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"Hammerin' Hank"
Outfielder, 1954-1976
One of baseball's true greats, a player of abundant talent, honor, and
dignity, Aaron holds numerous baseball records, including career home
runs (755), total bases (6,856), and runs batted in (2,297). He was a
quiet man who impressed observers not with flashy play, like his contemporary
Willie Mays, but with relentless
consistency. He won only a single MVP Award during his career, yet he
was among baseball's top players from 1955 to 1974 and appeared in 21
straight All-Star Games.
Though he is denigrated for never having hit 50 home runs in a season,
he certainly would have if he had played his peak years a hitter's park
like Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium rather than a pitcher's park like Milwaukee's
County Stadium.
During his 1973-74 assault on Babe Ruth's career home run record, Aaron
received, among the thousands of complimentary fan letters, hundreds of
death threats from racists. Somehow, he was able to put those out of his
mind and do a difficult job-hitting 90-mph fastballs out of the park-in
front of sold-out crowds. Now working as an executive with the Braves,
Aaron still receives those threats.
I
Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story
by Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler
"The Yankee Clipper"
Outfielder, 1936-1951
A near-flawless ballplayer, DiMaggio won three MVP Awards, had a major
league record 56-game hitting
streak, played in 10 World Series during 13 major league seasons, was
immortalized in a Simon and Garfunkel song, and has received almost every
other accolade a player could get. It is not an overstatement to say that
he dominated the American League nearly every year he played, leading
the league at various times in homers, RBIs, batting average, and slugging
percentage. Known for playing every inning just as hard as the last, DiMaggio
was once asked why he was so intense on the field. DiMaggio's answer:
"Because there might be somebody out there who's never seen me play
before."
The American icon led a near-storybook life: The son of poor Italian immigrants,
he made it big in New York City, where his famous hitting streak captured
the heart of America; after his career ended, he married the nation's
most famous movie star, and when that ended painfully, it was said that
"it just proves a man can't be a success at two national pastimes."
Me
and DiMaggio : A Baseball Fan Goes in Search of His Gods
by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Joe
DiMaggio: The Hero's Life
by Richard Ben Cramer
"The Say-Hey Kid"
Outfielder, 1948-1973 [including the Negro leagues]
Mays is another baseball player whose legend seems to transcend sports.
First, the numbers: 660 career homers, third on the all-time list; two
MVP Awards; two seasons of 50-plus homers; 10 seasons of 100-plus RBIs;
20 All-Star Game appearances--the
list could go on forever. He could steal bases, leading the league four
times. And he could field: His 440-foot, back-to-home-plate catch in dead
center field in the 1954 World Series is one of baseball's most famous
moments--and Mays always said it wasn't even his best grab (see The
Catch).
He played his first professional years in Negro leagues just as major
league integration began to take hold. In 1951, he came to the Giants
and immediately went into a horrible slump. But after receiving a vote
of confidence from manager Leo Durocher, Mays began to hit; his first
homer came off of the best left-hander in baseball at the time, Warren
Spahn. Following his Rookie of the Year campaign, Mays then lost two years
to the Korean War, seasons he wished he could have back at his retirement
because he came within only 55 of breaking Babe Ruth's career home run
record. He returned from the war to slug 41 homers, win the batting title,
and capture MVP honors in 1954 while helping his Giants to the championship.
For the rest of his career, baseball fans stood in awe of his fantastic
play-enough so that many fans and writers have called Mays the greatest
player in the history of the game. I lean toward Ruth for that honor,
but I can understand their point. As a player, Mays could literally do
it all. As a cultural icon, he was nearly the equal of Ruth, for he seemed
to represent all that was good in America. With his joyous enthusiasm
and always-smiling face, he seemed to embody a passion for life that all
Americans could aspire to. And, like Jackie Robinson's, Mays's acceptance
as a national hero certainly helped the civil rights movement.
Say
Hey : The Autobiography of Willie Mays
by Willie Mays, Lou Sahadi
Pitcher, 1926-1953, 1965 [including Negro leagues]
The most famous player in Negro
league history, Paige was its preeminent showman in addition to perhaps
its best pitcher. Locked out of major league ball until he was well past
his prime, he pitched against white players often enough during winter
barnstorming trips that Dizzy Dean, Joe
DiMaggio, and Charlie Gehringer, among others, called Paige the best
pitcher they ever saw. Other Negro league experts place Smoky Joe Williams
above Paige in terms of skill, but there can be no doubting Paige's ability
to draw fans. For much of his career, he was the biggest gate attraction
in the league; large crowds would gather to watch whether he fulfilled
his promise to strike out the side on nine pitches, and he usually came
through. His salaries were good -- probably as high as $40,000 per year
-- though not as good as they should have been.
When Cleveland owner Bill
Veeck finally brought Paige to the majors in 1948, the pitcher was
42 years old, the oldest rookie in major league history. Still, he could
fill the seats. His first three starts drew over 200,000 fans to set night-game
attendance records in Cleveland and Chicago. His major-league stats seem
undistinguished -- 28-31, 3.29 ERA -- until you remember his age, which
Veeck tried to say was higher than it was; to generate publicity, Veeck
claimed his "team of detectives" had determined Paige was born
in 1899 when in fact Paige always knew he was born in 1906. In another
publicity stunt, the Kansas City Athletics hired Paige to pitch a game
in 1965; the 59-year-old tossed three shutout innings, allowing only one
hit.
By the time he was finished, Paige estimated that he and his overpowering
fastball (known variously as his "bee ball," "trouble ball,"
and "Long Tom") had seen action in more than 2,500 games, winning
2,000 of them, against Negro league and semipro teams; other estimates
include 100 no-hitters, 22 strikeouts in one game, and as many as 153
games pitched in one calendar year. Aside from his dominance on the mound,
Paige's unique brand of wit and charm has entered American folklore. In
his much-quoted "How to Stay Young," Paige offered these suggestions:
"Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood. Keep the juices flowing
by jangling around gently as you move. Don't look back. Something might
be gaining on you."
Despite the outward reputation as a showboat, Paige was keenly aware of
his standing in society. When the Hall
of Fame decided to honor a number of stars with a special wing for
Negro leaguers in 1972, Paige observed, "The only change is that
baseball has turned Paige from a second-class citizen to a second-class
immortal." Paige's life story is uniquely American, and any fan would
benefit from a reading of his autobiography, Maybe I'll Pitch Forever,
or one of his several biographies.
Check out the new blog that features interesting tidbits of baseball lore, literature, personalities, statistics, terminology, and more. I'm sharing a lot of research I've done over the years on fascinating topics. If you're a fan of the history of the game, this blog is for you.
Maybe
I'll Pitch Forever: A Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story
Behind the Legend
by Satchel Paige, David Lipman