The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (78 page)

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Henry Aaron’s
I Had a Hammer
(1991) is the only book in which Henry speaks in the first person about his life. Written with Lonnie Wheeler, the book is a natural first place to begin in that it laid a foundation to begin tracing Henry’s life.

Clinton McCarty’s memoir,
The Reins of Power: Racial Change and Challenge in a Southern City
(1999), provides an unflinching, disturbing portrait of a period in Wilcox County, Alabama, the childhood home of Henry Aaron’s parents, Herbert and Estella. McCarty told me that when his book was published its candor cost him more than one African-American friend, who thought the book racist. His book offered an uncomfortable, valuable glimpse into the attitude of whites toward blacks in a place that was originally one of the strongholds of American slavery.

Leon Litwack’s
Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow
(1998) was an indispensable resource for understanding the depth of Jim Crow laws—not only the effects on African-Americans but its lasting effect on southern culture and, by extension, on families like the Aarons.

Pauline Davis-Horton’s
The Avenue: The Place, the People, the Memories
(1991) is an essential starting point for understanding black Mobile in the twentieth century, painting a portrait of the various places on Davis Avenue a young Henry Aaron frequented as well as providing an invaluable resource for the African-American experience in Mobile.

Jerry Poling’s
A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball
(2002) fills in the important period Henry spent with the Eau Claire Bears, his first step in the game of white organized baseball.

Frank Aukofer’s
City with a Chance: A Case History of Civil Rights Revolution
(2007) provided color on an important period of racial change and upheaval in the city of Milwaukee and highlighted the role of Father James Groppi in the civil rights movement of the city.

Gary Pomerantz’s
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Autumn: A Saga of Race and Family
(1996) provided a thorough account of the socioeconomic and political climate of Atlanta just as the Milwaukee Braves planned to relocate to the Deep South. Pomerantz’s book helped illuminate more clearly life in Atlanta and placed into greater context Henry Aaron’s initial hesitancy in moving back to the South.

Eddie Mathews’s memoir,
Eddie Mathews and the National Pastime
(1994), offered Mathews’s unique voice in lieu of Mathews himself, who died in 2001. He was particularly close to Henry. The book, written with Bob Buege, captures the Mathews personality that spawned all three franchise locations, from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta.

Bob Buege’s
The Milwaukee Braves: A Baseball Eulogy
(1988) filled in important gaps regarding the day-to-day triumphs and defeats of the Milwaukee Braves. Only so much color can be gleaned from poring over box scores, and Bob Buege’s book helped re-create Henry’s time in Milwaukee.

Bad Henry
(1974), Henry Aaron’s authorized collaboration with Stan Baldwin and Jerry Jenkins, was the only book that recognized Henry’s relationship with the late Father Michael Sablica, an important moment in Henry’s life both in reaffirming his religious beliefs as well as giving Henry’s time in Milwaukee a greater dimension.

David Alsobrook’s unpublished dissertation,
Alabama’s Port City: Mobile During the Progressive Era, 1896–1917
(1983), is a magnificent resource for understanding the dramatic and debilitating shift from the Reconstruction Era to Jim Crow in Mobile.

Christopher Andrew Nordmann’s
Free Negroes in Mobile County, Alabama
(1990) provided important context to daily life in Mobile for blacks.

CHAPTER ONE: HERBERT

1
My Dear Sir:
H. C. Nixon Responses to Questionnaire on Slavery, LPR91, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

2
More care must always be taken:
James A. Tait Memorandum Book, Tait Family Papers, LPR35, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

3
Blacks as a race were commented:
Clinton McCarty,
The Reins of Power: Racial Change and Challenge in a Southern City
(Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 1999), p. 113.

4
Our name changed often:
interview with Henry Aaron.

5
Fury Of A Texas mob:
Mobile Daily Item
, October 22, 1902.

6
Negro Peeper:
Mobile Daily Item
, October 12, 1902.

7
Bound Face To Face …:
Mobile Daily Item
, October 10, 1902.

8
Used Axe On Women: Bad Negro:
Mobile Daily Item
, November 4, 1902.

9
Ten More Policemen Provided:
Mobile Daily Item
, October 16, 1902.

10
With the disintegration of the boycott:
David Alsobrook, “Alabama’s Port City: Mobile During the Progressive Era, 1896–1917.” (Ph.D. diss. Auburn University, 1983), p. 145.

11
When you own something:
interview with Henry Aaron.

12
My grandfather believed in the work:
interview with Tommie Aaron, Jr.

13
That was the way it was:
ibid.

14
Absolute Segregation Of Race:
Mobile Register
, May 28, 1943.

15
Obviously, the black color of my skin:
Inner City News
, June 8, 1985.

16
I knew I was going to be a ballplayer:
Hank Aaron, with Lonnie Wheeler,
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story
(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 22.

17
It was never one, two, three with me:
interview with Henry Aaron.

CHAPTER TWO: HENRY

18
I did not find him to be forthcoming:
interview with Roger Kahn, April 2007.

19
My grandfather used to say all the time:
interview with Tommie Aaron, Jr.

20
A lot of guys were playing a helluva baseball game:
interview with Billy Williams.

21
He could hit the ball with a broken piece of wood:
interview with Ed Scott.

22
I told her, if this kid was Satchel Paige:
ibid.

23
I never once saw him hit cross-handed:
ibid.

24
On May 23, Scott received a letter from George Sisler:
This letter is from the collection of Ed Scott.

25
Major League Scouts Take Gander:
Chicago Defender
, June 7, 1952.

26
Clowns’ Aaron Locks Up NAL:
Chicago Defender
, June 7, 1952.

27
The introduction might have been a pleasure:
Jerry Poling,
A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), p. 9.

28
He just would not open up to you:
Interview with Wes Covington,
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
, August 16, 1993.

29
No one can guess his IQ:
Al Stump, “Hank Aaron: Public Image vs. Private Reality,”
Sport
, August 1964.

30
One time I got to second base:
Poling,
A Summer Up North
, p. 40.

31
It was never a romance:
ibid, p. 52.

32
When you think about who Henry Aaron is:
interview with Jerry Poling.

33
Jacksonville and Savannah:
The Sporting News
, April 15, 1953.

34
It was toward the country:
interview with Jim Frey.

35
When you’re seventeen or eighteen years old:
interview with Felix Mantilla.

36
I remember one day I asked Henry:
interview with Bill Slack.

37
I’ll never forget that day at the depot:
interview with Ed Scott.

CHAPTER THREE: STEPIN FETCHIT

38
Any amount you ask for that kid Henry Aaron:
Milwaukee Journal
, March 3, 1954.

39
Aaron Given Divided Vote By Prophets:
Milwaukee Sentinel
, March 14, 1954.

40
Aaron laid claim to a permanent roster:
Mark Stewart and Mike Kennedy,
Hammering Hank: How the Media Made Henry Aaron
(Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2006), p. 49.

41
I was playing in Sarasota:
Hank Aaron, with Dick Schaap:
Home Run: My Life in Pictures
(New York: Total Sports, 1999), p. 47.

42
Red Sox Shade Braves, 3–2:
Milwaukee Journal
, March 11, 1954.

43
a little house on stilts:
interview with Henry Aaron.

44
I remembered thinking:
interview with Bill White.

45
Mother Gibson Serves Very Tasty Table:
Milwaukee Journal
, March 2, 1954.

46
Mrs. Gibson’s was the best choice at that time:
interview with Henry Aaron.

47
Behind the scenes, we made things happen:
interview with Bill White.

48
“Slow Motion” Aaron Becomes:
Milwaukee Journal
, March 21, 1954.

49
He was talking about something:
interview with Henry Aaron.

50
We had so many different people:
interview with Chuck Tanner.

CHAPTER FOUR: MILWAUKEE

51
The whole thing is utterly fantastic:
The Sporting News
, July 18, 1951.

52
With the team we had:
interview with Johnny Logan.

53
We got automobiles to drive:
interview with Frank Torre.

54
The free choice of residence:
Milwaukee Commission on Human Rights,
The Housing of Negroes in Milwaukee
, 1955, pamphlet 57-2402 (Milwaukee, 1955); available online at
www.wisconsinhistory.org
.

55
The first thing I noticed about Milwaukee:
interview with Henry Aaron.

56
If it weren’t for Bill Bruton:
ibid.

57
There were beaches everywhere in Florida:
Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt,
Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947–1959
(Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994), p. 89.

58
My grandfather was a shortstop:
interview with Greg Spahn.

59
Spahn and I:
interview with Henry Aaron.

60
No way:
Milwaukee Sentinel
, March 11, 1954.

61
He knew Henry was going to have it rough:
interview with Chuck Tanner.

62
Aaron Good Now:
Milwaukee Journal
, June 25, 1954.

CHAPTER FIVE: WEHMEIER

63
Aaron, who rarely shows emotion:
This and subsequent quotes regarding the banquet are from
The Sporting News
, February 1, 1956.

64
I shouldn’t dignify either question:
The Sporting News
, September 28, 1955.

65
Kick his ass, Joe:
interview with Johnny Logan.

66
Baseball is a lot like church:
interview with Roger Kahn.

67
He was more than just a manager to me:
Chicago Defender
, May 26, 1956.