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baseball

  • SOURCE: Public Books
    2/24/2021

    What Counts, These Days, In Baseball?

    by David Henkin

    A cultural historian considers recent baseball controversies in light of new books on the sport, and concludes that ideas of fair competition have much more to do with our social context than fans acknowledge. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/10/2021

    Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

    Sportswriter Jemele Hill makes the case for Curt Flood as an advocate for the labor rights of ballplayers and especially the right of players of color to be paid for their skill, even at the cost of being blackballed from the game. 

  • SOURCE: Black Perspectives
    2/8/2021

    Henry Aaron and American Memory

    by Robert Greene II

    "The memories of Jackie Robinson and Henry Aaron, two Americans reviled by many of their compatriots during their playing days but embraced by virtually everyone now, are but the sports phase of a nationwide problem—the problem of properly remembering a painful past."

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    2/8/2021

    “White Fragility” Gets Jackie Robinson's Story Wrong

    by Peter Dreier

    In an effort to define the Major League Color Line as an artifact of white prejudice, Robin DiAngelo obscures the fact that Jackie Robinson was part of a broad protest movement by Black activists and some white allies to demand and achieve integration of professional baseball. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/25/2021

    What Hank Aaron Told Me

    by Sandy Tolan

    The author received a touching reply to a fan letter he wrote Hank Aaron in 1972. Writing a book about Aaron years later, he realized he didn't know the half of the burdens Aaron carried in pursuit of baseball immortality. 

  • SOURCE: ESPN
    1/22/2021

    Hank Aaron's Lasting Impact is Measured in More than Home Runs

    by Howard Bryant

    Hank Aaron biographer Howard Bryant shared common experiences with the baseball legend as a Black man in the sports industry. He writes about the legacy of the slugger who lived through the Jim Crow and civil rights eras and died at age 86 today. 

  • 1/22/2021

    Historians Pay Tribute to Hank Aaron

    by HNN Staff

    Hank Aaron, an all-time great of baseball and for many years its all-time leader in home runs, passed away at age 86 on January 22. Historians recall him as a player, an advocate for civil rights inside and outside the game, and a man who was uneasy being made into a symbol of progress against racism.

  • SOURCE: YouTube
    1/22/2021

    Hank Aaron's 715th, Called by Vin Scully

    The baseball Hall of Famer and one-time home run leader died at age 86 on January 22. Here, watch his record-breaking 715th home run, as announced by broadcasting legend Vin Scully.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    12/16/2020

    M.L.B. Will Add Negro Leagues to Official Records

    Major League Baseball will include player statistics from the seven African American baseball leagues operating between 1920 and 1948 in the major league record books in recognition of the quality of play and the opportunity denied the best Black players in the game's segregated era. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    10/20/2020

    Baseball’s Race Problem

    by Gene Seymour

    Following comedian Chris Rock's observations, Gene Seymour argues that baseball is out of step with a multicultural America and ruled by traditions and unwritten rules that limit its appeal outside of White America. 

  • SOURCE: National Trust for Historic Preservation
    10/5/2020

    Hinchliffe Stadium’s Comeback is a Home Run

    For Black Americans, the amphitheater-style stadium was home to and embodied the incredible spirit of Negro Leagues baseball. It will now be renovated so its story can be preserved.