Hammerin’ Hank When Henry “Hank” Aaron was a young boy growing up in Mobile, Alabama, in the early 1940s, he spent his summers playing baseball in a sandlot, or vacant lot. He was very athletic and excelled at running, fielding, and hitting. Who knew that 10 years later he would be playing with a Major League Baseball team, Milwaukee Braves?

Hank Aaron was one of the best baseball players to ever play the game. In fact, in 1974, exactly 20 years after starting his professional career, he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. By the end of his 23-year career, Aaron had hit 755 home runs.

Aaron began his career playing shortstop in the Negro American League—an association of teams made up of African American players who had been shut out of white professional baseball. In those days, the life of a baseball player was hard. Players traveled a great deal, played many games, and earned very little money. Despite the many hardships, Hank Aaron continued to play.

After a short time in the Negro American League, Aaron was recruited by the Major League team the Milwaukee Braves . By 1954, he was mostly playing as one of the team’s outfielders, but it was his skill as a hitter that made him shine.

Aaron was consistently a great hitter, which in time earned him the nickname “Hammerin’ Hank.” When he played with the South Atlantic League in 1953, he had a .362 batting average. In 1956, he won the league batting championship with an average of .328, and in 1957, he led his team to victory in the World Series; he was also named the league’s Most Valuable Player. By the time the Braves moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of 1965, Aaron had hit 398 home runs.

On April 8, 1974, Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record, which had stood since 1935. On that spring day in Atlanta, the largest crowd in Braves history came out to witness the event. There were 53,775 fans in attendance, and Aaron did not disappoint them. In the fourth inning, he ripped an Al Downing pitch over the fence and into the Braves’ bullpen, where reliever Tom House caught it. As Aaron rounded second base, two college students appeared and ran alongside him before security stepped in. The new home run king was mobbed at home plate by his teammates.

After retiring as a player in 1976, Aaron became one of the first African Americans to serve in Major League Baseball’s upper-level management, where he worked as Atlanta’s vice president of player development. Eight years later, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame—a mark of distinction Aaron could add to the many honors he had earned during his long, distinguished career.

Select the correct answer.
What text structure has the author used to organize information in this passage?

A.
problem and solution
B.
chronological order
C.
compare and contrast
D.
cause and effect