Tabla de contenidos para Roberto Clemente en Roberto Clemente

Among the most prestigious honors a baseball player can earn are league MVP, World Series MVP (presented by the editors of SPORT from its inception until the late 1980s), and enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame. So why is it that Roberto Clemente was the first Latino ballplayer to achieve each of those honors, and yet, remains one of the most underrated players in baseball history? As you settle in with this special tribute to Roberto Clemente, told through the pages of the SPORT Magazine archive, you will see that although he was far from the first person of Latin American origin to play in the major leagues, he was the first to break through barriers previously thought to be impenetrable. Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Clemente was a…

Back home after his best season in the big leagues, Roberto Clemente sat in the dugout of the San Juan Senators, ready for additional baseball action. Although it was Christmas-time, the temperature was in the 70s, typical for Puerto Rico that time of year. Tall coconut palms waved in the evening breeze, and the lights of nearby resort hotels seemed at least as bright as those illuminating the playing field. Snatches of conversation could be heard coming from the stands. This was the baseball that had catapulted him to fame and the major leagues. Now, in 1961, Puerto Rican Winter League competition was merely an active intermission for the slim, handsome outfielder. It brought him very little additional income and it drained his energies, coming after his long season with…

Sometimes it seems as if Roberto Clemente and I have been teammates longer than bacon and eggs. He came up to the Pirates in 1955 and I followed a year and a half later, so we’ve been sharing the same clubhouse for 16 years. You get to know a person in 16 years—his strengths and weaknesses, how he plays the game and how he feels about it. In 16 years you also become a good judge of his talents, the ways he can win for a club. And there are very few players who can win a baseball game in as many different ways as Roberto Clemente. He’s the total ballplayer. A lot of players are tagged superstars when they are really just super hitters. Take Willie McCovey. A super…

Most of us have something inside which drives us toward our dreams, channels us in particular directions, keeps us pursuing our goals when we’d like to escape them. But Roberto Clemente was motivated to the nth degree by so many things: Pride, a belief in maintaining his dignity, a sense of purpose that wouldn’t allow him to do anything that might degrade a great talent. First, he had that ultimate pride—the belief he was the very best player alive. You tend to get rather blasé about baseball after you’ve been around for a while, but he made it exciting to guys who had been in the league a dozen years. The way he would run from home plate to second base when he knew he had a chance for a…

It was at Terry Park in Fort Myers, Fla., last March. The Pirates had opened their camp and one of the bright young men in the game—Roberto Clemente—was sitting on the bench. He was in training for his third season in the National League and his fourth in organized ball. In the first two years in the NL, he had moved his batting average from .255 up to .311. That was the third best mark in the league. Only Hank Aaron of the Braves and teammate Bill Virdon had higher averages. It had always been the thought among the Pittsburgh travelers that a fellow Puerto Rican, Ruben Gomez of the Giants, had given Clemente as much trouble as any pitcher in the league. A reporter sat down with him and…

Roberto Clemente has been with the Pittsburgh Pirates since 1955 and during most of that time he has been the kind of ballplayer fans shout about. Going into this season the 32-year-old Clemente carried a lifetime batting average of .310 and three times he had won National League batting titles. He was also considered far and away the best defensive right fielder in the league. Unfortunately, while the fans were cheering, many of Clemente’s own teammates were whispering. He wasn’t concerned about the overall welfare of the Pirates, they said. He didn’t fit in socially. He’s moody. He likes to pretend he’s sick. Etc., etc. Well, seemingly overnight, the whispers have stopped. Now the ballplayers are talking loud and clear. And what they’re saying might surprise you. Listen: “I always…

Before defeating the New York Yankees, four games to three, to claim the 1960 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates had endured 33 seasons without a world championship. Roberto Clemente did not receive the recognition he believed he deserved in helping turn around Pittsburgh’s fortunes that season, but his contributions to that '60 team—and baseball history—were enormous. He batted .312 on the season and led the team with 94 RBIs. He hit .310 against the Yankees and became the first starting position player from the Caribbean and Latin America in World Series history. Eleven years later, Clemente played an even bigger role in helping the Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles, four games to three, in the 1971 Series. With 12 hits in 29 at-bats—a .414 average—Clemente walked away with the World…

I was five when my father came home raving about Roberto Clemente. He returned from a game in 1955 and yakked to my mother for an hour as she cut carrots in the kitchen. “Oh, you should see him run,” Pa marveled. “He’s like a scared rabbit the way he moves his arms and head on the bases. And hit? He steps right into the ball—I don’t know who taught him to hit. Guy said they got him from the Dodgers—guess those fans wouldn’t forgive them for putting this guy in Furillo’s place.” Mom asked if he wanted a salad, and Pa answered “Throw? Oh, what a cannon he’s got. Caught Bruton tryin’ to stretch a double and hell, Bruton didn’t even try to slide. Puerto Rican. Good looking. Wears…

Tell Roberto Clemente that he plays like Willie Mays—a comparison that most ballplayers consider giant-size flattery—and the Pirate from Puerto Rico explodes with indignation. “Willie is a very good ballplayer,” Roberto says, ‘"but why does everybody say I run like Willie, catch like Willie, throw like Willie and hit line drives like Willie? I am good, too, but I am not Willie. I am Roberto Clemente. That means I play only like Roberto Clemente.” Playing "onlylikeRoberto Clemente,” triggers considerable excitement. When he comes to bat, Pittsburgh fans spur him on with staccato shouts of his nickname, “Arriba," (a Spanish word meaning, “Come on, let’s go”). They cheer every catch he makes in right field. Clemente’s daring, skilled all-round play, they insist, will spark the Pirates to their first National League…

What do you mean when you say a ballplayer is underrated? Do you mean the player should be famous but isn’t? That isn’t necessarily a criterion, in my opinion. Bob Clemente is a famous player but I think he is underrated. Juan Marichal is famous but I think he too is underrated. So we have to look for other definitions of the word “underrated.” First, I feel a player generally is underrated only by the fans and by the writers—not by the players, coaches and managers. In the dugout a player gets the rating he deserves—with an exception here and there. Secondly, in rating a player, I think you have to give him two or three years to show his consistency. This is something younger players don’t always understand. They…