When John Fogerty débuted his 1985 hit song Centerfield, he reminded people of the joy inherent in baseball—the video produced for this musical, lyrical, and nostalgic homage to baseball depicts a collage of footage featuring baseball legends, including Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Roy Campanella, Casey Stengel, Ted Williams, Duke Snider, Willie Mays, Bob Feller, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra.
Roberto Clemente also appears—his 1956 Topps card opens a montage of baseball cards accompanying the song’s opening riff, which consists of a string of claps in a pattern one might hear in a ballpark’s stands. The video is timed so that a card appears simultaneously with the sound of each clap.
It’s somehow appropriate that Clemente received the distinction of opening the Centerfield music video. Overshadowed during his career, perhaps, by his peers—the dazzling flash of Willie ays, the consistent power of Hank Aaron, and the sheer dominance of Mickey Mantle—the Pittsburgh Pirates’ standout outfielder symbolized steadiness. In turn, Clemente stirred excitement among the Pirate faithful at Forbes Field.
In a career that spanned 1955 to 1972, Clemente had a .317 lifetime batting average—during one 13-year stretch, he notched a batting average above .300 for 12 of those years. Clemente compiled a .475 lifetime slugging average, won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1966, and reached the magical plateau of 3,000 career hits—exactly. On December 31, 1972, Clemente died in a plane crash while traveling to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
His was a voyage of purpose—spearheading relief efforts for Managuans suffering from a recent earthquake. “He had received reports that some of the food and clothing he had sent earlier had fallen into the hands of profiteers,” explained Cristobal Colon, a Clemente friend, in the article “Clemente, Pirates’ Star, Dies in Crash Of Plane Carrying Aid to Nicaragua,” in the January 2, 1973 edition of the New York Times. Neither for glory nor publicity, Clemente helped those who could not help themselves. It was a part of his character, not a springboard for a photo opportunity.
Clemente’s last hit came against Jon Matlack, the 1972 National League Rookie of the Year, in a Mets-Pirates game on September 30, 1972. Mattock was unaware of the moment’s historic impact, however. “I had no idea he was sitting on 2,999,” Matlack recalled for Anthony McCarran’s November 29, 2008 article “Where are they now? Ex-Met Jon Matlack can’t stay away from the game” on nydailynews.com. “I was just trying to win a game. When I gave up the double—I think it short-hopped the center-field wall—there was all this hoopla. The ump presents him the ball at second and I’m glowering and thinking, ‘Hey we have a ballgame here.’ I was just an oblivious rookie. Then I saw it on the scoreboard, that it was his 3,000th hit.”
In the 2006 book Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, David Maraniss recounted, “In the excitement of the moment, Don Leppert, the first base coach, took out a package of Mail Pouch chewing tobacco and was about to stuff a wad into his mouth when Clemente came over and gave him the ball. Leppert stuck the piece of history in his back pocket for safekeeping.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame waived its eligibility rule because of Clemente’s untimely death. A waiting period of five years after retirement had been the rule but the waiver mandated that a player’s eligibility kicks in if the player dies before the five-year waiting period expires or while still active. In a special election, the Baseball Writers Association of America stamped Clemente’s passport to Cooperstown.
A eulogy appeared in the article “Roberto Clemente, The Great One” in the January 6, 1973 edition of the New Pittsburgh Courier, a newspaper dedicated to the Steel City’s black population: “Life was not always good to him. He was often maligned. Many times he was not given the recognition and admiration that was his due. It took sometime [sic] for his greatness to get through to a reluctant public but eventually it came to the fore, like the knight in shining armour that he was.”
Roberto Clemente was, indeed, a hero for his achievements on the baseball diamond. He played on 12 All-Star teams, received 11 Gold Gloves, and became an icon to Pittsburgh’s baseball fans. But his deeds of generosity to those unable to help themselves defined his true heroism.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on December 31, 2014.