1934 - 1972
Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest baseball players ever to play right field and arguably ever to play the sport. His was great not so much because of statistical accomplishment, but because of the intense, passionate and graceful way he played the game—and equally because of who he was as a person.
Some 30 years after his death, Clemente's legendary defensive brilliance remains unsurpassed. Watching Clemente track down a ball bound for an extra base hit then crash into the wall while still holding on to the ball was thrilling. Watching him gracefully catch a deep fly ball and throw a strike to the catcher to cut down the runner was incredible. Seeing him tear around the bases at full speed, legging out an extra base hit was exciting.
But he was not only a great player on the field, he was a greater person off the field. He was a hero, a humanitarian, and a cultural icon. Clemente was an enormously complex, passionate man whose interests spanned many fields. He wrote poetry, worked in ceremics and played the organ. He was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr. Above all, he was committed to helping his people, especially the children of Puerto Rico.
Clemente was misunderstood in the United States. Intelligent, intense and outspoken, he was a magnet for controversy. His detractors saw him as aloof, sullen and combative, while those who knew him best considered him dignified, reflective, honest and stylish.
On New Year's weekend, 1972, Clemente had taken upon himself to direct personally a relief mission to earthquake torn Nicaragua. Bound to Nicaragua, Clemente and 4 others loaded a small DC-7 plane with food and supplies that never got past the San Juan border as the plane almost immediately crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Five people died and Clemente's body was never recovered. The world was in shock. Here was a man who was struck down due to his desire to help a country in need. His death was not only a loss to his family and friends, but a loss of a hero to the entire nation.
The Baseball Writer's Association of America immediately waived the customary five-year wait for the Hall of Fame and voted Roberto Clemente in, making him the first Latino in the Baseball Hall of Fame. At the ceremony in 1973 Commissioner Bowie Kuhn honored him by creating the "Roberto Clemente Award", the highest award in baseball for sportsmanship and community activism. Kuhn spoke proudly about Clemente:
“So very great was he as a player. So very great was he as a leader. So very great was he as a humanitarian. So very great was he as an inspiration to the young, and so very great was his devotion to young people and particularly to the young people of his native island of Puerto Rico. Having said all of those words, they are very inadequate to describe the real greatness of Roberto Clemente ... He had about him the touch of royalty.”
This biography is a composite from various sources.
