the man was not only a great ball player but a reminder of the struggle for african-americans.he broke down so many doors.imagine having the fbi escort you to a baseball game? hate mail for breaking babe ruth's record? jackie robinson&larry doby opened the doors as well as the negro league but mr. Aaron kicked it thru.he is a class act and a true ambassador.he stared racisim dead in the eye and achieved.a true hero for all time.this book states that&more.

the book deeply touched me , as it told the life of the great base ball palyer , and his struggle as an african american in the major leagues.

This was an excellent book with beautiful illustrations. The quotes from so many exceptional athletes really adds to the book. It made a great Father's Day gift, especially since Hank was in Atlanta last week for the book signing. He's a class act who is very humble. He's the type of person I hope my children have as one of their heroes. I didn't realize until I read the book the kind of discrimination and criticism he had to deal with in baseball.

This book is terrific for kids who look to sports for role models. While from a different generation, these 4 athletes exemplify what being a leader is and are timeless in the positive effect they will have on children.

This book is incredibly well written and offers the reader insight into an early part of Hank Aaron's life, but the book is so much more than that. It also vividly describes minor league baseball and its impact on one community. It delves into race relations in one Wisconsin city in the 1950s and today. It offers story after story, engagingly told, of how baseball affected lives of individuals and how individuals had an impact on the world of baseball, often through simply accepting someone like Aaron into their homes in an era where racial tension led too many to stare rather than welcome him. Poling's book is one of the most well-written sports histories I've read; I read the book in a day as I couldn't put it down. Granted, partly I was interested in it because I went to college in Eau Claire and lived in Duluth, Minnesota, for a couple of years (another city in the Northern League he discusses). However, I really believe that even those with no ties to Wisconsin but rather a love of baseball or an admiration for Aaron as a person and a baseball player will enjoy this book.

I was a kid when Hank Aaron broke the Home Run record -- and I grew up thinking that's what he was about, like an early George Foster. The audio book, with a Foreword and Afterword read by Henry Aaron himself, really brings the player and the man to you. He was an all-around player, at least once he found a defensive position where he had major-league talent.

His offense was outstanding, setting many more records than just Most Home Runs and reaching many milestones. He also is a man of conscience and character that pushed through a number of color barriers without the flamboyance of some of today's leaders.

The narrative, read by Courtney Vance, shifts without warning between 1st and 3rd persons. I found this interesting and it helped hold my attention. If you enjoy baseball entertainment like the movie "Bull Durham", this is for you.

The book is a must read. It shows Aaron fight against prejustice to evenutually break a record that he would be scorned and have his life threatend before he could break it. Also his triumph of breaking Babe Ruth's all time career home run record also winning in a white man's world.

'I Had a Hammer':The Hank Aaron Story, is quite a remarkable book. Mr. Aaron had a magnificent career as one of the greatest baseball players of all time, yet he was not as flamboyant and luminous as other figures in the game that most fans are accustomed to remembering such as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio or even Babe Ruth. Aaron was a methodical productive hitter that was a reliable back bone of the Braves organization going back to it's Milwaukee days. He was the man who hit the game winning hit that propelled the Braves into the 1957 World Series, and I later years the only man to break Babe Ruth's home run record making him still the all-time home run king in Baseball. What is sometimes over-shadowed by his home run title is the fact that he was also a very all around hitter throughout his career. Aaron had 2297 RBI's, 240 stolen bases, 98 triples, 624 doubles, 2174 runs, 3771 hits out of 3298 games he played and batted .305 in his career. Incredible all around numbers, and a man any coach would die for in their starting line-up. This story tells much of the untold story of Aaron's career which he candidly lays out in detail for the reader. The high pressure racism he experienced from his early days in the negro leagues, the South Atlantic League and throughout his days as an Atlanta Brave. The flood of death threats and hate mail for his sole 'crime' of being a black man approaching Babe Ruth's record. The book is beautifully presented and is extraordinarily engrossing in it's dignified manner in which Aaron breaks his long year's of silence portraying a tale of an illustrious career and a thrilling American triumph. Mr. Aaron is a legend, and this is more than just any other sports biography. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, as it shines a light on our country's history that is seldom told. I found this to be an astonishing tale about the baseball odyssey who hit the glorious and impossble 715 in more ways than one.

"I Never Had It Made" by Jackie Robinson is an amazing biography of one of the most remarkable figures in the history of baseball. There is much more to Robinson than just baseball. From his fight for respect in the US Army to his support of Rockefeller, Robinson deserves much respect for this and is probably one of the best symbols of everything this country should represent. Much of the baseball critics doubted that he could even hit a big league pitch. Tom Candiotti said major league pitchers would "knock the bat right out of his hands." Robinson's critics claimed he couldn't hit because "he was all tied up at the shoulders and could never get around on the pitches inside." Jackie Robinson gave all of us, not only athletes, but every person in this country, a sense of our own strength. However, because I am an athlete, I looked at Jackie a little differently. This is not all about baseball; it's about the deep commitment that Robinson made to achieve justice for himself and all Americans. In 1947 Robinson broke the color line in the major leagues and suffered terrible abuse for doing so. He discusses his relationships with the sports figures he admired, and also recalls his run-ins with those he did not like. It is later about political involvements after his career ended in 1956 and his friendships with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, William Buckley, and Nelson Rockefeller.

This is a very important book. It documents one man's struggle against terrible odds. It should be assigned reading in every junior high school in America. I know that I'll be giving a copy to my kids so that can read the story of a man who said what he believed & fought for his ideals.

When I think about someone like Jackie Robinson, I think of someone who had an easy life of playing baseball and making lots of money. He was first the first African-American to play in the professional Major League level and was highly respected by everyone. After having read his autobiography, I Never Had It Made, I realized that I was totally wrong. Besides the glory and the fame for having been the first African-American to play in the major leagues, Jackie had to go through many hardships to get where he got. Jackie uses this book to tell the reader of all the different trials and hardships he had to go through before, during, and after his professional career as the 1st and 2nd baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie also tells of all the other things that he did besides baseball. I didn't know it, but Jackie went to UCLA and while he was there, he did many great things. Not only was a great baseball star at UCLA, he was also a big star in football, basketball, and track. After college, he went into the Army and became a lieutenant for the U.S. Army before he signed with the Montreal Royals (a minor league baseball team) in 1945. Jackie gives a lot of the credit to Mr. Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers for having the guts to bring him into the team and making the transition as easy as possible. Jackie promised to take in any insults thrown at him while he was in baseball uniform and not to respond to them for two years. This was to pave the way for other black players to be brought into the major league. I personally don't think that I can play a game while people are yelling and making fun of me. Jackie describes what he had to go through in the book. Jackie also discusses the hate mail he got and even the threats people placed on his life. He also tells of his wife and the kind of positive impact she had on him as well. Many people think of Jackie Robinson as being only a baseball player, but he did much more. After retiring from baseball, he did many things in regard to the civil rights issue. He influenced many issues and was even the political scene, helping President Nixon and President John F. Kennedy during their stay in office. He was even apart of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In the book, you learn more about his relationships with Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and many others. Jackie Robinson accomplished many things and had endured many problems even within his own family. He talks about the drug problems that plagued his oldest son and all the hardships his children had to go through being the sons and daughter of a famous African-American figure. Jackie changed the way of life for many people and gave hope to the African-American community. After all of this, Jackie learns that no matter what his successes were in the white world, he would always remain a black man. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing about Jackie Robinson. You wouldn't expect for a baseball player to be a good enough writer to write a three hundred page autobiography, but I thought Jackie did a great job. The book flowed and it never got boring. I didn't even want to put it down, just kept turning the pages. This book gave great insight into the kind of life African American faced in the early to mid nineteen hundreds and what they had to endure. Jackie Robinson is not only a great icon in the world of professional sports, but in other aspects as well and I think that he did awesome job in writing this book.

Don't get me wrong -- this was a great read and a provocative book about my favorite ballplayer of all-time. But I thought Tolan was at his best describing the people who experienced Hank Aaron's home run chase firsthand (including himself) and at his worst when his personal memories shifted from fact to opinion.

The tale of his encounter with a homeless Atlanta man who attended the game where Aaron hit No. 715 is beautifully told and moving. His personal friendship with a Babe Ruth admirer ignores racism in his hometown and praises Aaron for his accomplishment illustrates how we need inner strength and conviction not to simply march in tune with those around us. Tolan's interviews with Aaron, his daughter Gaile and former teammates reveal the depth with which Aaron had to endure racism as a ballplayer, and his historical portrait of the racial tension in his hometown of Milwaukee is thorough and fascinating.

But the more Tolan discovers about how unappreciated Aaron truly is, the more preachy -- and less effective -- he becomes. He hits a low point when he grills three advertising executives on their lack of knowledge of Aaron's hardships as they prepare to pay homage to Aaron in a MasterCard commercial. Are they to be blamed for that? All of these people clearly respect Aaron, and they all interviewed Aaron in preparation for the commercial. If he'd really wanted them to know what he endured, he probably would have told them. He also takes some unnecessary shots at the Hall of Fame because they have chosen to pay tribute to Babe Ruth with an entire room, while Aaron gets only a wall. Sure, Aaron deserves a room to himself, so do Jackie Robinson, Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, and many of baseball's other African-American pioneers. They don't. Deal with it.

One need not be a walking encyclopedia of Aaron's life, as Tolan is, to appreciate his accomplishments achieved under extreme duress. Let those who appreciate Aaron for who he is -- a great ballplayer and a great man -- simply be. The irony is, I'm with Tolan on his central argument, that Aaron is one of the greatest and most underappreciated Americans in history. I'll even go far as to say you can't prove Ruth is better than Aaron, because Ruth played an all-white game and didn't necessary play against the best. But Ruth made the game popular. If not for Babe Ruth and what he did to make baseball America's pastime, Aaron's chase wouldn't have inspired the rancor that it did. People wouldn't have cared.

Sandy, let's enjoy being Hank Aaron fans by not wasting our time beating up those who don't appreciate him to the extreme degree we do.

Sandy Tolan did a good job interviewing many people, including Hank Aaron, to do this book. Hank Aaron is a wonderful person who deserves much more recognition for what he has done both on the field and off. The book is very well done. It makes you think.

What a wonderful book! This is a fitting tribute to a man who has been shamefully underrated in American life, as well as a probing look at race relations in the past forty-plus years, seen through the prism of baseball and Hank Aaron's breaking of Babe Ruth's record. Like the author, I grew up in Milwaukee, although I am a bit older and so I saw Hank Aaron hit many of his home runs. His dignity and grace are a precious memory of my youth. Also like the author, I wrote Hank Aaron a letter when I learned that racists were hounding him for challenging Ruth, and received an eloquent letter in reply from Mr. Aaron. This book, with its highly personal approach to the subject, is a multifaceted view of a revealing part of American life. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

I highly recomend this quality of literature for all sports fans. Facts, dates, and personal life history are all included in a quality book which I read from cover to cover. I haver now directed my efforts to add the complete series of Baseball Legends to my library of great sports books.

James Tackach's juvenile biography of "Hank Aaron" begins with the crowning achievement of his career, when he hammered his 715th home run and passed the record of the immortal Babe Ruth. We then go back and follow Aaron's career from when he was a kid who batted cross-handed (I think that is how he built up those powerful wrists) and never dreamed of making the Major Leagues until Jackie Robinson broke the color line. Tackach's writing style combines the best of the journalist and the historian in telling Aaron's story. For young readers who have already read a short, introductory biography of Aaron, Tackach's effort nicely fills the niche between that and an adult biography. Hopefully the other volumes in the Baseball Legends series, for which Earl Weaver served as senior consultant, are as good as this one. This 64-page book is illustrated with black & white photographs, including one of his Hall of Fame plaque, and his career statistics. There is also an introduction by Jim Murray, the poet laurette of American sportswriters in my lifetime, whose words are also a joy to read.

If you like baseball, you will love this book. It's a "coffee table" type book that every true baseball fan needs in his/her sports library.

It comes with a Homerun Derby CD. For me, the game was a little hard to figure out because the directions are a little unclear. I'm working on it and will master it one day.

Enjoyed the book. Easy reading with great photos.

My synopsis on what I read so far was the one that brought me to the conclusion that this book is boring starting of with we would appreciate to read more about that's person's life as a child, where there people who did not want him to succeed? Was there any defects that may have enabled him to not become famous? you know things, but, the book did have it's interesting thoughts and it was a good book, just that when you write one next time try to let us know as much as you can.

This book was about George "Babe" Ruth and Henry Aaron. I think it was a great baseball story about these to players. It really tells a lot about Babe's history where he came from and how he got to the top. the book also tells some about Henry and how he got to the top. I really enjoyed this book!