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Fifty years after Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, his legacy remains in Gresham Park

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ATLANTA — On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Henry “Hank” Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record, Gresham Park on Eastside Atlanta hosted an event inviting Black teenage baseball players on a visit to Chicago for an exhibition. The event, organized by the baseball association of former Atlanta Braves outfielder Marquis Grissom and Mentoring Viable Prospects, brings together dozens of young black baseball players from across Atlanta.

It’s in Gresham Park, where 50 years of Black history, Atlanta history and baseball history converge, where Aaron’s ball looks like it’s still going as much as the sky and everybody down there may be attempting to survive and play the sport they love.

As I pull as much as Gresham Park, a black kid who cannot be older than 10 or 11, wearing baseball shorts and cleats, runs across the car parking zone, a rag flapping in the wind behind him. It’s a picture you’ve got been led to consider is not possible: Little boys in Black Atlanta don’t care about baseball anymore, they’d reasonably spend their time on their phones or play basketball or football. And while which may be true for many individuals, it is not true for a child and his friends who try to get a spot at an exhibition game in Chicago in May.

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I attempt to follow the child with my eyes to see where he’s running. I feel he’ll team up with a few of his teammates. Maybe he will consult with his mom on the sidelines. But I’m losing it because my eyes are actually on the batting cage. A black dad throws the ball to his son and offers him instructions with every swing.

Atlanta is a city uniquely positioned to have a good time its black heroes. Of course, to do that requires a singular combination of black political power and luck. But wherever you switch in town, you may see the names, likenesses or monuments of such black icons as civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and John Lewis.

Aaron is one in every of those icons.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron talks during a press conference after hitting his 715th profession home run on April 8, 1974, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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MLB via Getty Images

Aaron, a Southern kid born in Mobile, Alabama, who became a Negro League phenom and an MLB phenom all over the world from Boston to Milwaukee, got here to Atlanta with the Braves for the 1966 season. That season began a couple of months after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law 1965 A couple of months into the season in June, black nationalist Stokely Carmichael stood before a crowd in Greenwood, Mississippi and called for Black Power.

In some ways, Aaron would represent the subsequent phase of Black empowerment, where Black people had the chance to enter newly desegregated spaces and show that they might dominate. One where white people could attempt to discredit their skills, but they only couldn’t because a black kid from Alabama was hitting 30 home runs a season. And he broke baseball’s most beloved record in the face of racism and death threats, all in a city that had change into a black mecca.

In the early 2000s, the Gresham Park area of ​​Atlanta was 95% black. It was the heartbeat of town, but at the identical time a neglected space. Still, the park was known for showcasing town’s best black baseball players, who went on to play at historically black universities, other colleges, and even in the professionals. Recent players who’ve passed through Gresham Park include Oakland A’s right fielder Lawrence Butler, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Taj Bradley and Braves center fielder Michael Harris.

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In 2021, the Braves renovated the park, repairing three diamonds. When I got to the park, I saw something I didn’t expect: two of the parks were hosting games played by white teams with white audiences. This can be Atlanta, where gentrification is rampant and places that look latest suddenly change into home to white people. By the way in which, the Gresham Park area is currently only 72% black.

Across from these games was an unrestored diamond that looked like old Gresham Park. This is where local kids are only beginning to learn the game. They are as much as 8 years old, wear T-shirts and sweatpants, catch their first ground balls and throw them somewhere near first base. They do that when the sound of aluminum bats hitting baseballs echoes across the polished fields where white kids play.

“I don’t know why our kids aren’t in these fields,” Jared Fowler said. He’s one in every of the Gresham kids’ coaches, and his son can be determining how you can play the bottom ball. He coaches because his dad introduced him to baseball at a young age and he desires to pass it on. “But this is what has been happening in this area for some time.”

Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron hits his 715th profession home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s long-standing record at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on April 8, 1974, in Atlanta.

Focus on sports via Getty Images

Fowler says kids change into interested in baseball at a really early age, but as they invest in other sports and hobbies, interest wanes. It’s a preferred story, but it surely’s undermined by what’s happening on the pitch behind the park. This is one other refinished diamond with the number 44, Aaron’s number, on the fence. It is on this diamond that black boys jump around, initially throwing rockets into outstretched arms, and batting practice turns right into a series of bombs falling off the back fence. from where perhaps sooner or later the subsequent great Hammerin’ will come.

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He looks at Grissom’s brother, Antonio, who currently coaches the Morehouse College baseball team and helps scout players. Next to him is Greg Goodwin, a former Dodgers scout whose Viable Prospects Mentoring program can be undergoing a trial. About half of the children in these programs go to varsity to play baseball.

“We make sure we tell them about Aaron,” Goodwin said. “We make sure they know whose shoulders we are standing on.”

As we talk, one other man walks up, making fun of Morehouse along the way in which. He is older. Ralph Gullatt. He was the coach of Clark’s Atlanta baseball team. He grew up playing at Gresham Park, playing in the 12-year-old league in 1974.

So you were alive when Aaron broke the record?

Gullatt smiles.

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“Oh, I was at the game.” His eyes never leave the diamond and watch the kids. He himself is as excited as a baby. Like he was watching Aaron break the record again. “My friend’s mother worked in concessions and got us a ticket. I happened to be there. I remember those white boys running at him. We didn’t know what was going to happen. “Amazing night.”

Gullatt goes back to talking nonsense. There are more men in the world who talk concerning the high schools that ruled the world. The best players to come back from Gresham. There are more white kids than before. They’re talking about baseball. But they’re talking about Atlanta. They discuss Atlanta, which owes a lot to Aaron. The Atlanta that embraced him, held him, and idolized him, despite the fact that much of the country – and parts of Atlanta itself – wanted him gone.

But Aaron and his legacy won’t fade away until there’s somewhat black kid in Gresham Park running to the baseball diamond to catch ground balls with a rag catching the air beneath it.

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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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