13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best sports autobiographies ever, September 15, 2005
In this baseball season where my favorite team is floundering in the cellar, and every good story(compelling divisional races) is counterbalanced by the bad (steroids), I have been trying to maintain interest by re-reading some baseball books that I have read over the years. After re-reading "I Had A Hammer", I remember why it remains one of the best biographies/autobiographies that I have ever read.
The sports genre in books is much harder than one would think to keep up interest in. There are very few gems in any sporting subject; mostly it's very mediocre to terribly vapid. Usually a fan becomes disappointed in their sports "heroes" when they read a biography about them, because the writing can be so bad. Fortunately, for a ballplayer as great as Hank Aaron, the work lives up to the character and legend of the man.
Mr. Aaron does a splendid job of taking the reader through his life in Alabama, his discovering the game of baseball, and - of course - his remarkable career. His writing style provides enough description to allow the reader to get a true mental "picture" of what his life was like without getting bogged down in minutiae. Throughout the book, I had the feeling like I really was there watching his career unfold.
Of course, that brings us to the real core - and most important part - of his life story. That is, what Mr. Aaron experienced as he neared and eclipsed Babe Ruth's home run record. Most celebrities or sports figures would relate this in that sensational, "woe-is-me", tabloid-tell-all sort of way. Not Mr. Aaron. He shares many of the truly hateful and despicable letters he received from people across the nation who saw the idea of an African-American breaking the record of a white man as egregious. Mr. Aaron relates how this inundation of hate mail affected him, but he manages to avoid expressing any hate towards the senders of those letters. One obviously gets the sense that Mr. Aaron steeled himself against those attacks with grace and dignity, allowing himself to still play the game the way it was supposed to be played, and to do it with class and personal enjoyment.
It is striking to return to Mr. Aaron's autobiography after the events in baseball over the past decade. We as a fan base in general express outrage over the strike, the steroids (and questions about those players that broke records), outrageous salaries, and the like. It seems to always elicit a response demanding a return to the "innocence" of baseball seasons and players gone by. However, Mr. Aaron's experience demonstrates that there was controversy in almost every era of the game. In his case, it was a despicable form of racial hatred expressed by a very vocal minority in this country.
Again, "I Had A Hammer" stands out as one of the great books in the sports genre, and stands out as one of my favorite biographies/autobiographies. I rate it the full five stars, and encourage readers of all interests to give this one their attention.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond just another sports biography, July 19, 2002
This is a terrific autobiography that transcends the classification of sports writing. It is written in a style and format that that is compelling and informative. The typical sports biographies tell a series of funny and dramatic inside stories around memorable moments in sports history that the subject participated in. When well done, the reader gets what he or she is looking for and then some. When poorly done we get some stale jokes, old stories and an inept attempt at describing the true meaning of courage. In "I Had a Hammer" Henry Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler have given us a glimpse at a young black man growing up in the Deep South to become the greatest home run hitter of all time. In the odyssey we see the elements of society alternately denigrate and celebrate this gifted athlete. We are given these insights through the co-writer's preambe to each chapter and the personal recollections of key players in the life and career of Hank Aaron. This array of perspectives is excellently done and gives the book a good flow. What gives it the greatest impact is the candid personal recollections of Mr. Aaron. He is outspoken in his contempt for the elements of racism that followed (or is it lead) him every step of the way to the top. Yet he is forgiving of many who may have slurred his race in the past and then later learned to overcome their biased opinions. Much of that transition came through their experiences with him and other early black major league ball players. This is a book about our nation's racial attitudes as seen through the experiences of the author.
Don't be mistaken, this is still an excellent book for the sports fan. The casual fan will come away with a greater sense of sports history. The Braves fan will really enjoy some of the historic events recreated in the middle chapters. The Milwaukee fan need only read the last paragraph of chapter 7 and a tear or two will likely fall. The Atlanta fan will come away with a challenge to accept the validity of Aaron's view of his experiences in that city. Some will and some won't. However, all sports fans will come away with an excellent education on race relations in America from the 1930' to very recent years. They will gain this insight not through a lecture by the authors but by the very human expressions of a man telling his own compelling story.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aaron Hits A Home Run, June 27, 2005
In his autobiography, Henry Aaron takes you back to the beginning of his baseball career and makes you feel that you were right there with him. You felt the hurt, disgust and anger that he did as he confronted racism around every corner and in every ballpark. And he handled it all with such dignity. It follows his career from Milwaukee, a city that loved him and still does, to Atlanta, a city that never fully understood or appreciated him. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, this book looks at social issues and how it related to baseball of that era and transended into today. I strongly recommend this to anyone who just wants to read a terrific life story.
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