Hank Aaron is a household name in baseball, one of the most important and influential players in any sport. The reasons for Hank Aaron's success go far beyond his athletic abilities and talents as a player -- for which he is obviously renowned -- but to his sportsmanship, his civil rights activism, and for his overall character. Aaron contributed tremendously to the sport of baseball by injecting his values and ideals into the game.Born Henry Louis Allen, Hank was born in Mobile, Alabama in what has widely been described as a "humble" and economically underprivileged circumstances ("Hank Aaron," n.d.). Segregation and overt, politically and socially sanctioned racism was a part of life in the America that Hank knew. Hank admitted he was bitten by the baseball bug at a young age, and was already "showing prowess" when he was just four years old (Vascellaro 2). Clearly a child prodigy athlete, Hank Aaron's family supported his interest in baseball by moving to a rural neighborhood where young Hank had access to the large open spaces needed to practice. Hank played frequently with friends and other baseball enthusiasts at Carver Park, a recreational space specifically designated for the African-American community. One adult who observed the young Hank throwing baseballs commented, "Henry threw a baseball like a man, not a little child," (Vascellaro 2). Young Henry Aaron practiced with whatever equipment he and his family could find, often makeshift items like using broomsticks for bats and bottle caps...
His dedication to the sport therefore started at a very young age, proving the importance of patience and persistence in cultivating the requisite skill sets to succeed in an increasingly competitive playing environment.
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?The Declaration of Independence announced that all men are created equal and white America celebrated the announcement; black slaves, however, could not. Although they may have been created equal (a point disputed at the time, as blacks were deemed by many in the medical field to be of inferior intellect), they certainly were not held to be of equal status upon their
Fences" August Wilson The Influence of Sports in Fences Sports is one of the principle motifs in Fences, a play written by August Wilson, and is utilized to facilitate the other themes that this work of drama explores. The protagonist, Troy Maxson (Gilmore), is a former Negro leagues baseball player who is still attempting to reconcile his attempts at a career in professional baseball with the fact that he was not
Fences" August Wilson Breaking Out: Autonomous Independence in Fences One of the principle characters of August Wilson's play entitled Fences is Cory Maxson, whose role as the son of the play's protagonist, Troy Maxson (Gilmour 2010), is fairly integral to the thematic issues that the author chooses to demonstrate within this dramatic work. As one of Troy's several sons, Cory represents the distinct ideology that is fairly endemic to all parents
Upon leaving the military Robison found work with the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs. The World War II years marked the heyday of the Negro Leagues. With black and white worker flooding into Northern industrial centers, with relatively full employment, and with a scarcity of available consumer goods, attendance at all sorts of entertainment events increased dramatically. In 1942 three million fans saw Negro League teams play, and the
The interaction between father and son allow Wilson to introduce the bonding aspect of sports. Troy is so hurt from what has happened to him in prison and afterward, that he cannot believe that things could be any different for anyone else. When it is pointed out to him that there are successful African-American sportsmen, such as Wes Covington and Hank Aaron, Troy scoffs and says, "Aaron ain't nobody...
Bonds than his fellow African-Americans." Recently, it has come to the attention of the media and others that the drug called, "human growth hormone" (HGH) is being used by some major league baseball players. An article in USA Today (Nightengale, 2007) points out through secondary reporting of data that Rick Ankiel (St. Louis Cardinals), Jay Gibbons (Baltimore Orioles) and Troy Glaus (Blue Jays) have been implicated in the use of
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