It was forty years ago today that Roberto Clemente climbed on board a plane carrying relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
Overloaded, the plane crashed minutes later, killing everyone on board. Clemente’s body was never recovered.
He was on the plane because previous loads had been stolen and he hoped his presence would enable the supplies to reach their intended recipients.
He was elected to the Baseball hall Of Fame in a special election the following March, the five year waiting period having been waived by Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Starting in 1971, MLB gave the Commissioner’s Award, given to the player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team”. In 1973, it was renamed the Roberto Clemente Award.
I was thinking about Clemente just a couple of days ago. He was one of my favorite players when I was a kid (along with Hank Aaron). His death was first death of a non-relative that impacted me.
Clemente was truly one of the greats. 3000 hits exactly.
Supposedly, he was a bit of a hypochondriac. He would complain before a game that he wasn’t feeling right, he felt “off” or complained of some malady. Then he would go 4 for 4 with a couple of home runs, a stolen base and a miracle catch against the wall.
A fantastic athlete, and a fantastic human being. He’s a fucking hero to everyone here in Pittsburgh, and the greatest player the Pirates ever had.
I was at the local history museum yesterday to see a new football exhibit, but they have a TON of local sports stuff, so I got to see a lot of artifacts relating to Clemente.
The death of Clemente was my first “I remember exactly where I was when I heard” moment of my life. It truly impacted me, and I always think about him on New Year’s Eve. Such a sad end to a truly great player.
As a kid, one of my most vivid memories of Clemente was seeing him throw the ball from the right field fence to third base or home either on one bounce or a straight throw during pre-game. My friend’s dad had box seats on the third base line, front row, and I was able to enjoy them from time to time. Man, what an arm he had.
I always wondered if the Pirates would have won one more series in the 70’s with him. I know he was in his late 30’s when he died, but if you saw him, he was in peak physical condition. He could have played one or two more years, and the Pirates were great in the 70’s.
My great disappointment with the Pirates this year is that they didn’t celebrate his 40th 3,000 hit anniversary by playing a game or two in the 1971 throwback uniforms at least. Maybe they all could have worn “21” in honor of Clemente. But they did nothing but lose the last 2 months of then season.
That would have caused Nutting to spend money, something that cheap bastard is not known to do. So Pirate fans lose out again.
RIP Roberto. Anyone who saw you play will never forget it. You were the best pure player I ever saw in person.
He wasn’t really a hypochondriac. It’s just that when someone asked him how he was, he would tell the truth. Ballplayers get banged up all the time, yet when a reporter asks how they feel, they usually say, “fine,” possibly because they’re afraid of losing playing time if they answer honestly, or because they don’t want to be branded as complainers. But if Clemente had a sore back or pulled hamstring he would just say so.
And being one of the first people in the business to be willing to say how he felt rather than just shutting up and taking it was magnified by his background. When he started off the sports press were not exactly enamored of him and tended to focus on whatever they could find to be critical (even to the point of some reporters transcribing his accent phonetically) (http://robertoclemente.si.edu/english/virtual_story_growing_05.htm).
Around here the remembrance is kept low key, it hurt so much at the time. There’s a sort of unspoken collective agreement to celebrate the life and legacy and attention focuses more on the anniversary of that 3000th hit.
When he started off the sports press were not exactly enamored of him and tended to focus on whatever they could find to be critical (even to the point of some reporters transcribing his accent phonetically) (http://robertoclemente.si.edu/english/virtual_story_growing_05.htm).
I remember this technique and it was the rule rather than the exception. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I find it to be much more descriptive and colorful and I see no animus in it. However anyone who thinks that criticizing the speech patterns of a foreign born person is okay is just wrong. They are invariably using the language as well as possible.
Clemente was among the proudest of athletes and he was particularly proud of being Puerto Rican but I have no memory of him being in any way proud of his command of English. He recognized and was vocal about the unequal amount of praise he got compared to any New York player, but the same was true of Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and a host of other players who did not play in New York. He felt that people were biased against him because he was not born in the U.S.A. I don’t think he was right. People in Pittsburgh always had a problem with the fact that he missed a large number of games. His first 8 seeasons and his last 6 seasons he never played in 150 games. Four middle seasons he did this. That criticism may have been unjust. If you read about him most authors comment on the appearance he gave of being extremely fit, even at 38, so his habit of taking care of himself was well worth it. For his career he averaged 138 games a season.
Also the right field wall at PNC Park is 21 feet high, 21 being the number he wore throughout his career, as a tribute to his prowess in that area at both Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium.
Seriously? The Pirates didn’t rename the bridge, the city did. And the statue was paid for by the tax payers of Allegheny County, not the Pirates. The people of Pittsburgh love Clementek
If the Official maximum height of an outfield wall in MLB was 20 ft, and for every foot over 20 the Pirates (aka the Nutting family) would have to pay a fine of, say $100, per game, the Nuttings would never pay the fine. The wall would stay at 20 ft.
You really need to be a Pirate fan to understand what I’m saying about the Nuttings.
He actually would miss a lot of games to injury. He was well criticized for it early in his career; eventually people got so accustomed to it that Roberto missing a game because of some minor hurt every couple of weeks was hardly noticed. It’s true he was in part just more honest than a lot of guys about the fact that he was sore, but if you look at the numbers he wasn’t a super durable player.
Nonetheless, he was an unusual and rare talent. There’s never been anyone quite like him, really. I can’t think of another post-WWII player who was really anything like Roberto Clemente. Vlad Guerrero was kind of like him, but Vlad had far more power and wasn’t in Roberto’s zip code as a fielder.