A model of this story initially ran in February 2022.
As a child, Roberto Clemente did chores in his hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico, to save lots of up for a bicycle, which value about $20 on the time.
As soon as he purchased one, he would use it to trek into San Juan to look at Puerto Rico’s Winter Baseball League — one ultimately renamed in his honor — which within the Nineteen Thirties and ’40s was a sanctuary for Negro League gamers seeking to proceed enjoying within the colder months.
At Estadio Sixto Escobar, Clemente would climb a tree in proper subject and saddle a department to look out on the Senadores de San Juan and whichever group they had been enjoying on the time. However in 1945, when Clemente was 11 years previous, the teen would watch one individual over all others: Monte Irvin, a member of the Negro Nationwide League’s Newark Eagles, who performed nice protection and made unimaginable throws from proper subject.
One big day in that 1945 winter, Clemente didn’t head for his perch in proper subject. As a substitute, he walked as much as Irvin — who was born 103 years in the past Friday — and obtained an expertise he’d always remember.
“Monte handed Dad his bag so Dad may stroll in at no cost,” stated Roberto Clemente Jr., Clemente’s first son. “And as soon as they went in, Monte opened his bag and gave dad a glove.”
Name it an indication: Clemente went on to be a proper fielder like his childhood idol, Irvin. The truth that Irvin gave Clemente a glove would function foreshadowing: The Nice One would go on to grow to be the best defensive proper fielder in baseball historical past with 12 Gold Glove Awards.
However as essential because the present from Irvin was, much more essential was the instance he set for the younger Clemente as a fellow minority who was a famous person on the island, along with his MVP season for the Senadores. Following within the footsteps of a participant who appeared like he did when the Majors had been taking the primary child steps towards integration, Clemente went on to be a beacon for minority and dealing class populations.
Irvin was almost the primary Black participant within the white Main Leagues. He was beneficial by Negro League group homeowners as the most effective geared up gamers to affix MLB, and Dodgers GM Department Rickey requested Irvin concerning the chance. However Irvin had simply returned from service in World Battle II, the place not solely was he discriminated in opposition to primarily based on his pores and skin colour as he had been in baseball, however he additionally confirmed signs of PTSD.
Clemente moved to Pittsburgh in 1955 after he’d been drafted within the Rule 5 Draft from the Dodgers at age 20 by Rickey’s Pirates. It got here six years after Minnie Miñoso joined Cleveland to grow to be the primary Afro-Latino in MLB in 1949, the identical 12 months Irvin reached the Majors with the Giants.
Earlier than Clemente performed an inning as a Pirate, he knew who he was to serve on the sector, and it was not simply himself. As he took the sector in opposition to Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers on April 17, 1955, he set an intention.
“He stated to himself, ‘I’m representing Puerto Ricans. I’m representing Latinos, Hispanics. I’m representing Blacks, minorities, anybody of a working class that’s struggling on the market and affected by injustice,’” Roberto Jr. stated. “And he took that very personally.
“Baseball was secondary to what the title [Clemente] means to individuals and the affect it has around the globe.”
Clemente would solely grow to be a stronger participant from that first sport, although as an Afro-Latino participant he needed to work twice as arduous. Regardless of baseball being built-in by the point Clemente arrived, prejudices had been nonetheless sturdy and arduous to beat, and Latin American gamers had been typically unfairly seen as lazy or egocentric, particularly after they sat out with harm.
A .282 common over his first 5 seasons didn’t do him any favors, however as soon as the calendar flipped to 1960 and Clemente started to hit over .300 repeatedly, the honors began to return.
In fact, a cannon of an arm actually cemented his legend. Runners feared Clemente, who had an unbelievable mix of throwing energy, accuracy and speedy fielding.
A concise illustration of that worry: On Opening Day in 1965, the legendary Willie Mays took off from second base on a two-out single to proper subject from Jesus Alou within the fourth inning. Alou superior to second on the throw house from Clemente, but the speedy Mays didn’t try to attain. The inning ended with the following batter, the sport went scoreless in regulation, and the Pirates walked it off within the tenth.
Had anybody however Clemente been on the market, Pittsburgh seemingly would have misplaced that sport.
“When the world’s finest baserunner places on the brakes on a success to proper,” Gaylord Perry stated of the play, “ it’s as a result of the world’s finest arm is in proper.”
That standoff between two Corridor of Famers was impressed in its personal proper by a lesser-known however simply as pivotal Corridor of Famer in Irvin. (Clemente and Irvin had been inducted into the Baseball Corridor of Fame on the identical day: Aug. 6, 1973.)
When Clemente watched Irvin from the tree outdoors of Estadio Sixto Escobar, he didn’t merely marvel on the arm the Senadores’ proper fielder had and daydream. He additionally keyed in on the work Irvin did to be so nice.
Clemente would ask teammates to hit him balls to proper subject so he may create a psychological encyclopedia of bounces at every stadium he performed in. If he was going to get beat by a baserunner, he wasn’t going to permit it to be as a result of he didn’t get to the ball in time. If he gave himself a step there, he may catch runners by a couple of steps along with his arm.
“Clemente all the time informed me he developed a throwing arm like mine as a result of he’d all the time admired the way in which I threw the ball,” Irvin informed MLB.com in 2001. “When he obtained into the Majors, we renewed our friendship. We used to reminisce concerning the good previous days in Puerto Rico.”
And Clemente by no means forgot Puerto Rico, nor the minority gamers who lived there year-round or wintered there. He by no means forgot that intention he set earlier than his first sport, even when he went on to be a perennial All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner, that he would serve the underrepresented populations by his greatness on and off the sector.
“All the time, they stated Babe Ruth was the very best there was. They stated, ‘You’d actually should be one thing to be like Babe Ruth.’ However Babe Ruth was an American participant,” Clemente stated after profitable the 1966 MVP Award. “What we wanted was a Puerto Rican participant they might say that about — somebody to look as much as and attempt to equal.”
Clemente turned that instance, serving as what present Pirates catcher and native Puerto Rican Michael Perez dubbed “a patriarch” of the island. Fortunately, Clemente had an instance from childhood to attempt to equal — and ultimately surpass — in Irvin.
“The person was a gem,” Roberto Clemente Jr. stated of Irvin, “and he didn’t know — Monte actually didn’t know — how a lot he needed to do with Dad and the way a lot of an affect he had on Dad.”
