Carlos Beltrán, Iván Rodríguez, Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martínez, Francisco Lindor, José ‘Cheo’ Cruz, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Correa and Bernie Williams…
Who is missing from this list of historic Puerto Rican baseball players who have left deep marks in the Major Leagues?
Without discussion, the first of the Puerto Rican ‘top ten’, Roberto Clemente, the first Latino in the Hall of Fame (1973), who on August 18, 92 years ago, was born in Carolina.
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker, ‘The Great One’, was enormous both on and off the diamonds, but it was not in these settings where his contact with sport began, but on the athletics tracks.
In 1940, at the age of 8, the son of Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker was already notable for his participation in children’s leagues of the so-called grassroots sport. He excelled in short-distance running and javelin throwing, but on the Isle of Enchantment it would not be unusual for baseball to end up seducing him.
In 1948 he was already shining with the softball team of a rice company and four years later, in 1952, he entered the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League with the Cangrejeros de Santurce.
To fulfill his dream of reaching the Major Leagues he had to go through the minors. The Dodgers did it, who by 1954 were still in the New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Clemente remained little in the Dodgers’ rooster, and in 1955 he packed his bags for Pittsburgh, where he made his great name during 18 seasons with the Pirates of that Pennsylvania city.
The 3,000 hits
The right fielder was very good at batting, with a very particular technique: he stretched his back, moved his neck and stood at the back of the batter’s box.
This particular style led him to have a batting average of .357 in 1967, but in 1972, the last year of his career, Clemente achieved a true milestone in baseball history: he reached 3,000 hits on September 30, in a regular season game against the New York Mets.
With Clemente, who won twelve Gold Gloves and was the best player (MVP) of the National League in 1966, the Pirates won two World Series: 1960, in which they beat the Yankees 4-3, and 1971, in which they defeated the Baltimore Orioles with the same overall score.
He joined that select list of 3,000 hits to join figures like Willie Mays (considered by many to be the second best player in history behind Babe Ruth), and Hank Aaron, who, with 715 home runs in his career, broke in 1974 the record held by ‘the Bambino’ of 714.
Among current Major League players, those closest to joining the 3,000 Hits Club are Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers and José Altuve of the Houston Astros, with 2,400 each.
A tragic departure
After having fallen in the fight for the National League pennant with the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Cincinnati Reds, Clemente returned to Puerto Rico to spend the end of the 1972 year with his team, but on December 23 of that same year, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
Clemente, a declared defender of social causes, decided to personally bring aid to the devastated area. On the night of December 31, the DC-7 plane he was on fell into the waters of the Caribbean Sea.
There were no survivors. In fact, the body of ‘The Great One’ was never found. His death left the baseball world in mourning. Puerto Rico lost one of its best sons and Pittsburgh lost a man who took them to the top.
Inclusion in the Hall of Fame was immediate. In a very quick process, he was admitted on August 8, 1973 after receiving 92.63% of the votes. The first Latin American to receive this honor.
Clemente and the philanthropic vein
Helping those most in need became an almost apostolic mission for baseball player Roberto Clemente who died at the age of 40.
It was common to see him in the off-months of the MLB leading campaigns to help poor children until making baseball his career. He even taught free classes in the communities with the most needs.
One of the projects to which the ‘Big One’ dedicated the most effort was the creation of the Sports City that today bears his name in Carolina, a complex where low-income young people can learn in different sports to stay away from drugs and crime.
Clemente was also a strong defender of civil rights during the 1960s and raised his voice to correct the inequalities suffered by Latin American baseball players in the MLB, demanding respect, dignity and fair salaries.
(With a report from Luis Alejandro Amaya E., from EFE)
