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As a professional baseball player, Clemente ranks
among the best of all time. He was, in baseball parlance, a “complete
player” and his record proves it in multiples. In addition
to the Most Valuable Player Award, Clemente received 12 Gold Glove
Awards, 4 National League batting titles, 12 All-Star Game selections,
2 World Series Championships, and reached the 3,000-hit milestone.
Only ten players in the history of the major leagues recorded 3,000
hits before Roberto. The highlight of his long and prosperous career
came in 1971, when he earned the World Series MVP Award for his
superb performance in the Fall Classic against the heavily favored
Baltimore Orioles. Clemente batted .414, hit two home runs, and
turned in several standout defensive plays to carry the Pirates
to one of the most surprising results in World Series history.
With a massive television audience witnessing the seven games of
this historic Series, Clemente gained the kind of nationwide recognition
that had eluded him throughout his career.
But there’s another Clemente record. It
is written in cornerstones of schools, hospitals, and other public
buildings, inscribed on monuments and statues, struck on coins,
imprinted on collectibles and book covers — it is simply
his name, Roberto Clemente, and it is evidence of his impact beyond
baseball.
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Clemente became known for his fierce ethnic pride
and for his unusual capacity to bear a much larger identity—not
just for Puerto Rico but for all of Latin America. It was a responsibility
he embraced and carried with dignity and admirable grace.
He didn’t see himself as merely a representative
of Latin America to the world through baseball. He saw his career
in baseball as a way to help Latin Americans — especially underprivileged
Puerto Ricans — make their lives better.
"Always, they said Babe Ruth was the
best there was. They said you’d really have to be something
to be like Babe Ruth. But Babe Ruth was an American player. What
we needed was a Puerto Rican player they could say that about,
someone to look up to and try to equal."
-Roberto Clemente
National League Most Valuable Player, 1966
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Clemente’s philanthropy was not calculated
to gain public or private recognition. He simply wanted to help
people in need. For some, his generosity was financial; with others
he freely shared his chiropractic knowledge — learned as
a result of his own back injury in 1954; and for many others, particularly
children, Clemente’s kindness came as free lessons in the
game of baseball.
Clemente always cared about children. Despite
his busy schedule, he made time to hold baseball clinics for kids,
especially for those from low-income families. He dreamed of building
a “Sports City” where Puerto Rican youth would have
ready access to facilities, coaching, and encouragement in many
sports. It was another way of working toward a Puerto Rico that
was healthier, happier, and fairer.
"Everyone knows I've been struggling
all my life. I believe that every human being is equal, but one
has to fight hard all the time to maintain that equality.
-Roberto Clemente
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No single work of art can articulate the
full meaning of Clemente’s life, but for Puerto Ricans,
a cenotaph by José Buscaglia, installed in Carolina,
may be the most encompassing expression.
Traditionally, cenotaphs are funerary monuments
dedicated to heroes whose bodies are not recovered from the
field of battle. So the very genre of Buscaglia’s work
honors Clemente as one who gave all for his country.
In the center panel, the lamb in Roberto’s
arms is the lamb from the Puerto Rican coat of arms. In his
life and death, Roberto lifted Puerto Rican identity to a
new level in the world. The monument’s inscription
reads "Son of Carolina, Exemplary Citizen, Athlete,
Philanthropist, Teacher, Hero of the Americas and the World.
"I want to be remembered
as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."
-Roberto Clemente |
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