Andy Hartung
Blog Post 3
The next source I will be further investigating is a book called, “A summer up North: Henry Aaron and the legend of Eau Claire baseball,” This book was written by Jerry Poling. This book will be a crucial secondary source for my research; it will be extremely helping in assisting me in answering part of my research question, which is how did playing for the Eau Claire Bears help to shape Henry Aaron into the magnificent baseball player he would eventually become. I will also get important back ground information regarding his time spent here in Eau Claire, did he like it here, what were some things he experienced while living here? I also have an alternate research question that came up when I was doing my research. It was brought to my attention that Aaron experienced racism during his minor league days and I would like to explore if some of that occurred while he was in Eau Claire or if it was later in minor league days.
Author Jerry Poling is a new-wire editor and columnist for the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. In his book Poling tells the story beginning with when Henry Aaron got off of the plane and arrived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where he would be spending the summer. Poling invents his ethos by telling us the audience this story, he wants to the audience to be intrigued by his writings. We can trust Poling’s credibility because he wrote more than one book therefore we can trust him as an author.
Poling’s is essentially a timeline of Henry Aaron and what he did. It looks at his early baseball days and looked at how individuals had an impact on the sport, such as Henry Aaron. I have not yet read any parts of the book so will not attempt to speculate the argument he is trying to make, however as I continue my research I will at least read some chapters to get a better understanding of the book.
With this source I can look at “with and against the grain” points. Some areas of it that I might have some doubt about would be when the author is talking about the Eau Claire Bears because there might be some bias there, because he is from Eau Claire. However, I believe a lot more of what he is saying than I doubt. He works also as an editor so we can assume he has experience in avoiding any type of bias, but also we can trust statistics that he gives us because as a journalist that is his job, to get reliable statistics.
This source will have a strong contribution to my project, from this book alone I can probably get all of my back ground information on Hank Aaron’s life while he was in Eau Claire. The book will talk about what times were like for African-American s during this time period in the world of baseball. This book will be very useful in answering my research questions, I will be able to see how Aaron developed as a baseball player during his time spent with the Eau Claire Bears.
I think this source will really help to understand how Henry Aaron spent his time in Eau Claire. Since you haven’t read you don’t know at what angle the author will come from. When you do read he book talk about how e presented the information and whether or not you agree from the author’s point of view.
Your two sources work well: the first gives a broader picture of racism Aaron and others faced, and the second one is the definitive source about his years in Eau Claire. I also like the fact that you speculate on Jerry’s possible bias. He’s a close friend of mine, and I will completely vouch for his integrity, but it’s an entirely fair question for you to raise. You note, correctly in my view, that his journalistic experience helps build his credibility. From here you will want to discuss more how your two sources speak to each other. You also may want to try to find articles, in the Leader-Telegram and elsewhere, about when Aaron returned to EC in August 1994 for the dedication of the sculpture of him.