
        Jason Mayo
        5/16/95
        Period 6

Book Report- "I Had a Hammer, The Hank Aaron Story"

 The book I read, I had a Hammer, The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler is
 the autobiography of Hank Aaron, the home run king of major-league baseball.  The
 historical period this took place in was from the mid-1940's to the mid- 1970's.  The
 setting in this story was very historically accurate.  A quote that demonstrates the
 environment of the 1940's is "...when white workers started rioting for two days at Alabama
 Dry Dock and Shipbuilding because black workers had been promoted in their stead.  Another
 that shows the 1950's is "The Korean War was going on and... I had to register for the
 draft."  A quote showing the environment of the 1960's and the bigotry against blacks is
 "We'd sit in the stands and hear Aaron being called "nigger" and "jigaboo."  And finally a
 quote demonstrating the attitudes of whites in the late 60's and early 70's is "... and you
 may replace Babe Ruth in the hearts of the liberal sportswriters,  the liberal newspapers,
 TV, and radio, as well as the hearts of the long-haired Hippies... so roll in your
 undeserved glory, Black Boy.  Hank Aaron encountered countless obstacles in his quest for
 equality in baseball, as well as his own personal freedom.  In every situation he responded
 effectively, and his motto was "Just keep swinging," which meant that as long as he just
 played ball he would be fine.  A few specific examples are racist and bigoted managers,
 racists in the stands, and teammates, the always judgmental media, and he had to deal with
 death threats to his family and him during his chase for the home run record.  He also had
 to deal with segregation from the rest of the team in hotels, restaurants, etc.  To deal
 with racist managers and teammates he tried to avoid them as much as possible.  He would
 sit away from them on the busses and in the locker rooms.  One time on the Milwaukee Braves
 there was a player, Lew Burdette, who happened to become famous, who was a pronounced
 racist.  Hank Aaron dealt with this by just getting to the field before him or not staying
 near him in hotels.  While playing he tried to push all the people yelling and screaming at
 him out of his mind and just play ball.  But even while he was playing he faced racism
 because of all the pitchers who disliked blacks that threw at him.  It is sometimes
 justified to throw at a player if someone on your team has been hit or the game is a
 blowout, but sometimes pitchers threw at Aaron with the game on the line in the late
 innings.  During the home run chase he was forced to hire a bodyguard because of all the
 death threats.  The bodyguard followed him around like a shadow, he was with Aaron every
 second from the hotel to the ballpark. He had to do this even though most of the threats
 were just meant to scare him.  An event that had a big impact in Hank Aaron's life was when
 he was 14 years old.  Jackie Robinson, the first black person to play in the major leagues
 came to his town to speak.  Jackie was to speak in the auditorium on the main street in
 Aaron's home town, Toulminville  This event inspired the young and impressionable Aaron to
 become a major league ball player.  A passage from the book showed Aaron's idolism for
 Jackie Robinson is as follows: "Jackie Robinson was the hero of Davis Avenue- he and Joe
 Louis.  When Louis would fight, everybody would get together and crowd around a radio, and
 when the dodgers were on- a Mobile station carried pirated broadcasts from an announcer
 named Gordon McLendon- it was practically the same thing.  The day Jackie Robinson came to
 town in 1948, I skipped shop class to hear him speak in the auditorium on Davis Avenue. 
 That same day, I told my father that I would be in the big leagues before Jackie retired. 
 Jackie had that effect on all of us- he gave us our dreams.  He breathed baseball into the
 black community, kids and grown-ups alike.  Before then, whenever I said I wanted to be a
 ballplayer, Daddy would set me straight... I said okay then I'll be a ballplayer.  He said,
 'Ain't no colored ballplayers.'  But he never said that anymore after we sat in the colored
 section of Hartwell field and watched Jackie Robinson." The one person that was the most
 influential for Hank Aaron was the person mentioned above, Jackie Robinson.  This person
 was influential at first because he gave confidence to a little black kid from Mobile to
 strive to become a professional baseball player.  But he was most influential later in
 Hank's life, when Hank got to the major leagues and achieved stardom.  During the summer
 Hank would go barnstorming, that is to play exhibition games day after day all throughout
 the country, with a team of black players assembled by Jackie.  During this time Jackie
 told Hank of all the injustices going on towards black players in the major's in that day. 
 He told that only the best black players could make it to the major leagues while marginal
 white players could.  He also said that blacks could not obtain any front office jobs on
 teams.  Later, when Aaron had achieved the home run record he was an avid activist for
 blacks to obtain front office jobs in major league clubs.  And he told of how white racist
 pitchers threw at him and the other few black players with the intent of injuring him while
 they were batting.  He said that his main goal in baseball was to open the doors for the
 rest of the black players in the Negro leagues.  This gave Hank the will to fight for black
 rights and to stand up for what he believed in later when Jackie had fallen out of the
 spotlight.  If Jackie had not been around to inform Hank of these great injustices Hank
 would probably not have continued to fight for equality in professional sports.  Jackie
 also made Hank realize that his true purpose in baseball was not to achieve greatness but
 to achieve equality.  Once Aaron had broke the home run record he might have just sat back
 and enjoyed the glory but Jackie made him think he should use his notoriety to influence
 people so that baseball would become equal for all races. There were many sources of
 support, strength, and wisdom available to Aaron during his baseball career.  But most of
 all, the black ballplayers that took Hank under their wing while in the minors and early in
 his major league career and showed him the ropes of the business.  People like Wes
 Covington for the Eau Claire Bears and Spec Bebop of the Indianapolis Clowns explained to
 Aaron how it was and just told him to take it in stride because they knew he would be great
 someday.  They would room with him and make sure he did not get into trouble.  They would
 go into restaurants and get food for him so he wouldn't have to encounter white people
 because he was inexperienced. They also told him how to react to problems with white
 people.  They told him how to act around white people and they taught him his manners. 
 Other sources of support available to Aaron were his first wife Barbara Lucas, and his
 manager for the Jacksonville Braves Ben Geraghty.  Barbara Lucas was a source of support
 because she always consoled Aaron when he thought about leaving baseball because of all the
 racism.  Once, when Aaron was booed and had things thrown at him at a promotional
 experience after he won the league MVP, Aaron began questioning whether all the pain and
 suffering was worth it.  She told him that if he left he would be disappointing Jackie
 Robinson, as well as the rest of his race..  Ben Geraghty was a source of support because
 even though he was white, he treated young Hank very well.  Geraghty was the first white
 person Aaron met that treated him like an equal.  On situation that demonstrated this was
 when a restaurant would not let the team eat there because of Hank, he was the only black
 on the team, so Geraghty said everyone had to get back on the bus and they searched for a
 restaurant that would serve the whole team.  This made Aaron think that all white people
 were not racist.  The single action that worsened race relations the most was the fact that
 a black man had become superior to a white man in one of the most coveted records of all. 
 Another event that caused race relations to worsen was when Jackie Robinson came into the
 major leagues.  The people could not fathom a black man playing on the same field as white
 players.  This caused people to become negative toward him and many other black players
 after him for a long time.  Also, every single obstacle or milestone Aaron hurdled or
 surpassed race relations became worse.  When he got rookie of the year people were mad. 
 When he got MVP people were negative towards him.  At every single baseball achievement
 people resented Aaron more and more.  The insight I gain form all of this is that the main
 cause of worsening race relations is the superiority of a minority over the majority.  I
 guess the white people who were racist did not like the idea of a black person being on top
 of a white person.  I would say that a good thesis for this phenomenon is "superiority of
 the minority". Man of the events that improved race relations in this book were headed by
 open-minded white people that accepted blacks as equals.  People like Ben Geraghty and
 Warren Spahn, a teammate of Aaron's were especially open-minded towards Aaron.  The insight
 I gain through this is that the people who catalyze the strengthening of race relations
 should be pushed to the forefront of their professions.  If this happens then they can
 speak their mind and influence other people to change their opinions.  If they are not
 noticed, then they will not be heard and will be forgotten along with any chances for
 racial equality.  Also, for these people not to be ridiculed and put down, many figures
 must emerge so that once the racist people se there is a large number of people who think
 this way they may be more inclined to change their minds. One insight I gained after
 reading about the story of Hank Aaron and all the obstacles he had to overcome was that
 perseverance will win out over the destructive forces of racism.  In each obstacle Aaron
 encountered he had to figure out a way to tolerate and ignore all the racism and bigotry
 toward him and his family.  I can apply this concept in relationships in that by dealing
 with a relationship that goes forward, and not coloring my feelings about someone based on
 feelings about preconceived negative ideas about an individual, especially someone who is
 black.  In other words, you should not rely on assumptions to form an opinion about
 somebody, but you should form your opinion based on social interactions.  Another insight I
 can gain from the Hank Aaron story is that minorities tend to strive to over-achieve in an
 effort to remove from consideration their minority status.  I can apply this in the real
 world is that if I can recognize that this is occurring then I can look just at someone's
 accomplishments and not their color.  The part of the book that I enjoyed the most was that
 it showed very effectively all the trouble and turmoil Hank Aaron went through while trying
 to surpass Babe Ruth on the all-time list for homeruns.  Before reading this book I did not
 know of all the people objecting to a black man holding a record in professional sports.  I
 was appalled to read that some people are so racist that they don't want to see someone of
 a specific race hold a minuscule record.  I said to myself, "Why do they care whether a
 black man beats out a white man who has been dead for a couple decades, and why do they
 care that black people play on the same fields as whites?"   The aspect of the book I liked
 the least was that it did not give much attention to what happened after he broke the
 record and retired from baseball.  I would have liked to know if the hate male kept coming
 or if he was ever a victim of hate crimes, or even if his kids were victimized.  I would
 have liked the book more if it went into greater detail in what he did for civil rights,
 and equality in baseball after he retired.

