Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican right fielder who brought Latinos into Major League Baseball. He died doing humanitarian work. Clemente was a great American.
If you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.”
Roberto Clemente’s motto
We are intense and Clemente brought that passion into baseball. It’s been part of the game ever since. In many old photos, he seems to be almost growling at the ball. That is the intensity that Roberto Clemente brought to the game.
Roberto Clemente was one of the Greatest Baseball Players Ever
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was born in Barrio San Antón, Carolina, Puerto Rico on August 18, 1934. [We spent three months writing from Carolina including at Ciudad Deportiva Roberto Clemente, the sporting fields named after him.]
He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 right out of high school. They sent him to play for their minor league team, the Montreal Royals.
In 1955, Clemente signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates where he played his entire Major League Baseball career.
It took a few years for hime to learn to speak English and improve his fitness, but from 1960 on, he was an All-Star, one of the best players in the game.
In 1966, Clemente was the National League MVP (Most Valuable Player) when he batted .317 with 29 homers and 119 RBIs.
Clemente led the Pirates to World Series Championships in 1971 and 1979.
Roberto won 12 Gold Glove Awards and played in 15 All-Star Games. On his very last game, Clemente became the 11th player and the first Latin to make 3,000 hits in a season.
Roberto Clemente was a Great Humanitarian
On December 31, 1972 Clemente was flying to Nicaragua to deliver humanitarian supplies to victims of a major earthquake when he died in a plane crash off Puerto Rico.
His motto was, “If you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.”