A haul of ‘Hall’ books: Hank Aaron to Earl Averill

As I mentioned in a previous entry, look for new bios about Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven to come out before the inductions (I wouldn’t be surprised if manuscripts are in prep already).

I was wondering: out of all the personnel — players, executives, managers, etc. — enshrined to the Hall of Fame, how many have been the subject of books or have even written their own? Just off the top of my head, I would say that the if players from the 19th and early 20th-century have had their stories told, it’s been from small, niche (McFarland, for example), and academic presses (University of Nebraska Press).

So I’ve working on just such a list. Because of the number of inductees, I’ll break it down to one or two letters at a time. Where I have already done a piece about an individual (such as Sparky Anderson, shortly after he passed away), I’ll offer the link to the entry, rather than reinvent the wheel.

Obviously some — such as Hank Aaron, who leads off the list — will have numerous titles written about them. It’s not my intention to list every one, just the ones, IMHO, I think are important or just plain fun.

Note: A lot of bios were written for younger readers. There may be a handful I think are worthy of mention, but I certainly won’t be including everything.

So here we go:

Henry Aaron (elected 1982). Like several of his contemporaries, the books on Aaron fall into a few timelines: “regular” releases during his playing days; a wave of titles when he was approaching and immediately after attaining the all-time home run record; and more recently in his advanced age.

Representative titles include:

The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, by Howard Bryant (2010)
Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America, by Tom Stanton (2004, the 30th anniversary of the record-breaking home run)
The Hammer: The Best of Hank Aaron from the Pages of Sports Illustrated, edited by Christian Stone (2007)
Home Run: My Life in Pictures, by Aaron with Dick Schaap (1999)
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story, Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler (1991)
Aaron (Revised Edition), by Aaron with Furman Bisher (1974)
Hank Aaron: One for the Record, by George Plimpton (1974)
Aaron, r.f., Aaron with Bisher (1968)

Grover Cleveland Alexander (1938)

Also see the biopic, The Winning Team, starring Ronald Reagan as Alexander and Doris Day as his wife. The film features several big leaguers of the 1950s, including Jerry Priddy, George “Catfish” Metkovich, Bob Lemon, Peanuts Lowery, Irv Noren, Hank Sauer, Al Zarilla, and Gene Mauch.

Robert Alomar (2011)