The History of Roberto Clemente

Early Life

• Roberto Clemente Walker was born in 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He was the youngest of seven children and his father, Melchor, toiled on a sugar plantation for one dollar per day. Like many children in Puerto Rico, Roberto worked with his father at a young age. Roberto also discovered baseball at a young age and blossomed into a special talent by the time he reached high school. After a tryout that included 71 players, a scout sent everyone but Roberto home. Clemente signed a contract with the Santure Crabbers, a team in the Puerto Rico Baseball League, for $60 a month plus a $5,000 bonus and a new glove.

Minor Leagues

• Clemente played in Puerto Rico for three years, where he attracted the eye of a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers who gave Clemente a $10,000 signing bonus. Even though Jackie Robinson had broken into Major League Baseball in 1947, the league was far from integrated, and a Puerto Rican star had not yet had the opportunity to shine. Clemente played in Montreal for the Dodgers' farm team but wouldn't stay there long. In fact, he couldn't--a league rule stated that because he signed for a bonus of more than $4,000, he had to be on a major league roster within a year. Since the Dodgers' outfield was already stacked with talent, Clemente was re-ntered into the draft, where he was plucked by the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pirates

• Clemente played his first game with the Pirates on April 17, 1955. It didn't take long for Clemente to establish himself as a star. In his second year in the league he batted .311, the first of 13 seasons he would hit over the .300 mark. Clemente also established himself as one of the best outfielders in the league, with a cannon arm that led the league in outfield assists in 1958. In 1960, Clemente helped the Pirates win the World Series.
  During the 1960's Clemente put up Hall of Fame numbers, batting over .300 each year, knocking in more than 100 runs twice, scoring more than 100 runs three times and hitting more than 10 triples six times. He led the Pirates to two more World Series: in 1970, when they lost to the Cincinnati Reds; and in 1971, when they defeated the Baltimore Orioles. Clemente was named Most Valuable Player of the 1971 World Series.
  On Sept. 30, 1972, Clemente recorded his 3,000th hit. At the time he was only the 11th player ever to reach that milestone.
  Clemente was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973. He was the first Latin-American player to be elected and the only player to be elected before the five-year waiting period, which MLB adopted in 1954.

Humanitarian

• After each baseball season ended Clemente was heavily involved with charity work, especially in his homeland. On December 23, 1972, the Nicaraguan city of Managua was hit by a massive earthquake, leaving what some estimated as more than half of the population homeless. On New Year's Eve, Clemente boarded a plane laden with food and supplies to personally deliver to the survivors. Unfortunately, the plane was carrying too much weight and it crashed into the ocean off of the coast of Puerto Rico shortly after takeoff. Clemente's body never was recovered.

Personal Life

• In 1964, Clemente married Vera Zabula. They had three sons: Robert Jr., Luis Roberto and Enrique Roberto.

Honors, Awards, Statistics

• Most Valuable Player, 1966
  Most Valuable Player of the World Series, 1971
  Batting titles, 1961 (.351), 1964 (.339), 1965 (.329), 1967 (.357)
  Hall of Fame Induction, 1973
  Selected to 12 All-Star Games
  Awarded 12 Gold Gloves
  Lifetime statistics:
  .317 batting average
  3,000 hits
  240 home runs
  1,305 runs batted in
  1,416 runs scored
  440 doubles
  166 triples
  2,433 games played
  His number, 21, was retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates, meaning no other Pirate will ever wear that number.