Newsweek Caught in Double Play

It’s like a pitchers’ duel: Time and Newsweek, endlessly in competition, the outcome determined by the smallest miscue. Now both magazines have done special year-2000 sections: Time’s “People of the Century,” Newsweek’s “Voices of the Century.” Time asked Hank Aaron for his thoughts on Jackie Robinson, which ran in the June 14 issue and in a tie-in book to be published next week. “I was 14 years old when I first saw Jackie Robinson,” it begins. “His team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, made a stop in my hometown of Mobile, Ala., while barnstorming its way north … Jackie spoke to a big crowd of black folks over on Davis Avenue.” Newsweek, not to be outplayed, then asked Aaron to talk about … Jackie Robinson. From the October 25 issue: “I was maybe 14, 15. The Dodgers were on a barnstorming trip across the South … I skipped shop class to hear him speak in a little community place on Davis Avenue.” Newsweek’s Richard Turner played Artful Dodger: “Just a coincidence,” he says. “I’m sure he’s told that story a million times.” Time’s Diana Pearson was more direct. “We were glad to have him,” she explains, “first.”