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Vol. 40 • No. 03 • Thurs., Jan. 28, 2021 - Wed., Feb. 03, 2021 • An NCON Publication Serving The Milwaukee Area • 75¢
Baseball and civil rights legend Hank Aaron passes at 86
Hank Aaron, one of the greatest players in baseball history who smashed Babe Ruth’s career home run record in defiance of threats to his life and who used his Hall of Fame baseball career as a platform to champion civil rights, died Friday, January 22, 2021 at 86. Jonathan Kerber, the Atlanta Braves’ communications manager, confirmed the death but did not provide additional details. Aaron became the 10th member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame to die since April, an unfathomable loss of star power, history and institutional knowledge of the game. Throughout his 23-year career, spent mostly with the Braves in Milwaukee and then Atlanta, Aaron was admired as a model of steady excellence on the diamond, even though he lacked the
swaggering charisma of Ruth or the exuberant flair of his contemporaries Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. Aaron broke Ruth’s record of 714 home runs in 1974 before retiring two years later with 755, which remained one of the most hallowed numbers in all of sports for more than 30 years. Aaron, who was sometimes called Henry but was generally known to baseball fans as Hank or “Hammerin’ Hank” for his long-ball
power, grew up in Alabama and never forgot the jeers he received while playing in the South during the days of segregation. On the field, few players in history were as skilled at every dimension of the game. Aaron won three Gold Gloves for his defensive play in the outfield and was deceptively fast, finishing second in stolen bases in 1963 to speedster Maury Wills. But it was his quick, compact right-handed swing that
made Aaron a superstar as he compiled one superior year after another. Aaron, who spent 14 years as a member of the Milwaukee Braves and Brewers, owned a home on 20th and Center Streets in Milwaukee before moving to Mequon. He led the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series championship in 1957, when he was 23, and remained a potent force at the plate into his 40s. “Throwing a fastball by Henry Aaron,” an opposing pitcher, Curt Simmons, once quipped, “is like trying to sneak the sun past a rooster.” In 2007, Aaron’s home run record was surpassed by the San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds, who ended his career with 762. Because of Bonds’s alleged use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, many baseball fans and writers continued
to consider Aaron the true home run champion and an unassailable symbol of fair play and integrity. “I guess you can call him the people’s home run king,” Hall of Fame player Reggie Jackson told Sports Illustrated in 2007. Aaron entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, the first year he was eligible, and had a career batting average of .305 — higher than those of Mays and another notable contemporary, Mickey Mantle. A quiet force for civil rights His lifelong inspiration, Aaron said, was Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers infielder who broke major league baseball’s color barrier in 1947. When Robinson played in an exhibition game in Mr. Aaron’s (Continued on pg. 3)
January has been the deadliest month for COVID-19 with nearly 80,000 lives lost so far in the US
January has already become the worst month for U.S. COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic. As of Tuesday, January 26, 2021, there have been more than 79,000 coronavirus fatalities, topping the previous record set in December by more than a thousand, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The grim milestone underpins the growing demand from state officials for more vaccines so that Americans can be inoculated more quickly. On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, President Joe Biden's COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients informed governors that allocations would increase by around 16 percent starting next week, according to a source with knowledge of the call. Biden has pushed for 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days of his presidency, but with a long road ahead for vaccinations, he also called for 100 days of mask-wearing. "The brutal truth is it's going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated. Months. In the next few months, masks, not vaccines, are the best defense against COVID-19," Biden said while announcing the federal
government would buy and distribute more vaccine doses from Moderna and Pfizer. With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans — nearly the entire U.S. population — by the end of summer or early fall. Supply of vaccines not meeting demand Struggling after the stress of nearly a year of responding to the pandemic, states are eager to administer vaccines quickly and attempt a return to life as normal. "We have to defeat it because Mississippians are done. We're done burying loved ones who were lost to this virus. We're done with stressed hospitals. We're done with the fearful talk of lockdowns and shutdowns. We're ready for community again," said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who announced that the state celebrated about 200,000 vaccines delivered. The director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said he was "very encouraged" by the new presidential administration's approach to vaccinations, but that the state is still struggling with the dearth of vaccines. "We know that right now the number of individuals
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The threat of variants has made reopening the state a greater concern in California, a recent epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., Los Angeles County public health director Barbara Ferrer said.
who want to be vaccinated greatly outstrips the supply of vaccine that we have available," Dr. Nirav Shah said. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said his conversations with the Biden administration have made him feel hopeful about the future of vaccine distribution, but that "we cannot yet count on additional supply yet." Even if the administration delivers on the 16 percent increase in allocations promised, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that it won't be enough. "We're functionally out, we start to get a new allocation over the next few days," Cuomo said. Variants stoke demand and fears Adding to public fears is the spread of variants of the coronavirus.
"This would not be the time to think just because we are reopening that things are looking rosy," she said noting that asymptomatic spread is On Tuesday, Kentucky a problem. "We do need to Gov. Andy Beshear an- move through the next few nounced that two cases of weeks with caution. At many the variant first identified in other points where we've the United Kingdom have been reopening our sectors, been confirmed in the state. we in fact have seen a bump The variant has been up in our cases; we can't realshown to spread especially ly afford that." quickly, according to CDC modeling. And a UK report For his part, Pfizer CEO released Friday states there Albert Bourla tried to calm is "a realistic possibility" that fears around the variants the new variant has a higher with assurances that the death rate than other vari- groundwork is already being ants. laid to fight them. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and "We should not be frightInfectious Diseases Dr. An- ened, but I think we need thony Fauci spoke during a to be prepared," Bourla said White House press briefing, during the Bloomberg The conducted by White House Year Ahead event Tuesday. Press Secretary Jen Psaki, "Once we discover someat the James Brady Press thing that it is not as effecBriefing Room of the White tive, we will very, very quickly House January 21, 2021 in produce a booster dose that Washington, DC. Fauci said- will be a small variation to vaccinations will help coro- the current one." navirus variants from emerging (Continued on pg. 2) www.milwaukeetimesnews.com