Clemente attended Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado High School in Carolina.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1961
San Francisco, California, United States
National League stars Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron stand together for a victory portrait after the All-Star Game of 1961 in San Francisco.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1962
Bronx, New York City, New York, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates running to first base against the New York Mets at the Polo Grounds during a July 19, 1962 game in the Bronx, New York.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1966
Roberto Clemente
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1967
Roberto Clemente
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1967
Shea Stadium, New York City, New York, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates, batting during a game in Shea Stadium against the Mets.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1969
Roberto Clemente
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1971
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates races down the first baseline against the Baltimore Orioles during the 1971 World Series at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1971
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates triples in the first inning off of pitcher Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles as catcher Elrod Hendricks and umpire John Kibler look on during Game 6 of the 1971 World Series on October 16, 1971.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1971
900 E 33rd St, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates homers in the forth inning against the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series on October 17, 1971 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1971
900 E 33rd St, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates bats against the Baltimore Orioles during the 1971 World Series at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
1972
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates talks to the media after getting his 3000th hit against the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium on September 30, 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Portrait of Puerto Rican-born baseball player Roberto Clemente, in his Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, kneeling and holding a baseball bat, 1960s.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates readies for the pitch during his first National League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a photo approximately in 1970.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates poses for a photo approximately in 1968.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Outfielder Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates takes a breather on the field during the 1960s.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates stands at the plate ready to hit during a MLB baseball game in the early 1970s.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates swings and watches the flight of his ball during a MLB baseball game in the early 1970's at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates is seen warming up prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game approximately in 1970 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh's National League batting champion, is shown here receiving a warm parental hug.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Roberto Clemente's eyes follow the ball as he drops his bat and heads for first base during the fourth inning of the Pirates-Mets game in Pittsburgh.
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente
Gallery of Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente slides home in the seventh inning with the first run of the 9/10 game.
National League stars Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron stand together for a victory portrait after the All-Star Game of 1961 in San Francisco.
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates running to first base against the New York Mets at the Polo Grounds during a July 19, 1962 game in the Bronx, New York.
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates races down the first baseline against the Baltimore Orioles during the 1971 World Series at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates triples in the first inning off of pitcher Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles as catcher Elrod Hendricks and umpire John Kibler look on during Game 6 of the 1971 World Series on October 16, 1971.
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates homers in the forth inning against the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series on October 17, 1971 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates talks to the media after getting his 3000th hit against the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium on September 30, 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates swings and watches the flight of his ball during a MLB baseball game in the early 1970's at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
792 W General Robinson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, United States
Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates is seen warming up prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game approximately in 1970 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Roberto Clemente was a professional baseball player who was an idol in his native Puerto Rico and one of the first Latin American baseball stars in the United States.
Background
Roberto Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934, in Carolina, Puerto Rico, near San Juan, to Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker. He was the youngest of seven children, six of whom were boys. Clemente was born into relative poverty during a time of economic depression in Puerto Rico. His father was a foreman of a sugar plantation and worked long hours in the fields, receiving a dollar a day. Later, he joined his wife in running a grocery store.
Education
During his childhood, Clemente worked with his father in the fields. He loaded and unloaded trucks. Clemente began playing baseball with his friends at an early age and continued to play through high school, where he starred in baseball and track. He attended Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado High School in Carolina. Roberto was such a skilled javelin thrower that some thought he might make Puerto Rico's 1952 Olympic team. However, baseball was his favorite sport, and he devoted most of his free time to it. His high school coach, Robert Marin, told a scout for the Santurce professional baseball team to take a look at Clemente. The scout held tryouts for seventy-one players and sent seventy of them home after watching Clemente. He offered Clemente a $5,000 bonus, a $60-per-month contract, and a baseball glove.
Clemente was originally signed to a professional contract by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954. He was given a $10,000 bonus - very high by the standards of the times - but was sent to the minor leagues for the 1954 season. Clemente spent a miserable year wondering where his career was going. Ready to quit, he was urged by Roberto Marin to stick it out so that he would be eligible for the draft at the end of the season. The Pittsburgh Pirates had not won a World Series since 1930. Their scout, Clyde Sukeforth, discovered Clemente in Montreal, and the Pirates chose him in the first round of the minor league draft on November 22, 1954 - promising him that he would play every day.
Clemente started slowly, tailoring his batting, which always looked awkward, to Forbes Field, where the high scoreboard and the depth of the field made it ideal for hitting triples. His batting averages for the first five years averaged about 281. In 1960, the year the Pirates won the World Series against the New York Yankees, Clemente batted 314. That year he hit sixteen home runs, scored eighty-nine runs, and batted in ninety-four runs - a team-high. Most of his runs batted in came at crucial points in big games. In the World Series he had nine hits in twenty-nine times at bat for a .310 average.
Clemente expected to be named the Most Valuable Player in 1960; when he placed eighth, he was angry and remained bitter about it for the rest of his career. It was said that he never wore his World Series ring. Clemente's feud with sportswriters, who called his pride and outspokenness "arrogance," began at this time. He felt they used his problems with the English language to make him look stupid and foolish and believed that their criticism was motivated by racism and prejudice. He claimed that Hispanic players were treated worse than the African-American players and were denied lucrative endorsements. He also resented the press for labeling his injuries and illnesses as "malingering" and "hypochondria."
Roberto led the National League in batting in 1961, with .351, and the major leagues as a whole in 1964, 1965, and 1967. Clemente was invited to play in the All-Star Game in 1961, receiving the second-highest number of votes on the National League squad. Each year between 1961 and 1966, he played between 144 and 155 games and batted over .310. In 1967, his best year for slugging average, he won his fourth batting title (.357), hit 23 home runs, drove in 110 runs, and scored 103. After this banner year, age and persistent injuries began to take their toll. He remained an All-Star player and Gold Glove winner in right field, but his batting declined.
About this time Clemente set for himself the goal of reaching 3,000 hits. In 1967, he led the National League with 209 hits, raising his total to 2,238. The following year he was plagued by injuries that affected him into June of the 1969 season. The team was doing well in the pennant race, and in spite of his injuries, Clemente banged out ten hits in two games against his favorite opponents, the Dodgers, a feat not previously accomplished in the twentieth century. The Pirates won division titles in the next two years and beat the Baltimore Orioles in a seven-game World Series in 1971.
Even so, Clemente was 118 hits short of his goal as the 1972 season began. He limped through the season with a bad ankle, severely bruised heels, persistent stomach problems, and general exhaustion. By September he was still 25 hits short of 3,000. The Pirates were doing so well that attention focused on Clemente's batting goal. He chipped away at it, raising his average to .310.
The Pirates returned home at the end of September with Clemente set to hit 3,000. Anticlimactically for Clemente and his fans, a credited hit turned into an error - he had it, then he didn't. But on September 30, in a game against the New York Mets, Clemente whacked a Jon Matlack curveball off the wall in left-center field for a double and had his 3,000th - the eleventh player in baseball history to reach this goal. It was to be Clemente's last hit.
Roberto returned home to Puerto Rico after the playoffs with the Cincinnati Reds to celebrate the holiday season. On December 23, 1972, Managua was hit by a severe earthquake. Clemente organized and chaired the Puerto Rican relief effort, even going door to door in his neighborhood asking for donations. Against the pleas of family and friends, on New Year's Eve, he boarded a rickety old DC-7 that had been donated to the relief effort. The plane developed engine trouble upon takeoff and plummeted into the ocean near Carolina. No bodies were ever retrieved from the shark-infested waters.
Clemente's father, Melchor, was a non-practicing Catholic. His mother, Luisa, abandoned the practice of the Catholic faith and then belonged to a Baptist church. The parents had Roberto baptized a Catholic, but on Sundays he went with his mother to Baptist services. Luisa remembered him as an unusually religious child. Following a pious custom, he would ask his parents' blessing. He enjoyed going to church and singing hymns.
In early adulthood, Clemente turned again to the Catholic faith of his baptism. He was intensely private about religious matters. Some of his teammates were Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, and they tried to persuade him to abandon the Catholic faith. But they said he seemed completely uninterested in the conversation.
Thanks to his mother's example, he kept a broad and deeply ecumenical approach to life and friendship. He continued to cherish the hymns he had learned as a Baptist.
Politics
Clemente was a politically-charged activist who marched in the street protests of the 60's and spent time with the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Views
Off the field, Clemente dedicated his time to a variety of humanitarian endeavors. He helped raise money for the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, one of his favorite charities. During his winters in his native Puerto Rico, Clemente routinely held free baseball clinics for underprivileged children. The events of December 1972 typify his charitable nature. After a strong earthquake struck Nicaragua, Clemente organized a relief effort to assist the victims.
Quotations:
"I am from the poor people; I represent the poor people. I like workers. I like people that suffer because these people have a different approach to life from the people that have everything and don't know what suffering is."
"In a way, I was born twice. I was born in 1934 and again in 1955 when I came to Pittsburgh. I am thankful to say that I lived two lives."
"I would be lost without baseball. I don't think I could stand being away from it as long as I was alive."
"I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."
"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth."
"When I put on my uniform, I feel I am the proudest man on earth."
"If I would be happy, I would be a bad ballplayer. With me, when I get mad, it puts energy in my body."
Personality
Clemente was concerned about others' feelings and welfare. He was notably generous with fans and others.
Physical Characteristics:
Known as a hypochondriac, Clemente frequently suffered from a variety of injuries and ailments: headaches, backaches, stomach pains, malaria, insomnia, bone chips, and pulled muscles.
Roberto Clemente was 5 ft 11 inches (180 cm) tall and weighed 175 lb (79 kg).
Clemente died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, while trying to deliver relief aid that he had collected for earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
Quotes from others about the person
Matty Alou: "Most Latin players don't look for the walk. They go up to the plate aggressively. It's a basic thing. You try to throw the ball past me; I try to hit the ball. Clemente did - how do you say? - what comes natural. He developed his talents. Almost everybody in our country is like that but Roberto, with the way he hit, made the American scouts leave us alone and let us play the game our way."
Matty Alou: "I never saw him loafing to first. He used to run hard every ground ball, every fly ball. It was amazing the way he played the game. Because sometimes you just don't feel like running hard when you think it's going to be an out. If you see him before the game, you didn't believe he was so tough a player. He used to play hurt every day. Used to complain he didn't sleep. But when the game started, he was just marvelous."
Tony Bartirom: "He has these huge, strong hands. People always thought that because he hit with such power, he was this big guy. He wasn't, especially by today's standards. He came into spring training at 185 pounds. By the end of the season, he was 181. The power came from those hands."
Steve Blass: "He was different … he wasn't like the rest of us. He took professionalism to a higher degree. After a game, we all wanted to go out for a beer. He wouldn't go. He was compelled by baseball."
Interests
Sport & Clubs
track and field
Athletes
Monte Irvin
Connections
On November 14, 1964 Roberto Clemente married Vera Zabala. The couple had three children - Roberto Jr., Luis Roberto, and Roberto Enrique.
Father:
Melchor Clemente
Mother:
Luisa Walker
Spouse:
Vera Cristina Zabala
Son:
Roberto Clemente Jr.
Son:
Luis Roberto Clemente
Son:
Roberto Enrique Clemente
Friend:
Bill Mazeroski
Friend:
Manny Sanguillen
References
Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero
Forty years after that tragic day, when Clemente died, the widow and sons of this regal athlete and consummate humanitarian open up for the first time about the husband and father they lost. Featuring an extensive array of rare and never-before-seen photos of Clemente on the field and off, this powerful memoir tells his inspiring story from the voices of those who knew him best.
2013
Who Was Roberto Clemente?
Growing up the youngest of seven children in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente had a talent for baseball. His incredible skill soon got him drafted into the big leagues where he spent 18 seasons playing right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who Was Roberto Clemente? tells the story of this remarkable athlete: a twelve-time All-Star, World Series MVP, and the first Latin American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero
On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, a book destined to become a modern classic.
2006
Roberto Clemente: Young Ball Player
This inspirational account of one of Puerto Rico's - and America's - most beloved heroes explores the early years of a man who was both a Hall of Fame right fielder and a courageous humanitarian.