DieDieSpammers's New Writeups

Hank Aaron (person)

2003-09-08T01:25:49Z

Some additional perspective and emphasis:

He secured of one of the most cherished records in all of sports - hit 755 home runs during regular season games of Major League Baseball.

Henry Louis Aaron - known as "Hank" and "The Hammer" - was born in Mobile, Alabama 2/5/34. He played 1954-1974 with Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and 1975-1976 with Milwaukee Brewers. He played in twenty-one¹ All Star Games - consecutively - and two World Series. His lifetime batting average was .305

Along the way to the home run record, on 4/8/74 he hit home run number 715 to eclipse the record held by Babe Ruth², which for decades was argued to be "unbreakable³." Aaron's reception into the annals of history was marred by disdain from a number of "purists" who didn't take well to such a momentous achievement by a Negro, Aaron. Aaron received numerous…

Joe Torre (person)

2003-09-07T23:59:23Z

Major figure in baseball history. Brooklyn native Joseph Paul Torre (b. 7/18/40) broke into the game in the shadow of his older brother Frank, whose middle name happened to be Joseph. Frank's great achievement was a .900 slugging average in the 1957 World Series, as the Milwaukee Braves stunningly dethroned the feared (and sometimes hated¹) champion New York Yankees (Mickey Mantle, Tony Kubek, Whitey Ford, Don Larsen and more). It might be noted that Frank's performance was overshadowed by a youngster named Hank Aaron.

As his brother's career faded Joe also joined the Braves. Early in his career his reward(/punishment?) was the team's relocation to Atlanta. Joe performed well with the hapless Atlanta team, averaging .290 with 22 home runs per season there. Joe was the team's cleanup hitter, yet often the bases were already cleared by the overshadowing player who batted ahead of him, one Henry Aaron. But…

Charles Bronson (person)

2003-09-02T12:18:08Z

Charles Bronson - nee Buchinsky - passed away this weekend in Los Angeles.

Bronson was famous for his movie portrayal of a "tough guy" seen notably in such huge films as the Death Wish series and The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen. Want to see a real tough guy? Try Chato's Land and Mr. Majestyk. Yet one may also shed a poignant tear at his grace in the final waltz with (his actual wife) Jill Ireland at the end of From Noon Till Three ... and be chilled by his haunting harmonica in Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in the West.

Notwithstanding borgo's quotation - made entirely tongue-in-cheek, I suspect - let's be honest: Charles was a man of humbleness - IMO humble in a classy way. Consider this quote:

"I don't look like someone who leans on a mantelpiece with a cocktail in my hand, you know," he said another time. "I look like the kind of guy who has a bottle of beer in my hand."

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