Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero
Roberto Clemente got his three-thousandth hit in his last at-bat of the last regular-season game of 1972. On December 31, 1972, he was killed in a plane crash delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 He was enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1973. Clemente was, as the scouts like to say, a “five-tool” player who could hit, throw, field, run, and hit with power. Though this tribute to him by his family touches on all the important baseball topics, its focus is on Clemente as a husband, father, teammate, and humanitarian. Roberto and his wife, Vera, met in Clementes native Puerto Rico in 1964. He was famous, and she was shy. It worked out well. He was a devoted family man, and, though he loved playing baseball, he felt his fame and fortune were wasted unless he used them in the service of the less fortunate. There are dozens of black-and-white photographs included here, many previously unseen, from the family’s private collection, and they evocatively illustrate the text. A striking tribute to a remarkable man. --Wes Lukowsky