastballs: out of the park. Hank Aaron, who sent a few out himself, pens a warm introduction tothe idol whose career home-run record he ultimately surpassed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Babe would have been proud.
If you like baseball, you will love this book.It's a "coffee table" type book that every true baseball fan needs in his/her sports library.

It comes with a Homerun Derby CD.For me, the game was a little hard to figure out because the directions are a little unclear.I'm working on it and will master it one day.

Enjoyed the book.Easy reading with great photos. ... Read more

Product Description
Focuses on the twenty-season career of Henry Aaron which culminated in the hit that beat Babe Ruth's record. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: MLB Records: Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama) is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned the years 1954 through 1976. Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players." After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his major league career in 1954. (He is the last Negro league baseball player to have played in the major leagues.) He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (197576) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs. During his professional career, Aaron performed at a consistently high level for an extended period of time. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series, his one World Series victory during his career. Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477). Hank Aaron is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14321 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Aaron
This book is a one of a kind. You don't hear the details from some random author, you get the true facts from Hank Aaron. This book was not only filled with facts, it was also very amusing. You got to hear some behind the scene stories from Hank himself. It also left you sitting on the edge of your seat. You didn't want to put it down. If you want to read a great sports book that doesn't bore you to death, this is a book for you. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from American Decades: Primary Sources, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2389 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.American Decades Primary Sources provides fresh insight into the decade's most important events, people, and issues. Entries representing a diversity of views that provide insight into the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decade. Also included are concise contextual information, notes about the author and further resources. American Decades Primary Sources includes chapters on the arts, medicine and health, media, education, world events, religion, government and politics, lifestyles and social trends, law and justice, religion, business and the economy, and sports. Included to provide unique perspectives and a wealth of understanding are first hand accounts that include oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoonsand recipes. ... Read more

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A brief biography of the Atlanta Braves' star hitter who attained the 3,000th base hit of his career in 1970. ... Read more

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A dual biography of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, from childhood to championship. Includes comparative statistics, batting averages, and famous games. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Notable Sports Figures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3032 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Takes a close look at the people in sports who have captured attention because of success on the playing field, or controversy off the playing field. This work features biographies on more than 600 people from around the world and throughout history who have had an impact not only on their sport, but also on the society and culture of their times. It also includes not only the record-breakers that dominated and changed their sport, but also the controversial figures that made headlines even apart from athletic events. ... Read more

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When Sandy Tolan was nine years old, his hero left town. In 1965 Henry Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, but unlike the other Milwaukee kids, Sandy continued to follow Aaron's career from afar, straining to hear the games at night through the crackle of distant AM radio stations. Aaron's heroics provided an anchor for Sandy in the turbulent late '60s and early '70s, and the young white fan felt a bond with the black superstar.

In 1973, Sandy began keeping a scrapbook to track his idol's approach to the greatest record in sports -- Babe Ruth's 714 career home runs. But he soon learned that Hank Aaron had become the target of racist hate mail and death threats. Shocked and wishing to help somehow, he wrote Aaron a letter, saying, "Don't listen to them, Mr. Aaron. You're my hero." To his astonishment, he got a letter back. "Dear Sandy," the baseball legend wrote, "Your letter of support and encouragement meant much more to me than I can adequately express in words."

Twenty-five years later, armed with his scrapbook and the old letter, Sandy Tolan went to Atlanta to meet his hero. Me and Hank is his account of baseball, heroism, race, and childhood dreams, as he taps the bittersweet recollections of the home run king and those around him. Among the people we meet are:

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A biography of the baseball player who displaced Babe Ruth as the hitter with the greatest number of career home runs. ... Read more