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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Narrow""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Narrow"">HAMMERIN’ HANK: </span>#715</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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“I never saw them,”</p>

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you said later of the two college kids, </p>

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both white, who climbed down</p>

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from the bleachers and trotted alongside </p>

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as you rounded third and headed</p>

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for baseball immortality.</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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And no wonder.</p>

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You weren’t about to let two honkies</p>

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intrude upon this moment.</p>

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Not after the miles and years </p>

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you traveled to run these 90 feet.</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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So what if you were now</p>

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the toast of Atlanta,</p>

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the most Southern of all cities, </p>

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and to whites as well as blacks. </p>

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So what if no hotel clerk.</p>

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minor or major league,</p>

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could anymore dare to refuse you </p>

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service with your white teammates, </p>

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send you across town to sleep and eat</p>

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in the colored section of town.</p>

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So what if even those fans</p>

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who <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">once </span>wore hoods</p>

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and voted for Lester Maddox</p>

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would now be more than happy</p>

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to invite you home for dinner,</p>

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let you sign an autograph or two for the kids.</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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Could that atone for the long,</p>

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lonely youth in segregated Mobile,</p>

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the long bus rides in the Negro League,</p>

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the boos and obscenities in the Sally League, </p>

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the cold, condescending stares in Milwaukee, </p>

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and now, finally, as you approached the summit </p>

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no one was expected to climb,</p>

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the death threats contained in letters</p>

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that claimed “no n----- will ever break</p>

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the Babe’s record”?</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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They were all determined to make you </p>

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stay in your place,</p>

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admit you were different.</p>

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<o:p> </o:p></p>

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<o:p> </o:p>Well, you were different,</p>

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you certainly showed them that,</p>

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though not in the way they anticipated, </p>

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or preferred. Sullen and speechless, </p>

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you answered them all with your bat.</p>

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It helped that the ball was white.</p>

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<br>

</p>

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--From <i>Keeping Score: Sports Poems for Every Season</i> (2007)<br>

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