Roberto Clemente
Puerto Rican baseball legend and humanitarian
Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who spent 18 MLB seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a right fielder.[1] He died on December 31, 1972, when his chartered plane crashed off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, while delivering relief supplies to Nicaragua.[1]
Quick Facts
- Position
- Right fielder
- Bats
- Right
- Born
- 18 August 1934
- Birthplace
- San Antón, Carolina, Puerto Rico
- Died
- 31 December 1972
- Place of death
- Off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico
- Debut league
- MLB
- Debut date
- April 17
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
As a child, he helped his father load shovels into construction trucks to contribute to the family income.[2] The Brooklyn Dodgers signed him on February 19, 1954, for a $15,000 contract that included a $10,000 bonus.[3] Clemente recorded his 3,000th career hit on September 30, 1972, a double off Jon Matlack.[4] Clemente was the NL batting champion four times and received the league's MVP Award in 1966.[5]
What the cited sources add
The SABR BioProject notes that Clemente's greatness transcended baseball and that helping others represented how he lived.[2] The same source states that Clemente used his money from working with his father to buy a bike and rubber balls.[2] The Max Macon SABR BioProject reports that Brooklyn general manager Buzzie Bavasi acknowledged the team hoped to hide Clemente so no other team would draft him.[6] The ESPN article by Schwartz states that Clemente hit safely in all 14 World Series games he played.[7]
According to the Hall of Fame article by Markusen, many writers and broadcasters called Clemente "Bob" or "Bobby," which he considered an insult to his Puerto Rican and Latino background.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Roberto Clemente" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hanlon, "Roberto Clemente: Baseball Legend", North Star Editions, Inc., January 1, 2024, p. 17; Mumau, ""Had 'Em All the Way": The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates", McFarland, July 10, 2015, p. 105; Mumau, ""Had 'Em All the Way": The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates", McFarland, July 10, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Roberto Clemente (SABR BioProject)", Society for American Baseball Research. facts only, no text reused. sabr.org
- Wikipedia, "Roberto Clemente" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Maraniss, pp. 36-38. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Roberto Clemente" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smizik, "Roberto gets 3,000th, will rest until playoffs", The Pittsburgh Press, October 1, 1972, p. D1; "Roberto Clemente Award", Major League Baseball (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Roberto Clemente" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Markusen, p. 171.; "For combined seasons, from 1960 to 1969, in the regular season, sorted by descending Hits.", Stathead (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Max Macon (SABR BioProject)", Society for American Baseball Research. facts only, no text reused. sabr.org
- Larry Schwartz, "Clemente quietly grew in stature", ESPN. facts only, no text reused. espn.com
- Markusen, Bruce, "Clemente overcame societal barriers en route to superstardom", National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. facts only, no text reused. baseballhall.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Roberto Clemente (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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