Hank Aaron Biography

Hank Aaron is still alive. Once he retired, he went back to the Braves to become the vice president of player development for a while. He no longer does that, but he currently has a very successful line of car dealerships. One of my favorite parts of Hank is that he currently owns eighteen Krispy Kreme franchises. Hank is living in Atlanta, Georgia at this current moment. He is 84 years old as

Accomplishments: He broke ground for the participation of African Americans in professional sports. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home run record, although he hit a respectable .280 with 13 home runs before breaking an ankle in September. In 1955, Aaron became the Braves' starting right fielder and he won the NL batting title in 1956 with a .328 average and 26 home runs. His all-time career mark of 755 home runs was built on a remarkable 20-season stretch from 1955 through 1974. He hit 40 or more home runs in 8 of those seasons, 30 or more in 15, and 20 or more in all 20. He also batted over .300 fourteen times. His top batting average was .355 in 1959; his best home run season was 1971, when he had 47. Fascinatingly, he hit 44 home runs--his uniform number--in three different seasons, 1957, 1963, and 1965. The Braves, who had moved to Atlanta in 1966, announced that he would be held out of the opening series in Cincinnati so he would have a chance to break the record before his home fans. However, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered the team to use Aaron in Cincinnati, and he tied the record in his first trip to the plate. When he retired, he held all-time major-league records for extra base hits, 1,477; total bases, 6,856; and runs batted in, 2,297. Aaron then returned to Atlanta to work in the Braves' front office, where he became one of the first blacks in upper-level

He was the youngest of 5. in 1937 he enrolled in pasadena junior college. His first year he was a shortstop and hit over 400 and stole over 20 bases in 25 games. During his second year, he played football. He ran for more than 1,000 yards and scored 17 touchdowns in 11 wins. He ever was a kick returner and ran back a 104 yard kickoff to the house for a touchdown. in the same year he played basketball and scored about 19 points a game and led his team to a championship. Later the same year he was MVP on his baseball team leading them to a championship, all while running track. the next year he went to UCLA on a scholarship for football and led the nation with a average of 12 yards a carry. He was the first four-letter athlete at UCLA playing baseball, football, track, and basketball. He later met a nursing student, Rachel Isum, his future wife. After he left college in 1942 he was drafted into the Army and was involved in World War II.For the next seventeen years, Jackie lived a great life after retiring from baseball. He was chosen to be in the Hall Of Fame in 1962. He was a advocate to bring public attention to the African American struggle and to help end racial discrimination..For the next seventeen years, until his death in 1972, Robinson lived an extraordinary yet difficult life.Opponents were always an issue with Jackie. During the games they would use racial slurs and rather cruel

In 2016, Aaron finally received some playing time; however, he was still struggling. His batting average was very low, at .179. Aaron only had four home

Babe started as a pitcher for the Orioles and then he moved on to the Boston Braves. Although he was a decent pitcher for those two teams, his real fame came when he made the transition to right field on the New York Yankees. He finished his career with numerous records, awards, and honors such as being part of the first class inducted into the baseball hall of fame. Shortly after the end of his career, he fell ill with throat cancer likely caused by his lifelong habit of chewing tobacco. Babe did not let this stop him though. He still visited orphanages, hospitals, and other charity events even on his worst days. Biography.com reproted, “Known throughout his life as a generous man, he gave much of his time in his last years to charitable events instead. On June 13, 1948, he made one last appearance at Yankee Stadium to celebrate the building's 25th anniversary. Sick with cancer, Ruth had become a shadow of his former, gregarious self”. Knowing that his time was running out, Ruth still pushed through being a source of excitement for young children in their times of struggle. He gave the majority of his major league earnings to orphanages, charitable foundations, and even started his own foundations to help orphans. These were some of his last actions because Babe’s biography states, “On August 16, 1948, Babe Ruth died, leaving much of his estate to the Babe Ruth Foundation for underprivileged children”.

So he went to Aaron after the game and came to an agreement that if Aaron did well batting the right way, that he would switch. It turns out that he did great the next day, going three for three. Griggs was so impressed with Aaron that he invited him to the Braves’ Spring Training camp. During the camp, the roster was determined and Aaron was not on it. However, being the type of person that he was, he stayed around just to practice with the team. It turns out that this was the best decision of his career because later that spring, the Braves’ left fielder broke his ankle. This opened a spot on the team. The next day, Aaron started in his place and got three hits, including a line-drive homerun. Because of his success, the manager offered Aaron a contract to play for the Braves. By the end of the 1973 season, he had 713 career homeruns, one less than the all-time record. During the off-season, Aaron received a lot of hate mail and death threats, mostly from people who did not want to see a black man break Babe Ruth’s record. Aaron was quoted as saying, “As the hate mail piled up, I became more and more intent on breaking the record and shoving it into the ugly faces of those bigots” (Aaron). “On the night of April 8, 1974, at 9:07 PM, Henry Aaron hit a fastball off of Al Downing that flew over the left field fence for homerun number 715” (Aaron). Aaron ended his career with 755 homeruns. He also played in 3298 games, batted 12,364 times,

His main position was pitcher, but he also played as an outfielder. Babe started his baseball career in Baltimore, playing for the Orioles. He also played for other teams, such as: The Boston Braves, New York Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox. Babe Ruth hit about 2,873 hits and 714 of those hits were homeruns. Ruth’s first homerun was hit in 1933 at the All Star game in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Throughout Ruth’s baseball career, he has received many awards. From 1933- 1934 he was on the American All Star League Team. In 1936, he was placed in the national baseball hall of fame.

George Herman Ruth, better known as Babe Ruth, is an American baseball hero due to his successes that have allowed him to become a household name even after his passing. His great legacy lives on, but for those not alive during his reign over baseball, it is sometimes hard to grasp the Babe’s true life story, which is where film comes into play. In the several films about Babe Ruth, many differentiating perspectives about his life are introduced. In The Babe Ruth Story (1948) and The Babe (1992), we are shown two very different versions of the ‘Great Bambino’. With the help of Ardolino’s analysis of the deification and deconstruction of Ruth in Reel Baseball, it is easy to see the similarities and differences between the two Hollywood Babes. Ardolino states that, “In fact, these movies are dialectically related: the first is an attempt to sacralize Ruth’s checkered life, and the latter is an attempt to replace the hagiography with a Dickensian psychodrama of a bumbling Bacchus who belches, farts, indulges his appetites, is haunted by his past, explodes irrationally when he is called ‘incorrigible’ and never gains any measure of self-control” (115-16). Ardolino’s chapter thoroughly discussed the portrayals of Babe Ruth as a character, which brings to light the similarities and differences portrayed in both Hollywood films. After screening the Hollywood films, we move to screen the documentary about Ruth, a blatant deification, which treats his life story much differently.

With the way the author, Bryson describes George Ruth’s upbringing and the tough hand that Babe was dealt with at such an early age, it seems as if he painted a fairy tale with happily ever after at the end. To read and to try and grasp what Babe Ruth was able to achieve, it is the most unbelievable underdog story that I have ever read. While I was reading, I had the feeling that Bill Bryson believed that George Ruth was a good person and even coming from such a rough city such as Baltimore. He even disagreed with what babe said in his autobiography. In the book, Bryson says “The opening sentence of Ruth’s autobiography is, “I was a bad kid.” Which is no more than partly true” (Bryson 107). By just the second sentence in the second paragraph, it is clear that Bryson thought, even since Ruth’s childhood, he is a good kid who was stuck behind the 8-ball. Coming from an impoverished family, having almost all of his siblings die, losing both his father and mother who were “distracted” anyway. His mother slowly dying of tuberculosis and his father single-handedly running their saloon during all of his waking hours just so they could have money to survive (Bryson 107). While reading this initial background on Babe Ruth, I didn’t know just how rough he had it. I assumed like most of the athletes in today’s world, his family was able to pay for him to have baseball lessons and training with some of the best trainers that money can buy. Knowing that Babe Ruth was the epitome of an

First, who was Babe Ruth; based on the book “Babe Ruth” by Tracy Brown Collins, his real name was George Herman Ruth the same as his father, he was born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland, but what is interesting is that for many years he believed that he was born on February 07, 1894, until he got his birth certificate when he was required to get his passport and found out his real date of birth.

To begin, on January 30th, 1919 Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. His parents were Mallie Robinson and Jerry Robinson. He was the youngest of 5 children. His siblings were Edgar, Frank, Mack, and Willa Mae. After Jackie was born His father left home. Mallie Robinson and the kids had to move to California when Jackie was young. It took over a week on the train ride to California. Jackie’s family was the only black family on their tree lined block in Pasadena. Jackie liked to watch his brother Mack play baseball in the sandlot. One day there wasn’t enough players on a team,

everyone loves him but, off the field he is a disgrace to society. Hank Aaron was important because while many people looked up to as a sports god he was not afraid to state the truth about the social reality for blacks.

Aaron, a right-hander, began his professional career in 1952, playing shortstop for a few months with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. His contract was bought by the Boston Braves of the National League, who assigned him to minor league teams. In 1954 he moved up to the majors, playing mostly as an outfielder for the Braves (who had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1953).

remembered. "So I decided I would become a ballplayer and get away." When he left

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me.....All I ask is that you respect me as a human being" (Robinson).Baseball legend Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 to Jerry and Mallie Robinson In Cairo, Georgia where he became the youngest of five children. Jackie's father Jerry was a sharecropper and taught the family important lessons, like to stay out of trouble and follow the law Jackie's mom Mallie raised the family by herself. After Jackie's father left the family, the Robinson family moved to Pasadena where Jack went to UCLA (History.com). African Americans could play baseball professionally, Jackie Robinson made history by becoming the first professional African American baseball player, and paved the way for future African American baseball players.