Me and Hank: A Boy and His Hero, Twenty-Five Years Later

by Sandy Tolan

In 1965, when Sandy Tolan was nine, his hero left town. Unlike other Milwaukee Braves fans, Sandy continued to follow Hank Aaron and his teammates, even though they were now seven hundred miles south in Atlanta. In 1973, as Aaron closed in on Babe Ruth's career home run mark, the black slugger received racist hate mail by the ton. Shocked, Sandy wrote his hero a letter of support. A few weeks later, Aaron responded. Dear Sandy, Aaron wrote. Your letter of support and encouragement meant much more to me than I can adequately express in words. Twenty-five years later, Tolan embarked on a journey to meet his old hero and to understand, through family, teammates, and civil rights leaders, a legacy of courage and dignity that resonates far beyond the playing field. Me and Hank explores the landscape between a hero's aspirations and the reality of his struggle; between a young fan's wishes and their delivery, a generation later, to a middle-aged man; and between the starkly different ways blacks and whites experience and remember the same events.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Sandy Tolan is a teacher and radio documentary producer. He is the author of two books: Me and Hank: A Boy and His Hero, Twenty-Five Years Later (Free Press, 2000), about the intersection between race, sports, and American heroes; and The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2006). The Washington Post called the book “extraordinary” and selected it among their top nonfiction titles for 2006; the Christian Science Monitor wrote, “no novel could be more compelling” and proclaimed, “It will be one of the best nonfiction books you will read this year.”Sandy has reported from more than 30 countries, especially in the Middle East, Latin America, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe.
As co-founder of Homelands Productions, he has produced hundreds of documentaries and features for public radio. He has written for more than 40 newspapers and magazines. Sandy is associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. From 2000-2007, he taught international reporting and radio at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California-Berkeley. In 2007, his students won the George Polk Award for a series for print and radio on the early signs of climate change around the world. It was the first time students have been honored in the 58-year history of the awards.

For reviews, and other information about The Lemon Tree, please use the drop down menu under the Lemon Tree, on the main menu.

Reviews

[Jack Ippel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brought me back to my childhood in Sheboygan--my first Braves game in County Stadium, listening to the Braves games with Earl Gillespie and Blaine Walsh, and hearing about Father Groppi's efforts to bring equal housing to Milwaukee. I appreciated Tolan's depiction of Henry Aaron's life off the field, particularly how he dealt with adversity and racist attitudes, and the quiet frustration at not being able to overcome the "legendary" Babe Ruth in the eyes of a (racist) white fandom.

Thanks to Roy, another Brave/Brewer/Packer fan for giving me this book--a good read during black history month. Rest in peace, Henry Aaron.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any baseball fan.

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about a fan and his baseball hero, Hank Aaron. The book was written 25 years after Aaron set the home run record. The book is a good biography of Aaron, interesting auto biography of Tolan and a nice history of the culture of the 50' through 2000.
It is interesting to be reading it 25 years after it was written as many of the Tolan's thesis that Hark Aaron did not get the respect he should have. In the next 25 years I believe that Aaron has received the respect he deserved as one of the greatest ball players and the home run king. Aaron accomplished much outside of baseball that reflects greatly on his life.
A goodread for the baseball fan and for some interested to the 1950 to 2000.

[Mike Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good memoir about Hank Aaron and his impact on a young boy from Milwaukee. This look back after 25 years (in 1999) really digs into the social and civil rights issues surrounding Aaron breaking Ruth's HR record. Tolan does a great job of interviewing people from all walks of life and in different regions of the US and gives insight into how Aaron was viewed differently in various segments of America. Now that Aaron's record was 50(!!!) years ago, it would be interesting to have Tolan give an update to his book and findings.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those sports books that, through the achievements of a heroic figure, in this case Hank Aaron, holds a mirror up to society. That looking glass does not present a pretty picture when it comes to racism and how we treat white and black achievers in different ways. There is nostalgia and melancholy laced through this story, but also quiet anger and a search for justice. A wonderful book that is about much more than baseball and home runs.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun trip through Tolan's past and Hank Aaron's past, and Tolan explores the social context of Aaron playing in both the North and the South in the 1950s-1970s amid racial tensions. There are some interesting discussions of baseball then and now and of race in America, although sometimes they tend to be too pessimistic.