Nobody ran on Roberto Clemente.
More like that.
Also, I saw him hit a one-handed line drive into the bleachers at Dodger Stadium. Off a Koufax curve ball that like to fell off the face of the earth.
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Clemente obviously had an outsized impact not only as a baseball player but as a humanitarian. You would be surprised at the number of landmarks named for Clemente in just the Bronx alone. His story is pretty much required reading in most grade school history curriculum.
I remember the day that he perished on the flight to Nicaragua to deliver humanitarian assistance. I was with my family on our yearly Christmas holiday trip to Florida and heard about it on the radio. To me and probably others his tragic passing became far more relevant than the Dolphins undefeated season.
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Yeah, well-- I don’t write the headlines…
It was the only clip I could find that showed what I wished to describe.
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Clemente once observed: “If you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.”
I volunteer for a local senior assistance outfit. They drive seniors to doctor apts, the grocery store etc. They also help with fix-it things like changing an inaccessible light bulb or a leaky drain. I once built a ramp for a gentleman who was wheelchair bound but my normal contribution is groceries. There are 10 two people teams in our outfit who gather behind a local grocery store early on every other Saturday morning. Our buyer goes in and buys mass quantity. The stuff gets trundled out behind the store and we divide it up into grocery bags. My partner and I have a list of 19 people we take the goodies to. Fruits and veggies. All together our outfit feeds around 130 households. It’s volunteer…I don’t do it for money. Something trump would never understand.
As Roberto said… we should help each other,
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Our conversations always stemmed around people from all walks of life being able to get along.
The simplest thing in the world.
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A kid in Pittsburgh growing up in the 60s. Roberto was my idol.
When we saw the report on TV about the accident, Mom and I both cried…
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Well, I would think there has to be some penalty for the woman. Sure.
– Donald Trump, circa 2016
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As a New Yorker in 1960 when world series time rolled around if you wanted to make any bets you had to bet against the Yankees. After watching that bet of seven I became a lonely Pirate’s fan. I got to see him play when the Mets played in the old Polo Grounds. IIRC a ball was hit to the wall in right and being New York it hid itself in beer cups and hot dog wrappers. When 21 found it he turned and threw to third, but the ball slipped out of his hand and landed twenty rows back, entirely across that field. At least that’s how I remember it.
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My mom was an Iowa farm girl who in her youth followed Cleveland because Bob Feller was an Iowa boy. That ended with Jackie. She became a Dodgers fan.
I remember when Clemente died only because she talked about him with me. She was saddened by the death of a great player and human being.
She lived nearly her whole life in a totally white-bread rural Iowa/Minnesota small town milieu, and I grew up in that.
Years later I now live in an urban neighborhood where my “whiteness” makes me a minority. I could have grown up resenting others who don’t look like me, but I don’t. Mom’s awareness of the person who doesn’t look like you, even if it was vicarious, had an impact
I guess what I’m trying to say is that great people like Roberto and Jackie can have a big impact on people, even if they’re simply baseball players.
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I lived in PA for a short while during those glory years, Clemente was my idol. I seem to remember in the playoffs him throwing out the runner at home plate from the warning track on one hop. Cried when he died.
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He did that a lot.
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His death left a wound that never fully healed in Pittsburgh…
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I became a lifetime “devout at the altar of Roberto Clemente” when my Dad took us to watch a Spring Training Game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Pirates at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in 1965.
Orlando Cepeda was the object of the competing cult among the baseball fans of Puerto Rico during that period. Cepeda played for my PR Winter League team, the Santurce Crabbers. Like Clemente and other stars who lived in PR (Tony Perez, Mike Cuellar to name just two) they would play half of the Winter League Season every year to keep in game shape, and to allow Island fans to see them play in the flesh.
Cepeda was definitely not a speedster. His bowed legs were stunted by an early childhood disease. (Cepeda’s father, also famously bow legged, had been a great short stop in the Negro Leagues and various Caribbean Winter Leagues.) But to paraphrase my baseball playing, pre adolescent friends and fellow fans in 1960’s Puerto Rico, Orlando Cepeda “ran like a cow.” Because of the presence of in his prime Willie McCovey on the Giants, they were forced to trade Cepeda to the Cardinals, because neither of them had the foot speed to regularly play a corner OF position.
As far as this statement in the article,
Several minutes after takeoff, the plane exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing Clemente and four others.
I have never read this anywhere before and believe that it is totally inaccurate. The post crash investigation determined that the cargo plane was criminally poorly maintained (the ownership company was very sketchy) and that the quantity and configuration of the cargo, loaded by volunteers on New Years Eve (including several friends who were at a party when Clemente himself appeared at the house, asking for volunteers), was a contributing factor in the crash.
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In Pittsburgh? In 1960s … we were in “the South Hills” (ha! Everything is “hills”) - Upper St. Clair. Was the complete opposite of the stereotype of “gritty steel town” was more like the set from “the wonder years”.
The Pirates were the icons - baseball ruled … (the Steelers …were not yet dominators of their sport) .
Later in the 1960s we moved to NJ … & I can recall listening to my beloved Pirates on KDKA by carefully dialing in 1020 on an old AM radio later at night. Those were the days when - if you wanted to be a long distance fan, you really had to work at it to stay up-to-date.
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Besides the daily box scores in both the Puerto Rico English and Spanish language newspapers, a friend and neighbor turned us on to The Sporting News, which was how we kept most intimately involved with Pittsburgh Pirate news, gossip etc. We could also follow the stats for the future Lumber Company members as they progressed through the Minor League. The Pirates had a working agreement with the San Juan Senators, so we got to see Al Oliver, Richie Zisk, Rennie Stennett, Jim Bibby, Milt May and many other future Pirates, usually following their first (and last ) AAA Season. Bill Virdon managed the Senators for at least one season. Clemente quit mid way through his only season as manager.
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Back in the day I thought he was the complete ballplayer. Lots of guys these days can jack more homers over the fence, but they are usually one-trick ponies. Clemente could hit, field, throw, and run the bases.
For a black Latino, making it in what was then a gritty, working class Pittsburgh was an achievement, and always a balancing act.
His end in the plane crash was very sad, recognizing that it it is a near-universal human trait that we don’t so much mourn the departed (Clemente or anyone else) as mourn our own lost youth, and the innocent dreams of our youth.
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Went to a couple of games at PNC Park last week. Wonderful stadium. Most common jersey worn by Pirates fans - #21, Clemente.
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Myself.
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