The Great One, Roberto Clemente

If you take a moment today to peek at Google today it is not the traditional multicolored word that normally represents the search engine. Instead, it is replaced today by a background of one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Roberto Clemente.

To say Clemente was a giant of the game of baseball is an understatement. Clemente was a special man whose career is so much more than his 3,000 hits, 247 homeruns, .317 batting average and 1,305 rbis.

In my short time in Pittsburgh I have learned one very important thing; if you are a “yinzer” who is 50 or older then you are bound to have a Clemente story.

It was the numbers that got him to the hall of fame, but it is the true and incredible stories that make him “The Great One.”

One of my favorite stories of his time in Pittsburgh was when a school of blind children came to the ballpark. Clemente was warming up, and he immediately saw this group of kids that came to the stadium.

The story goes, as recounted by many in Pittsburgh, that Clemente never finished warming up that day. Instead he walked over and joined the kids in the stands, and with none of them able to see and some even incapable of communicating he let every single child touch his face and hands.

He did not do so under the pretense of an ego, instead he did so with the understanding of what it would mean for blind children to touch the face and hands of a man that they listened to play almost every day on the radio. Someone that represented so much to all of them, was willing to take a moment to connect with them in the best way they could.

He spent a whole hour meeting these children, and introducing himself to their family and teachers, and then went out and played a baseball game. These are the stories that to this day make him mean so much to his adopted home, the city of Pittsburgh, and to the people of Puerto Rico, his first home.

No one would know that his 3,000th hit on Sept. 30, 1972 would be his last regular season hit, as he was tragically killed in a plane crash on an aid trip to those in need due to an earth quake in Nicaragua later that December.

He worked for the people who were in need, and he wanted to be a good example to the Latin American and Caribbean communities. To this day he is that example. Many who encountered him will remember him as a baseball player, but to all he was a great humanitarian.

Below is the call from Roberto Clemente’s final and 3,000th hit as described by Bob Prince. “In his last turn he struck out with a fastball by the southpaw Jon Matlack. The audience’s attention is fixed solely on the Puerto Rican star Roberto Clemente who’s at home plate. The southpaw Matlack is prepared. Opening the side at the bottom of the 4th inning is Roberto Clemente. Bobby is looking for hit number 3,000. Windup, there goes the fastball, and a strike has been called to a muttering of boos. (Pause)

Matlack is prepared again, now Clemente gets ready. Like always Clemente stands completely away from the plate. Matlack on the 0-1, Bobby hits a drive to left-center field, there she is!!! For a double and everybody’s standing with him! Roberto Clemente now stands and these fans stand with him, as he joins only ten others on the list who have hit 3,000.”