One can only imagine what the great Clemente would be doing today, from the humanitarian impact he would have (he would certainly be working to improve the situation in Haiti right now for example), to the impact he would have on the Pirates franchise. With his wonderful loyalty one could envision him still scouting for the Bucs, funneling the best Latin American ballplayers into the Pirates' system. Maybe he would have managed the team after Danny Murtaugh's passing, maybe even been player-manager for a year or two. It's not out of the question that he would have been part of the Pirates' ownership and perhaps even majority owner. It's always great to remember him!

I never realized that the Steelers played that same day, losing to the Dolphins 21-17 in the AFC Championship.

Rough New Year's Eve for Pittsburgh.

When Bob Prince simply called him the Great One I wonder if knew how truthful that name was.

Hey genius, Clemente was my favorite player of all time. But please don't get carried away. He would have been a great ambassador for the Pirates to Latin players, but to see him as a player-manager or owner is absurd. It just wasn't happening in the 70s.

He would still only be 76 years old so I'm sure over the past 30 years or so he could've had a major impact on baseball or the Pirates. At the very least just having him come back for the events like Mazeroski and meeting the fans and that kind of thing. It's too bad.

I remember hearing the news while in my barracks while stationed in the Air Force at Hancock Field, NY. I was in shock. I couldn't believe it and said that it must be a mistake or something. Even after 38 years I remember the great games I saw him play and he remains my favorite baseball player ever. RIP Roberto....

Was in high school, scared to death with my own wrestling sports concerns, trying to get my solid grade Cs and keep my parents off my back. Was just a hazy, hectic, was such a child in my thinking, personal growing up time.... Plus was on the west coast, so some of the impact not felt as much...
I remember thinking maybe he can swim to a island, tread water and they will find him...
It did not happen, I moved on thinking of my own life. Now 38 years later, older than he was when he died. I just wonder, what if? what if?
Don't understand why so many great ones die young and giving back...
God Bless You Roberto, your family and all others that give so much to to those in need.
Respectfully
David

My image of him is that neck rotation thing, and the bat held nearly vertical. I tried to hit that way...

I also recall his slightly unorthodox way of catching fly balls - didn't use two hands much. Couldn't understand why my little league coach chewed me out about that - if it was good enough for Roberto...

He also had a funny way of running - sort of bandy-legged, arms flying about..

His arm - he had a gun for an arm.

Interesting thinking when he might have quit - he was 38 at the time...maybe he would have collected 3300 or so hits total.


In what was my last extended interview with him, in August of 1972, he said he hoped to play five more years. That was somewhat unreasonable in that era, but he was in such perfect condition and his game has barely declined that he might have done it. -- Bob Smizik

Roberto died a little over 8 years before I was born, but I've always had the highest regard for him as a person. He was my parents favorite player & I read many books about his life when I was growing up. It is hard to imagine anyone in today's overpaid, blown up ego driven sports world could ever have the impact that Roberto did as a humanitarian. It was a shame that his life ended so young, but was almost fitting for the way he lived it, helping others at all cost. I hope I can instill the values he had as a human being in to my children some day. Forever young, forever 21.

To All,

This is a long post, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing it. Bob, I apologize about the length.

My grandfather had the privelege of being great friends with a man named Luke Quay, who was the former sports editor of the McKeesport Daily News. Mr. Quay often covered the Pirates during Clemente's playing years, and he was the one who (correctly) scored Clemente's original 3,000th hit an error, infuriating the man for a brief time. A few days later, he hit the double we now recognize as Roberto's true 3,000th hit, and after the game Clemente actually thankedQuay. Instead of a soft, questionable hit, Clemente and his fans could now remember Roberto's 3,000th as a no-doubt gap double. He personally gave a ball to Luke inscribed "It was a Hit. No, it was an error. No, it was superman Luke Quay. To my friend with best wishes - Roberto Clemente." It was just one of many rare keepsakes that Quay kept that were related somehow to Clemente.

Mr. Quay (and his press pass) was able to help my grandfather attend many games as his guest, among them being game 7 of the 1960 World Series, of which I have inherited the ticket stub. I never met Luke, but I have heard from my grandfather and also read in print that he was one of the few Pittsburgh writers who, (along with a few from the Courier), respectfully refused to quote him phonetically, which many racist writers did to to embarrass him in public, and would not call him "Bobby", which Roberto hated. He was a true friend of Clemente, and I'm sorry I never met either man.

A few years ago, when my grandfather gave me his game 7 ticket stub and program, he also gave me the original copy (cut out from the newspaper) of a first-person account written by Luke Quay that came amidst the confusion, chaos, and sadness that immediately followed the plane crash. The following is a word-for-word transcript of the article (no internet link exists), which is nothing special in particular to anyone but myself, but some of you may enjoy reading something that was printed very soon after the crash while all of the stories that we know so well were still being told for the first time. The date of the article is from the Daily News' evening edition of January 5, 1972, only a few days after the crash. Even though I was born long after his death, it is still difficult to get through it without getting emotional. For all I know, this is the only copy still in existence.


"If You Are Supposed to Die, You Are Going to Die"

By Luke Quay
General Sports Editor
McKeesport Daily News

SAN JUAN, P.R. - There wasn't any celebrating the last time all the Pirates were on a charter plane together. But that trip home from Cincinnati in October was a happy occasion in comparison to yesterday's flight here to pay last respects to Roberto Clemente, who died on New Year's Eve during a mercy mission carrying relief supplies to the victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.

After all, the Bucs only lost the National League playoffs in October, and you always can make amends for something like that. But the loss of Clemente puts baseball into its proper perspective as just a game. Somebody might come along and take his place as a player, but there is no way he can be replaced as a man.

The shock of Clemente's passing is worn off, but the sixty some members of the Pirate's traveling party were a subdued lot. The only players not making the four hour trip from Pittsburgh to San Juan were Bob Robertson, Dave Cash, Bob Miller, and Vic Davalillo who is playing winter ball in his native Venezuela.

"The Pirates have come here to show our love and respect for Roberto Clemente's family," Buc General Manager Joe Brown told the news media gathered for a brief press conference following the team's arrival. "The people here are all part of Roberto's family and I would appreciate it if you would treat them that way and help keep the services private and personal."

The 45 minute memorial service for Clemente was held in the San Fernando church of Caroline, a small chapel type place of worship with red domes and blue trim in a village of 10,000 about eight miles from the airport and three miles from Roberto's home and the program was highlighted but the following eulogy delivered by the Bucs' Steve Blass:

"We've been to the wars together,
We took our foes as they came
And always you were the leader,
And ever you played the game
Idol of cheering millions
Records are yours by sheaves
Iron of frame they hailed you,
Decked you with laurel leaves
But higher than that we hold you,
We who have known you the best
Knowing the way you came through
Every human test,
Let this be a silent token
Of lasting friendships glean
And all that we've left unspoken
Your friends on the Pirate team"

Continued from above.....

Then came a change in original plans, and the tough part of the trip, when it was learned that Roberto's wife, Vera, was waiting at home for the Pirate party. It was the first time since Clemente was lost that his widow didn't spend the entire day at the beach watching the futile rescue operations.

There were a lot of tears as Vera greeted old friends but she was remarkably composed under the circumstances.

"I have to be strong," Mrs. Clemente said. "Roberto didn't like me to cry."

Standing on the balcony of the Clemente home built on a hillside above the Atlantic Ocean, we could see the approximate spot the plane carrying Roberto and four others plunged into the sea. And for the first time we got a reliable account of the events leading up to the tragedy from ex-Pirate Jose Pagan, one of Roberto's closest friends.

"It was an old plane," he said about the ill-fated DC-7, which had overshot the runway only two weeks before and had to be pulled from the mud. "And it was loaded by inexpert people. They just kept putting down boxes wherever there was a place and didn't even try to balance the load. Everybody pleaded with Roberto not to make the trip. We said that he knew everything about baseball but nothing about airplanes. He insisted that the people in charge wouldn't let the plane take off if it couldn't make it to Nicaragua. And then he said that if you are supposed to die, you are going to die," Pagan concluded.

Pagan also revealed that Clemente's children had a premonition that their father was going to die. All three boys were staying with Roberto's mother-in-law on New Year's Eve while their mother took their father to the airport.

And Pagan reported that the grandmother told him the two oldest boys said their father was flying to Nicaragua but wasn't coming back because the plane was going to fall into the ocean.

Art Rooney and Ed Kiely of the Steelers, along with halfback Preston Pearson and tackle Joe Brown accompanied the Pirates on the overnight pilgrimage and went to the services in the San Fernando church. But both Mrs. Clemente and Buc catcher, Manny Sanguillen, who is playing winter ball here in Puerto Rico, refused to attend the memorial mass.

"Vera is like me, she won't believe that Roberto is dead until she sees his body," noted Phil Dorsey, the Clemente family's closest friend in Pittsburgh. "And while others are praying for his soul, Sangy spends all of his time out diving in the ocean trying to find his friend."


On this, the 38th anniversary of his death, I only wish that Roberto Clemente, the eternal saint of the Pittsburgh Pirates, may forever rest in peace, and that we Pirates fans that are sometimes divided in opinion yet always united in hope never forget his legacy.


Thanks, Dan. Luke was a friend of my and he and Roberto had a close relationship. -- Bob Smizik

Buccos' fans, whether or not they're old enough to remember Roberto, need to make a visit to the Roberto Clemente Museum on Penn Ave in Lawrenceville. It's open by reservation only.
http://www.clementemuseum.com/

Nice post Dan. Thank you.

*t's a shame that some people have to die before their time should be up, before we realize what an impact they have had on our lives. Willie Stargell also comes to mind, regarding the Pirates.

Roberto Walker Clemente touched so many of us, always encouraging us to be better on the field and off it.

Dan, I enjoyed your post, too. Thanks for sharing.

I just realized one of the reasons Roberto's death affected me so much.

My father introduced me to baseball in the 50's. He had been quite a ballplayer himself as a youth, but any chance he may have had to try to do something with his talent was hit smack dab in the face by the reality of the Depression and his own father having died in the 1918 Flu epidemic.

We went to my first game together in 1957 with a group of Cub Scouts and we were lucky to be seated in right field where we could see Clemente up close, already my baseball idol.

Through the rest of the 50's and the 60's I saw many of Clemente's contemporaries play such as Mays, Aaron, Banks, Frank Robinson, and a lot of others. I cannot honestly say Roberto was the gretest player among them, I would choose Mays, but to me he was the most exciting and the epitome of what a player should be. In my pickup games I always wanted to play right field since that was his position.

But my dad used to say this about him, "Aw, he always puts his foot in the bucket" alluding to Roberto's habit of moving his left foot toward third base when swinging. He was teasing me. As a hard worker himself he knew Clemente worked just as hard at his craft as my dad did his.

My dad died suddenly in August of 1972 and I was still staying with my aunt, his sister, in Wheeling helping settle his affairs. New Year's morning my aunt awakened me to give me the horrible news. To lose both the men who had made baseball such a pleasure to me and a large part of my life in such a short span of time has affected me to this day.

I can only add this

Rest in peace, Dad
Rest in Peace, Roberto

I too was in high school in Pittsburgh when I heard that Clemente had died. I remember hearing it as I walked into wrestling practice early on New Year's Day. We were all shocked, stunned.

As soon as we were old enough to play baseball in the Burgh we began imitating Clemente. The neck twist at the plate, his wierd warm-up, his even unconventional swing (stepping into the bucket) and of course the basket catch. He was simply the hero of every boy my age and we felt like we had him all to ourselves as the national media paid so little attention to him before the 70 World Series.

We are very fortunate in Pittsburgh to have had such a succession of sports heros who were also just plan good human beings - Stargell, Lemieux, the Rooneys, Maz, Rocky Blier. The list could go on and on. I don't know if any other city could say the same thing.

Roberto was the best of the best in my opinion. He has a place in my heart and I am sure in the hearts of all males (and many women) of my generation of Yinzers.

Ottawa Dave

Dan1283

Thanks for sharing your memories and the Luke Quay story.

I was in elementary school. Some friends of my parents came over and told the news, I still remember how I couldn't believe it. I still have his last baseball card. And thinking that somehow he survived the crash and would come back.

Thanks for posting Bob.

To my point above about how fortunate we Pittsburghers are that many (not all) of our sports heros are also good human beings - someone should write a book on that subject. If you think about it, there are layers of examples - the ones I noted above with Roberto as the best example. You also have guys like Andy Russell with his business and charitable acheivements, Mel Blount for his work with youth, Badger Bob Johnson for his perpetually optimistic outlook on life. And you could argue there is another generation of these guys coming up - Sid Crosby, Troy Polamalu etc. I think these guys reflect the character of the city itself - resiliance, humility, quiet strength.

Yes, I think a book that explores this trend of sports heros in Pittsburgh becoming real heros would make a great book!

Bob - you have not doubt met and gotten to know a lot of these guys. What about such a book?

Thanks Bob, for bringing back some great memories: getting his autograph outside the locker room at old Forbes Field, watching from center field in Three Rivers when he got his 3,000 hit, and all the great memories in between. It was the sort of thing kids dream about.

Clemente was my youth sports hero. I met him in person and sat in his car(he had a car phone.....that was BIG in the late60s early 70s)
He didnt speak much English....but I didnt care.
What a sad day it was. It was a warm sunny spring like day The Steelers lost to the Dolpins because of a fake punt.... Then the sad news. I cried.
I guess I was lucky to have seen and met the Great One. God Bless

Okay, Bob. you inadvertently opened up the debate again.

"Retire 21!"

Jackie Robinson was essentially selected to break the color line. There were many better black players including our own Josh Gibson, who died suddenly at age 35 a few months before Robinson debuted. In a rating of the greatest players ever a few years ago, Gibson was rated the 16th best player...and the highest rated Negro League player (including Robinson) of all time.

When the Baseball Hall of Fame allowed Roberto to be immediately elected and to bypass the 5-year wait, that told us all we need to know.

Robinson was a symbol of the black players and 42 got rerired. Clemente was a symbol of the Latin players...and 21 sould be retired.

His selfless, generous and courageous act (which he in part did to make sure the relief goods did not end up on the black market) may be the most important gesture in the history of sports related to an individual risking (and giving) his life for an emergency cause.

Retire 21!


As you probably know, 123, I am opposed to retiring Clemente's number. I think Jackie Robinson should stand alone with this honor. -- Bob Smizik

That's quite a story. I remember hearing about the plane wreck when I was in my kitchen and listening to the radio, and I cried. That's the only time I can remember crying for anyone except a family member. I have a lot of memories of him and the way he played. He's definitely my favorite of all time. I'm glad he was a Pittsburgh Pirate and not a Brooklyn Dodger.

Heard about the crash in Greentree, sleeping in a room full of hung over teenagers, someone yelled out Clemente died and I got so angry that someone would joke about that. We did not believe it until someone turned up the radio. Have worn the number 21 in honor of Roberto, wanted to name my first born son Roberto, settled for the middle name with my wife. The Gunner tagged him perfectly..The Great One.

I still the remember as an 8 year old boy crying when my dad showed me the Pittsburgh Post Gazette with the sad news.

I remember the then Alcoa sign on Mt Washington with the message ADIOS AMIGO

Pirates did a freture last season. One of the player's fathers, I think Neal Walker, helped Clemente load the plane. The father was in the winter league and Clemente's team helped him load the plane. The father wanted to go but Clemente sid the plane was too heavy

I feel blessed to have seen Roberto in person at Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium. When news first broke about the plane crash, we were in denial for days, expecting a report that he had been found and was safe. Like a grieving family, I think it took a long time for most of us to accept that he was gone.

I remember this like it was 5 minutes ago, picturing where I was standing when my Dad told me.

One of the best insights into Roberto, IMO, was the interview he did with Sam Nover shortly after the 1972 season ended. Unfortunately I can't find it on youtube to link it.

I remember that morning so well.

I was sleeping and my Mom came and woke me with the news. She was crying and my Dad was watery eyed too.

When they told me, I cried too.

The next day I went door to door in my neighborhood and collected about $20 to send to a Roberto donation fund.

For months afterward I held out hope that Roberto had miraculously survived the crash and would be found on a Caribbean island alive and well.

I sure can't imagine any of today's athletes dying in this fashion....working on New Years eve to send relief and doing so personally.

Most graceful athlete I ever saw. He possessed a level of class and grace that you don't see in athletes today. Mario Lemieux is the one guy who comes close. No others come to mind.

Can you in a million years imagine Roberto doing the things Brett Favre has been accused of???

When my Dad took me to Pirate games as a 6 or 7 year old, when we got inside the park the first thing me and my friends would do is take off ahead and run over to see the scoreboard to see if Roberto was in the starting lineup that night because at that point he played in about 120 games a year.

What a great post and great memories to remind all of us who bicker back and forth each day that at the heart of it, we are all just little boys who STILL love their favorite baseball team.

Thanks Bob, and Happy New Year to you, your family, and all the posters to this blog.

As I sit here reading, tears are uncontrollably running down my cheeks . . . .

...
Like many here, I was in high school when it happened, and also like many here, for days I believed he would turn up alive and well...

The article is a fine remembrance and there is nothing I can add to it except this: He was a Man among men.

For all the drivel we are force fed about how Michael Vick overcame this or Ben Rothlesberger improved that, Roberto was a man who lived his entire life in a way that we all should aspire to.

Yes, he was human and of course had his failings, but it seems that at the key moments he stepped up and did the right thing rather than failing to met the mark.

The shame of it is was that it took his death to realize what he had done in Life, not just in baseball.

Thank you Roberto.

Jose

I was never much of a Bowie Kuhn fan until he waived the 5 year rule for Roberto's induction into the Hall of Fame.

The measured diction and awe with which Kuhn announced Roberto's induction took on a feeling of an almost sacred blessing.

No one has ever deserved the Hall of Fame more than Roberto!

...
About retiring his number: A nice thought, but it was the man not the number that was important.

If we really want to pay tribute to the man than rather than retiring the number we should approach life as he did and treat each other as he treated others: with dignity and respect and caring.

Speaking only for myself the standard he set is a mark I fall far short of myself.

Jose

The oddest thing about Clemente's death is the amount of "premonitions" that Roberto had about dying young, even specifically dying in a plane. Then his kids crying to their grandmother that they knew he wasn't coming back...at ages a bit too old to just be taken for the babble of a child.

Anyone who hasn't read David Maraniss' biography is really missing out. I've read a lot of Clemente stuff and his book is the definitive and most thorough work in my opinion.

I remember the day well also. I remember my Dad crying. I asked what had happened. He just kept saying "he died he died." He didn't say who, even after I asked. Finally he just said "My Hero". I knew.

It was the saddest day in sports history for me.
Clemente is the greatest all around player I ever saw and that includes players like Musial, Mays, Kiner, Williams, Mantle, Berra. I am not saying he was the best hitter I ever saw, Barry Bonds probably was. He was the best defensive player I ever saw for sure.
I know stats might say otherwise with these players, but there is a a makeup beyond stats for a player, he had it and then some.

I bought a Pirates throwback jersey a few years back...no name on the back of it...just the number 21. I was 8 when he died and I probably cried too. Baseball was king at that time for me, and he was my hero. At that age, I didn't realize he was a hero in other ways.