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Thanks Robert, it was great to read this one more time.</div>
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Dick <br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Sport_literature_association <sport_literature_association-bounces@lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Hamblin, Robert via Sport_literature_association
<sport_literature_association@lists.ku.edu><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 23, 2021 5:37 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Sport_literature_association <sport_literature_association-bounces@lists.ku.edu>; Obdriveway via Sport_literature_association <sport_literature_association@lists.ku.edu>; Sport Literature Association <arete@listserv.uta.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [ARETE] Hank Aaron</font>
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<span style=""> </span></p>
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<span style=""> </span></p>
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<span style=""> </span></p>
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<span style="">HAMMERIN’ HANK: </span>#715</p>
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</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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</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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</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="">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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</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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</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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</p>
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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>
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--From <i>Keeping Score: Sports Poems for Every Season</i> (2007)<br>
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