The first definitive biography of Henry Aaron-baseballrs"s great home-run champion and one of its most enduring legends. As the steroid controversy has increasingly tarnished baseballrs"s image, Hank Aaronrs"s achievements have come to seem all the more remarkable: the first player to pass Babe Ruth in home runs, Aaron held that record for thirty-three years while shattering other records (RBIs, total bases, extra-base hits) and setting new ones (hitting at least thirty home runs per season fifteen times). But his achievements run much deeper than his stats. Chronicling the social upshy;heavals of the years during which Aaron played (1954 to 1976), Howard Bryant shows us how the dignity and determination with which he stood against racism-on and off the field, and as one of the first blacks in baseballrs"s upper management-helped transform the role and significance of the proshy;fessional black athlete and turn Aaron into an national icon. Eloquently written, detailed, and penetrating, this is a revelatory portrait of both the great ballplayer and the complicated private man. From the Hardcover edition.