Buccos Cove Fan Vote All-Pirates Team: Right Fielder Roberto Clemente
Over the past few weeks, we have been asking you to vote for your fan favorites for our All-Pirates team. As we move to right field, we come upon our only unanimous choice. There have been some great right fielders in Pittsburgh, but one stands above the rest. He spent all 18 years of his Big League career in Pittsburgh, was a 12-time all-star, was named MVP in 1966, and was a 1971 World Series MVP. Even greater than his work on the field was the work he did off the field to help those in need. In fact, his tragic death in 1972 was caused by his love of helping others as he was trying to fly aid to the people of Nicaragua. Of course, we are talking about The Great One, Roberto Clemente.
Clemente has set many records on the field and could have done even more if it wasn't for his untimely death. He is one of only three Pittsburgh Pirates players in the 3000 hit club and one of only two to spend their entire career in a Pirates uniform. He is a two-time World Series Champion, playing a big part in both the 1960 and 1971 World Championships in Pittsburgh. Over his 18-year career, Clemente hit .317 with 240 home runs and 1305 RBI. He is top-five all-time in Pirates history in home runs and RBI, but it wasn't until his sixth year in Major League Baseball that he became a star. Today, we look at Clemente's rise from young Puerto Rican prospect to Major League Baseball legend.
From Puerto Rico to the MLB
Robert Clemente was born on August 18th, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico which is just outside of the capital of San Juan. When he was younger, Clemente had a love for all sports, but baseball was king in his heart. He would play for hours every day and even recalls one time when he hit "10 home runs in a game. We started at 11 am and didn't finish until 6:30 pm." When he wasn't playing, he would admire the MLB stars of the day and his favorite was Monte Irvin, who played for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. Clemente would model his throwing motion after Irvin and worked every day to be more and more like his hero. He joined his fiery organized team at 14 when he played on a softball team organized by Roberto Marin.
Marin would be the man who got Clemente on the path to professional baseball. With his great arm strength, Marin put him at shortstop before eventually moving him to his home position in the outfield. His hitting was undeniable, but his defensive ability and amazing catches made him a notable player. He was an all-around strong athlete and used other sports to complement his baseball skills. At Carolina High School, he starred on the Track team as both a high jumper and a javelin thrower. Throwing the javelin helped strengthen his arm, and many thought he was good enough to represent Puerto Rico in the Olympics. However, he stuck with pro baseball and started getting noticed by scouts.
He was initially signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 for $5,000 with a $10,000 signing bonus and his career began. He would head to Montreal as the Dodgers essentially tried to hide him from other teams by not playing him that often. He played sparingly over the first three months of his professional career and appeared in a total of 87 games hitting .257 with two home round and 12 RBI. However, the Pirates had the number one selection in the 1955 Amateur Draft, and one account says that a Pirates scout told Montreal Manager Max Macon to "Protect our boy for me." Sure enough, the Pirates drafted Clemente in the 1955 Amateur Draft, and his Pirates career began
Becoming the Great One
Like many players who make the jump to the Major Leagues, there was an adjustment period for Clemente at first. During the 1955 season, he hit just .257 with five home runs and 47 RBI in 124 games played that season. It took Clemente a couple of seasons to he acclimated to the Big League level, but in 1960 he took off. He earned the first of his 12 all-star appearances hitting .314 with 16 home runs and 94 RBI while appearing in 144 games played. It was the first time in his career that he hit double-digit home runs and he helped lead the Pirates to the 1960 World Series. He was a singles machine during that World Series going 9-29 (.313) with nine singles and three RBI. At just 26-years-old, he already had a ring and was well on his way to success.
His success continued into 1962 as he led the National League with a .351 batting average and set a new career-high with 23 home runs. His batting average stayed above .300 for the next seven seasons, but the pinnacle of his career came in the late 60s. He would win back-to-back MLB batting titles in 1964 and 1965, hitting .339 and .329 respectively, and added a third batting title with a .357 batting average in 1967. Despite winning three batting titles, his best season came when he didn't win the batting title at all. In 1966, Clemente hit .317 with 29 home runs and 119 RBI and was named MVP of the National League.
Now at 37-years-old, Clemente was showing that he could still hit the ball and once again brought the Pirates to the biggest stage. During the 1971 season, Clemente hit .341 with 13 home runs and 86 RBI and helped lead the Pirates to the playoffs. However, it was his work in the World Series that he would be most remembered for. In 29 at-bats during the 71 World Series, he hit .414 with two home runs and four RBI and struck out just two times. One of his biggest hits came in Game seven when he drove in the Pirate's first run in the top of the fourth inning. Steve Blass would finish out the game and Clemente earned Series MVP honors and the second World Series ring of his career.
Clemente's End of Career and Death
The 1972 season began to see Clemente head on the decline, but he still put up respectable numbers hitting .312 with 10 home runs and 64 RBI. His power was declining, but he was showing that he could still consistently hit the ball. He joined elite company on what would turn out to be his final day as a Major League Baseball Player when he collected his 3,000th hit. The hit came on a double in the fourth inning and would go down as his final hit in professional baseball. The Pirates were kicked out of the playoffs in the first round of the 1972 playoffs and Clemente got three more hits before ending his season.
Unfortunately Game five of the 1972 NLCS would be the final game Roberto Clemente ever played in. He tragically died in a plane crash on December 31st, 1972, while trying to sense aid to the people of Nicaragua following an earthquake. In 1973, The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame waived the five-year waiting period and Posthumously voted Clemente as a Hall of Famer. Robert Clemente was one of the greatest baseball players and the greatest human beings of all time. He stands above every other Pirate and is still in the hearts of all Pirates fans 48 years after his death. He is no doubt the captain of the Buccos Cove Fan Vote All-Pirates team.
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