Roberto Clemente: Latin American Hero/Baseball Icon

        

 ROBERTO CLEMENTE WALKER

Pittsburgh Pirates Right Fielder

From 1955-1972, 12 Time All Star, 12 Time Gold Glove Winner, 4 Time Batting Champion, 1 NL MVP award

Roberto Clemente was born Roberto Clemente Walker in Carolina Puerto Rico on August 18th 1934. Roberto's parents, Luisa Walker and Melchor Clemente worked on the sugar plantations as sugar crop foreman. Roberto was the youngest of seven children and tried to do his best to help out with money as the family struggled to get by in a great depression after shocked world. The country of Puerto Rico was poverty-stricken, the banks were failing, unemployment was high and the people were suffering. So Roberto did some odd end jobs to pick up some extra cash for his family while he was young. It was once said that he worked for three years in a row as a paper boy and made only a penny a day just so he could buy himself a bicycle, which he did. Roberto was a hard-working little boy and nothing would stop his endless pursuit of his lifelong dream of playing baseball.

            "I wanted to be a ballplayer," he said. "I became convinced God wanted me to," "Roberto would hit bottle caps with a broomstick and practice throwing tennis balls against walls to perfect his craft." As Clemente grew older he developed a love for sports throughout his schooling years, a natural athlete some would say. "He triumphed in track and field, winning medals in the javelin throw and running. He also took an early interest in baseball and by the time he entered high school, he was recruited to play softball with the Sello Rojo team"  but he built a love for baseball so immense that he knew he was destined to play ball as his life's passion.

            When Clemente was 18 years old he attended a baseball tryout camp that was held by the New York Brooklyn dodgers who had looked at bringing in more racially diverse ball players ever since their success with the great Jackie Robinson. They liked what they saw from Roberto Clemente and claimed him to be one of the best baseball prospects they have ever seen. The Brooklyn dodgers signed Roberto Clemente to a deal which paid him $10,000 for signing and a $5,000 annual salary. He was then headed for their minor league affiliate the Montreal Royals where he would spend his first year in the league. The Dodgers forgot to protect their future star outfielder in the annual impending minor league draft that season, which is where the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Roberto Clemente to become their right fielder and one of the greatest players to play the game.

"Bob" Clemente

            Being in Pittsburgh has its downfalls since you weren't playing in a big city you lost the spotlight and your lost some of the fame. That did not stop Roberto from being an attention grabber always very vocal and outspoken about segregation and other hot topics. Clemente was not the first Hispanic born major league player in the game of baseball but he sure was the first to make a major impact on the entire culture of the sport. Roberto was faced with major adversity throughout most of his playing career and since we was playing through the 50's, 60's and early 70's while the civil rights movements where happening this added to the hardships. Segregation was legal and it happened often in not so southern Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente was subjected to segregation early and often not being able to attend social functions with the team and not being able to stay in the same hotel, he was appalled at the behavior of the United States people and how they treated a Latin man, a black Latin man at that. Even the sports writers mocked the way that Roberto spoke and would misspell the words on purpose in the paper to make it seem like Clemente's speech was so bad that he seemed dehumanized. They often misquoted him to what they thought he said rather than what he actually said which made Clemente outraged and started to word his objections to everyone who would listen.

            Around 1960 after a few years that Clemente was introduced into the big leagues he broke out as a star in Pittsburgh. He had a batting average of .314, hit 16 Home runs and drove in 94 runs in 1960 but finished 8th in the Most Valuable Player award. Clemente was unhappy with the voting and publicly expressed his anger saying that the voting itself showed that a Latin American player had no chances in winning and that if he were white he would be the MVP. Also in 1960 Clemente and the Pittsburgh Pirates captured their first World Series Title over the New York Yankees with Bill Mazeroski's famous home run. After that year Clemente would go on a ten-year period where he was outstanding.

            In 1961, 64, 65, and 67 Clemente won the National League batting title which means he had the highest batting average of any player in the National League. From 1961-1972 Clemente won the National League Right Field Gold Glove for his amazing defensive skills and rocket arm. In 1966 after a year to remember Roberto Clemente won the award that eluded him for that long, he won his only NL Most Valuable Player award. In 1971 the Pirates made it back to the world series against Baltimore where a 7 game series ensued, in the 7th game Roberto Clemente hit a Home Run to claim victory in the series, he was named The World Series Most Valuable Player. Clemente in 1972 played his last game and on the last game of the season got his 3,000th hit where only 10 men did before him, he stood on 2nd base and raised his helmet to the crowd. Clemente was the first Latin born player to play in a world series as a starter, to win awards in all categories especially the MVP, and he was the first to win the World Series MVP and to reach the 3000 hit plateau but he was not done.

3000th Hit

            By the end of his career Clemente felt like he has shifted the American perception of a Black Latin player in the game of baseball and he said "My greatest satisfaction comes from helping to erase the old opinion about Latin Americans and Blacks," Clemente was a good man, no, he was a great man. Clemente in the offseason would go back home to Puerto Rico and hold training camps for the young boys on the island. He wanted to show them that where ever they come from, what ever walk of life, that you can achieve your greatest goals and succeed. There was an earthquake in Nicaragua and Clemente wanted to help the Nicaraguans people with getting the food and supplies they needed, he took trips to and from Puerto Rico with food but on December 31st 1972 the plane that he was on took off from San Juan and crashed into the Ocean, Roberto Clemente Died at the age of 37. 3 months later after the crash Roberto finished his lists of first's, Clemente became the first Latin American player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown.

Hall of Fame 

            "Clemente was our Jackie Robinson," said Puerto Rican journalist Luis Mayoral. In 1994 at the all-star game in Pittsburgh, a bronze statue honoring Clemente was unveiled written on the plague underneath the statue there is a quote from Clemente himself "If you have an opportunity to make things better, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth". Clemente laid down the roots for hundreds of Latin based players to come through the doors into the Major Leagues but more importantly he shifted perception, he changed ideals, and he taught the ignorant that any man; white, black, or Latin can do anything that they set their minds to it. The Number "21", Clemente's number is widely debated to be the next number retired throughout all of baseball just like Jackie Robinsons "42" is.    

Statue Outside PNC Stadium in Pittsburgh

Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron

Roberto Clemente Award:Most