The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron - Howard Bryant
Before
reading this book, I had recently watched an appearance by Hank Aaron
on Late Night with David Letterman. I really wish I'd had the chance to
read this book before that interview, so I could have known whether I
was watching "Hank" or "Henry" Aaron. It turns out that "Hank" was a
persona that he had created to deal with the media, the stress and
pressure of being a young black rising baseball star and his conscious
decision to overtake Babe Ruth's home run record. Hank Aaron could have
put up better career batting numbers if he hadn't made it his personal
mission to become the home run king.
But the real Aaron was "Henry". The
family man who grew up in a small house in Mobile, Alabama. Henry quietly resented the success of the modern, steroid era athletes but it was Hank who reluctantly "congratulated" Barry Bonds on beating his home run record. As a young
player, it was Henry who dealt with racism in 1940's and 50's minor league baseball
circuit. And it was Henry also became a leading voice in the civil rights movement,
and helped change the culture of the south when his Milwaukee Braves
moved to another hotbed of southern racism: Atlanta, Georgia.
It's been almost a year since I've read
this so my recollections probably aren't doing it justice, but I highly
recommend picking this book up. It hammers (pardon the pun) down the
point that when Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in 1947, racism continued to persist in both major and minor league baseball up until the
70's (and it does to an extent up to the present, but that's another
post altogether...)
