Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504110088
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEVE NIDETZ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Wrong. For as ``Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream,'' a tele-documentary that debuts at 8:05 p.m. Wednesday on TBS, tells us, Aaron was more than a silent giant leading the Milwaukee Braves to one World Series championship and two National League pennants in the 1950s. There also were ruminations about the National Guard patrolling the streets of Little Rock and Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' speech. There were a lot of painful thoughts behind that silent visage.
It's taken Aaron a while to finally let loose. He has told his story once before in book form - ``If I Had a Hammer'' was a best seller a few years ago. But when producers Mike Tollin and Denzel Washington approached him about a TV documentary, Aaron, as usual, was cautious.
A movie ``had been talked about for a long time'' Aaron said. And not just with Tollin and Washington. ``I was just trying to figure out the best approach. I wasn't interested in just a straight-out baseball movie. I knew most baseball movies weren't that popular.''
Tollin and Washington convinced Aaron a documentary would be the best approach. ``That energized me a little bit more,'' Aaron said, ``because, like when I went to write the book, I didn't want people to look at it as one success after another. A movie or documentary or story has to have a meaning. It has to have a purpose. So when I was first approached by Denzel and Mike, I wanted this documentary to be first-class. I wanted it to be something people would remember.''
Aaron the ballplayer, usually let his awesome bat do the talking. In this documentary, he lets actor Dorian Harewood speak. ``I thought about [narrating] at one time,'' Aaron said. ``But with my schedule, I didn't think I'd have the time. It was one of these things that you wanted to do right. I encouraged [the producers] to find someone else.''
Filled with interviews with family members and former teammates, civil-rights activists and former presidents, the two-hour program also has archival footage from Aaron's earliest playing days, those quiet days in the minors and in Milwaukee when Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn were the team leaders.
``If I had started speaking out [about civil rights] when I had 100 home runs,'' says Aaron, ``it wouldn't have made the news. It wasn't that I was afraid, it's just that I was very young when I got in the [minors]. I was an 18-year-old kid, scared to death. I learned. And I saw things that happened. When things didn't get any better, I thought it was my position to speak out on these issues.''
But that speaking out eventually led to the racial animosity as Aaron approached Ruth's career home-run record. As the second half of the film deftly shows, Aaron received letters filled with cruel epithets and threats. He even hired a bodyguard, Calvin Wardlaw, who jokes in the film about his binocular case, filled with a snub-nosed pistol. The bitterness Aaron feels at having to be subjected to those venomous letters fairly drips off the screen.
``There's going to be some hard knocks,'' Aaron said. ``I like [the film] because it's in relation to the times. I was playing baseball, being cheered by crowds of black and white, pink and orange people. Then there were students in Little Rock who couldn't go to school. It tells the story that if given the opportunity, we could all live in this country together. That was why I wanted it to be more of a documentary.''
Aaron, who now is corporate vice president of community relations for Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and a member of the TBS board of directors, says he doesn't resent the attention being poured on today's sports giants, e.g. Michael Jordan and Barry Bonds.
``There were several black athletes who paved the way [for them],'' Aaron said, ``just as Jackie Robinson paved the way for me. I looked at Jackie Robinson as the one who gave me the opportunity because I knew there were still problems out there. All these young athletes have to remember that before they could have all the success they're having, there are other people'' who went through the civil rights movement.
``Michael deserves [all the attention] he's getting,'' Aaron added. ``I'm happy. If they weren't giving it to him, I'd be back thinking the same thing I did when I was playing. It's a great thing for sports. Of course,'' Aaron laughed, showing his age, ``I'm an Oscar Roberston man myself.''
Aaron, at 61, is hardly slowing down. ``I'm doing better now than any time in my life,'' he said. ``All of our kids are out of school and doing well. My wife [former Atlanta TV talk-show host Billye Williams] travels more than I do now. Everything is going fine.''
So what better time to look back on an era that seems so far away. And look hard, because ``This is the last story that's going to be done on Henry Aaron.''
by CNB