I love baseball--always have and I'm old. When I was a child in a small town in Michigan, families would get together for the Saturday night baseball game. I don't know when baseball stopped being the American sport and we switched to football, which I find unbearable to watch because the people out on the field brutally attack each other and pile up more injuries that will bring them to grievous harm later in life. People tell me that baseball is too slow but it's not if you are thinking through the next moves while nothing appears to happen as you would when watching a chess game. I love baseball but football does reflect these cold, brutal times in the U.S. far better than does baseball.
Prof. Snyder, this is a great story. I appreciate it. I don’t have anything to say about baseball, though. I can only talk about a teacher I thought was important in my life. Baseball never really was.
What I want to say more about Mr. Rivers’ class was that we 8th graders researched our slivers of American history, wrote our papers and gave oral presentations. We learned and lived our American history together in a better way.
Saying thanks to Hank Aaron got me thinking about a person who greatly influenced me when I was in 8th grade. This would be in 1964. I remember my Social Studies teacher, Mr. Rivers. Mr. Rivers made civics and Social Studies come alive for all of us. One semester, he assigned the class to take one sliver of American history and research it. We also had to do oral presentations. I researched the French and Indian War and it’s influence on the Revolutionary War. I remember one kid named Austin, who was kind of a wise-guy in class. gave a heartfelt and gorgeous oral presentation on Civil Rights. That’s the effect Mr. Rivers had on us.
When my family would take road trips across the country, we’d always stop and watch a MLB game. It was on one of these trips, I think I was 10, my dad told me about the integration of baseball. It was my first history lesson (that I remember) in American racism. I remember feeling so sad. I couldn’t understand why someone would threaten a baseball hero like Jackie Robinson or Hank Aaron. Later in life, I of course learned how both players dealt with racism throughout their career. To this day, thinking about it fills me with admiration and sadness.
My father, brother, and I watched him hit that home run on April 8, 1974. Quite a day. There's still something about baseball that makes it quintessentially American; this is some not insignificant part of it.
Is there a story about Hank Aaron and Nelson Rockefeller? Was it Aaron that after witnessing the blatant racism at the 1964 or '60 Rep. convention, left the Rep party? Or something along those lines?
I remember learning cities’ names from baseball teams in the general terms you relayed while scouring through the local paper’s sports section on my grandfather’s bed each morning and not once thinking about race as I excitedly anticipated a professional baseball player breaking the Sultan of Swat’s home run record. Naïve, yes. Hank Aaron was a hero of mine and he always will be a hero of mine. My son, a Duke undergraduate now, relayed a story to me the day the “Hammer” passed away. He was on his Twitter account and a younger student tweeted out a “44” complete with three exclamation points and my son responded back with a “44” complete with three explanation points. There is so much conveyed by that number which generated two immediate likes from two individuals who were more than 25 years removed from Hank Aaron the baseball player, but still fully absorbed in the legend. Yes, write your baseball book and I am sure you will knock it out of the park (sorry). Thanks for this!
I love baseball--always have and I'm old. When I was a child in a small town in Michigan, families would get together for the Saturday night baseball game. I don't know when baseball stopped being the American sport and we switched to football, which I find unbearable to watch because the people out on the field brutally attack each other and pile up more injuries that will bring them to grievous harm later in life. People tell me that baseball is too slow but it's not if you are thinking through the next moves while nothing appears to happen as you would when watching a chess game. I love baseball but football does reflect these cold, brutal times in the U.S. far better than does baseball.
Hank Aaron was something special. Looking forward to your book about it!
https://www.al.com/sports/2015/05/watch_hank_aaron_on_the_third.html
https://www.mlb.com/news/hank-aaron-covid-19-vaccination
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/hank-aaron-compares-republicans-who-oppose-obama-to-kkk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m03bFB0vmFA
Prof. Snyder, this is a great story. I appreciate it. I don’t have anything to say about baseball, though. I can only talk about a teacher I thought was important in my life. Baseball never really was.
What I want to say more about Mr. Rivers’ class was that we 8th graders researched our slivers of American history, wrote our papers and gave oral presentations. We learned and lived our American history together in a better way.
Saying thanks to Hank Aaron got me thinking about a person who greatly influenced me when I was in 8th grade. This would be in 1964. I remember my Social Studies teacher, Mr. Rivers. Mr. Rivers made civics and Social Studies come alive for all of us. One semester, he assigned the class to take one sliver of American history and research it. We also had to do oral presentations. I researched the French and Indian War and it’s influence on the Revolutionary War. I remember one kid named Austin, who was kind of a wise-guy in class. gave a heartfelt and gorgeous oral presentation on Civil Rights. That’s the effect Mr. Rivers had on us.
When my family would take road trips across the country, we’d always stop and watch a MLB game. It was on one of these trips, I think I was 10, my dad told me about the integration of baseball. It was my first history lesson (that I remember) in American racism. I remember feeling so sad. I couldn’t understand why someone would threaten a baseball hero like Jackie Robinson or Hank Aaron. Later in life, I of course learned how both players dealt with racism throughout their career. To this day, thinking about it fills me with admiration and sadness.
My father, brother, and I watched him hit that home run on April 8, 1974. Quite a day. There's still something about baseball that makes it quintessentially American; this is some not insignificant part of it.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/atlanta-high-school-changes-namesake-to-hank-aaron-from-first-ku-klux-klan-leader/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/atlanta-high-school-changes-namesake-to-hank-aaron-from-first-ku-klux-klan-leader/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm
Is there a story about Hank Aaron and Nelson Rockefeller? Was it Aaron that after witnessing the blatant racism at the 1964 or '60 Rep. convention, left the Rep party? Or something along those lines?
I remember learning cities’ names from baseball teams in the general terms you relayed while scouring through the local paper’s sports section on my grandfather’s bed each morning and not once thinking about race as I excitedly anticipated a professional baseball player breaking the Sultan of Swat’s home run record. Naïve, yes. Hank Aaron was a hero of mine and he always will be a hero of mine. My son, a Duke undergraduate now, relayed a story to me the day the “Hammer” passed away. He was on his Twitter account and a younger student tweeted out a “44” complete with three exclamation points and my son responded back with a “44” complete with three explanation points. There is so much conveyed by that number which generated two immediate likes from two individuals who were more than 25 years removed from Hank Aaron the baseball player, but still fully absorbed in the legend. Yes, write your baseball book and I am sure you will knock it out of the park (sorry). Thanks for this!