How Hank Aaron Overcame The Hate

Source: Smashing Top Ten

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It was 40 years ago today that Hank Aaron did what most thought was impossible. On April 8, 1974, the Atlanta Brave hit home run number 715.

On that day he broke Babe Ruth's total home run record -- something few thought could ever be done.

It was an incredible accomplishment made even more incredible because it happened in the shadow of hate and death threats. Those threats came from people who did not want an African-American to claim such an important record.

CNN wrote a very intriguing story detailing how hank overcame the hate to become the BEST and what all the hate entailed. Read it here

42 Jackie Robinson: From NLB to MLB

Finally, we get to see the story of Jackie Robinson in a motion picture as "42" is released in theaters today. I am going to go see the movie and you should too (don't waste your time going to see Scary Movie 5 instead!). I hope the directors give the story the life that it needs.  By displaying his life inside AND outside of baseball because It is no exaggeration to say Jackie Robinson made his mark on history. And he did it the way Gandhi did, and the way Martin Luther King would — by simply being better than the people who hated him.

Major League Baseball will celebrate the 66th Jackie Robinson Day on April 15th.  (the day he broke baseball’s color barrier.) Players, managers, coaches and umpires will wear No. 42…. but I wonder if they all really know and understand the significance and history of where that moment began or if they are just doing what is required of them from the league. That prompted me to dig through some boxes and find a program and book I had gotten when I visited the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City Missouri…..and I decided to provide you all with some history on how Jackie Robinson found his way from the Negro Leagues to the MLB.

Jackie Robinson: From the NLB to the MLB

As Major League Baseball remembered Jackie Robinson Sunday on the 65th anniversary of the day he broke baseball’s color barrier. As  players, managers, coaches and umpires all wore No. 42…. I wondered if they all really knew and understood the significance and history of where that moment began or were they just doing what was required of them from the league. That prompted me to dig through some boxes and find a program and book I had gotten when I visited the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City Missouri…..and I decided to provide you all with some history on how Jackie Robinson found his way from the Negro Leagues to the MLB.

Black history in the MLB has been filled with many successes and a struggle for equity. The resistant wall of the 19th century separated the races in virtually all areas of American society, but there have been a number of rather remarkable parallels in the maturation of baseball for both races.