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Black giants among the boys of summer: Hank Aaron's 715th home run, Richie Allen of the '64 Phillies, and the pride of the Negro League.


Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America by Tom Stanton William Morrow

For other people named William Morrow, see William Morrow (disambiguation).
William Morrow (d. 1931) was an American publisher. He married novelist Honore Morrow in 1923. He founded William Morrow and Company in 1926 and led it until his death.
, April 2004 $23.95 ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
 0-060-57976-5

On April 23, 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first major league homer off Vic Raschi of the St. Louis Cardinals For the National Football League team that played in St. Louis from 1960 to 1987, see .
The St. Louis Cardinals (also referred to as "the Cards" or "the Redbirds") are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri.
. On Monday, April 8, 1974, Aaron passed George Herman "Babe" Ruth as the leading home run hitter in baseball history when he hit number 715 before 53, 775 fans on hand in Atlanta Stadium, plus a nationally televised audience. I was in front of my TV then, and tears of joy streamed from my eyes as I witnessed what I knew to be my ultimate thrilling sports moment!

Stanton's book begins with Jackie Robin son's 1972 Riverside Church funeral in New York City New York City: see New York, city.
New York City

City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S.
. Robinson was Hank Aaron's idol. For more than 20 years, Aaron and Robinson compared notes on their shared racial adversity. Aaron is quoted as saying, "I will never forget that he told me to keep talking about what makes me unhappy-otherwise people will think you're satisfied with the situation." How Aaron's achievements changed the country has been recounted in other books, but Stanton's account paints a right-on, definitive story of what I Hank experienced after tying, then breaking Babe Ruth's record.

The death threats, the fact that Aaron considered leaving baseball, his health problems and other racial issues are brought to light. Stanton also explores Willie Mays's jealousy, Dusty Baker's appreciation, the importance of Aaron's African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race.  backing, and how Aaron continues to support the hiring of more minority managers in baseball.

September Swoon: Richie Allen the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration by William C. Kashatus Penn State University Press, March 2004 $29.95 ISBN 0-271-02333-3

Richie Allen was anything but the white man's idea of the black athlete. Still I have never seen anybody mash a baseball harder than Richie Allen--with apologies to Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams. Historian Kashatus has penned a book that covers the famous 1964 Phillies bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries.  season. The author manages to astutely tie Philadelphia's general racial conflicts, its "shameful past," to the history of their baseball franchise. He brings us to the spring of 1963 when Richard Anthony Allen was brought up from their farm system located in Little Rock. Allen was the first black baseball player in Arkansas history. General manager John Quinn and team manager Gene Mauch understood that integrating the Phillies was the one way to guarantee future success on the field and at the gate. Mauch says, "I wouldn't be surprised if Richie Allen one day hits the ball to both right and left field on the same pitch. He could split the ball right in half." During the week of September 21, 1964, as the World Series tickets were being printed, Allen went on to become Rookie of the Year Rookie of the Year may refer to:
  • Rookie of the Year (award), a sports award for the most outstanding rookie in a given season
  • Rookie of the Year (film), a 1993 starring Thomas Ian Nicholas
  • Rookie of the Year (album) by rapper Ya Boy
.

Kashatus' informative, factual book is impressive in its telling of the various experiences of Richie Allen, including his Arkansas days, his beginning in the Negro Leagues and his history-making Phillies era, insightfully placed in the context of W.E.B. Du Bois's groundbreaking analysis of the so-called Negro problem in The Philadelphia Negro. Kashatus also acknowledges both Allen's superstardom and his difficult demeanor--that Allen, during his playing years, simply danced to a different drummer.

Negro League Baseball
Part of the History of baseball in the United States series.


The Negro Leagues were American professional baseball leagues comprising predominantly African-American teams.
: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution by Neil Lanctot University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 March 1890, and the imprint of the University of Pennsylvania Press first appeared on publications in the closing decade of the nineteenth , May 2004 $34.95, ISBN 0-812-23807-9

Here is a fantastic, well-researched work--the rare acme of perfection on the subject. Lanctot discusses black baseball as one of a number of "race" enterprises created in response to segregation. While most black businesses were shaky and struggling flora year to year, black baseball teams and leagues represented a significant institution for decades.

Art Rust Jr Arthur George Rust Jr. (born October 13 1927 in Harlem), has had a successful sports career spanning half a century. It all began in Woodside, Queens in September of 1954 when WWRL Radio had the prescience to hire Art Rust Jr. . is a veteran journalist and sports historian.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Cox, Matthews & Associates
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2004, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America; September Swoon: Richie Allen the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration; Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
Author:Rust, Art, Jr.
Publication:Black Issues Book Review
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Jul 1, 2004
Words:625
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