Best of - Hank Aaron: Field of Dreams

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Babe Ruth's home run record held for almost four decades. But then Hank Aaron came along and smashed it. On the way to making baseball history, Aaron persevered through poverty, segregation, racism, and threats on his life. He talks here about joining the Negro Leagues, about playing through a period of transformation in America, and about helping to change the world by doing what he did best - swinging that bat. Mr. Aaron died on Friday, at the age of 86. This episode was originally posted in July of 2019. We are replaying it in his honor. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2019-2021

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, it's Alice. America lost a hero on Friday.
0:04.5	Hank Aaron. He was one of the greatest athletes to ever swing a bat
0:09.4	and he bravely faced down racism to do it. We are reposting this episode in his honor. It was originally
0:16.8	broadcast in July of 2019. 714. That's the number of home runs that Babe Ruth hit during his career, a record that
0:29.9	most sports fans and writers believed would never be broken. But here's the sound of it
0:36.9	shattering.
0:37.9	There's a drive into left field. That ball is going, going going and out of here.
0:45.0	It is one of the most famous swings in the history of baseball.
0:49.0	The year was 1974. The batter was Henry Aaron, otherwise known. was 27 years. But this isn't just a story about heroic athletic prowess. Hank Aaron
1:08.0	is black, born in Alabama in the 1930s and so the story of his home run record also contains the story of American racism.
1:19.0	It's about segregation, humiliation, the persistent threat of violence, and ultimately about the era when those things
1:28.8	began to change.
1:31.0	On this episode, the story of how Hank Aaron helped create that change with his
1:36.1	bat and his cleats and his quiet determination. This is what it takes a
1:41.8	podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
1:47.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
1:50.0	Madamay, this child is gifted.
1:54.0	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:56.3	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never
2:01.6	have another child. It all was so clear. It was just like the picture
2:05.3	started to form itself. There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the
2:10.7	truth. Darkness over light, darkness over light death over life every day I wake up and decide today I'm going to love my life decide
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Academy of Achievement, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Academy of Achievement and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.