A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball
by Jerry Poling
University of Wisconsin Press, 2002 Paper: 978-0-299-18184-0 | Cloth: 978-0-299-18180-2 | eISBN: 978-0-299-18183-3 Library of Congress Classification GV865.A25P65 2002 Dewey Decimal Classification 796.357092
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
June 12, 1952—only a local sportswriter showed up at the Eau Claire airport to greet a newly signed eighteen-year-old shortstop from Alabama toting a cardboard suitcase. "I was scared as hell," said Henry Aaron, recalling his arrival as the new recruit on the city’s Class C minor league baseball team.
Forty-two years later, as Aaron approached the stadium where the Eau Claire Bears once played, an estimated five thousand people surrounded a newly raised bronze statue of a young "Hank" Aaron at bat. "I had goosebumps," he said later. "A lot of things happened to me in my twenty-three years as a ballplayer, but nothing touched me more than that day in Eau Claire." For the people of Eau Claire, Aaron’s summer two years before his Major League debut with the Milwaukee Braves symbolizes a magical time, when baseball fans in a small city in northern Wisconsin could live a part of the dream.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jerry Poling is the news-wire editor and a columnist for the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. He is the author of Downfield: Untold Stories of the Green Bay Packers.
REVIEWS
"Poling’s knowledge of Eau Claire, and his personal involvement with the story, add to the book’s vividness and charm. He’s uncovered terrific material about that first year, about Henry Aaron, and the story that ends the book is simply stunning. Poling is a fine journalist, an excellent writer, and a gifted storyteller."—Warren Goldstein, author of Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball
"Jerry Poling’s very informative book about Aaron’s first year in the minors in Eau Claire—a great baseball training ground for many Braves players—helped me understand how Henry Aaron bridged the cultural divide between growing up in the segregated South and playing in the North. Henry Aaron was one of the most disciplined athletes, mentally and physically, I ever knew. He also is one of the greatest people I have ever had the good fortune to know. A Summer Up North will help you appreciate why."—Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner of Baseball
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1: North to the Northern League
Chapter 2: Eau Claire Baseball
Chapter 3: On the Road in the Northern League
Chapter 4: Statuesque
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball
by Jerry Poling
University of Wisconsin Press, 2002 Paper: 978-0-299-18184-0 Cloth: 978-0-299-18180-2 eISBN: 978-0-299-18183-3
June 12, 1952—only a local sportswriter showed up at the Eau Claire airport to greet a newly signed eighteen-year-old shortstop from Alabama toting a cardboard suitcase. "I was scared as hell," said Henry Aaron, recalling his arrival as the new recruit on the city’s Class C minor league baseball team.
Forty-two years later, as Aaron approached the stadium where the Eau Claire Bears once played, an estimated five thousand people surrounded a newly raised bronze statue of a young "Hank" Aaron at bat. "I had goosebumps," he said later. "A lot of things happened to me in my twenty-three years as a ballplayer, but nothing touched me more than that day in Eau Claire." For the people of Eau Claire, Aaron’s summer two years before his Major League debut with the Milwaukee Braves symbolizes a magical time, when baseball fans in a small city in northern Wisconsin could live a part of the dream.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jerry Poling is the news-wire editor and a columnist for the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. He is the author of Downfield: Untold Stories of the Green Bay Packers.
REVIEWS
"Poling’s knowledge of Eau Claire, and his personal involvement with the story, add to the book’s vividness and charm. He’s uncovered terrific material about that first year, about Henry Aaron, and the story that ends the book is simply stunning. Poling is a fine journalist, an excellent writer, and a gifted storyteller."—Warren Goldstein, author of Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball
"Jerry Poling’s very informative book about Aaron’s first year in the minors in Eau Claire—a great baseball training ground for many Braves players—helped me understand how Henry Aaron bridged the cultural divide between growing up in the segregated South and playing in the North. Henry Aaron was one of the most disciplined athletes, mentally and physically, I ever knew. He also is one of the greatest people I have ever had the good fortune to know. A Summer Up North will help you appreciate why."—Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner of Baseball
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1: North to the Northern League
Chapter 2: Eau Claire Baseball
Chapter 3: On the Road in the Northern League
Chapter 4: Statuesque
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE