For Hank Aaron, star player of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the summer of 1973 was a whirlwind of emotions ranging from the joy of success to despondency resulting from racism that rang from all over the country. As a key team member, many eyes were on Aaron as he steadily chased down one of the most prestigious sports records to date: Babe Ruth’s home run record. Many thought this record would never be surpassed, but as Aaron crept closer and closer to the record. Some fans waited in anticipation for Aaron to surpass the 714th home run while others sent him thousands of letters of hate mail over the course of the summer. This racism was seen not only through mail and on the fields, but also throughout the media. In the months leading …show more content…
His family was quite poor and could not afford baseball equipment. Rather than spend his family’s scarce money on bats and balls, Aaron made do with what he could find on the streets, using sticks instead of bats and bottlecaps instead of balls. During his childhood, he experienced the insidious effects of racism and Jim Crowe laws, including memories of his mother hiding him under the bed as he lay terrified while the KKK went by his house. Amidst this racism, Aaron witnessed Jackie Robinson’s rise to prominence in American sport culture, breaking racial barriers that Hank frequently was subject to during Jim Crowe era in the South. Aaron recognized Robinson’s success as a new doorway into the sport, and with youthful hopefulness, he felt less restrictive barriers to his own success due to Robinson’s pioneering …show more content…
Aaron saw leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. as his own personal heroes through their ability to incite positive change across society. King said, "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue." Aaron did not directly protest nonviolently, but he found that by not going out of his way to address the issue of racism, he was enforcing the idea of a more peaceful protest. After a brief fight with a teammate over name-calling, Aaron immediately responded, “‘I wish it hadn’t happened, especially to me and a teammate of mine…’” Aaron recognized the fault of violent action and the counterproductivity of