EXTRA INNINGS A Life Lesson from

One of the most electrifying plays in baseball is a , 300 feet away, nailing a runner trying to score from second on a base , or from third on a . Ichiro Suzuki and Carl Furillo were among several great right fielders with that kind of arm, but Roberto Clemente (called “the best arm in baseball”) of the would be at the top of most lists. He gunned down runners at second, third or home, and even picked off a runner who rounded first base a little too far. Vin Scully, the Dodgers broadcaster, said: “Clemente could field a ball in New York and throw out a guy in ”. Clemente was an All-Star for 12 seasons, Most Valuable Player in 1966, the NL batting leader in four seasons, and a Gold Glove Award winner 12 times. His batting average was over .300 for 13 seasons, amassing 3,000 hits during his major league career. An excellent fielder, his teammates said with him in the game it was like having four . A native of Puerto Rico, Clemente was much more than a baseball player. A passionate humanitarian, he spent his off- seasons doing charity work in the Caribbean and Latin American countries. Just before Christmas, 1972, a massive earthquake devastated Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. Clemente set to work arranging emergency relief flights from Puerto Rico. The old and previously-wrecked Douglas DC-7 cargo plane he chartered for a New Year's Eve flight had a history of mechanical problems, a pilot with a checkered safety record, a makeshift flight crew, and was overweight by two tons. It exploded and crashed into the frigid Atlantic Ocean immediately after takeoff on New Year’s Eve. Clemente’s body was never recovered from the treacherous waters. Nearly 50 years after that tragedy, people in Latin American countries still honor Clemente’s memory. The New Pittsburgh Courier wrote, “The poor people whom he helped during his lifetime, the children, the elderly, the downtrodden, the unfortunate whom he often gave a helping hand to get a new lease on life…have an indelible imprint of Roberto Clemente in their hearts”. His close friend, Panamanian teammate, Manny Sanguillen, in his broken English, said, “He geeves his life for somebody he don’t know”. Sanguillen’s emotional comment is, in a small way, a reminder of another event that took place 2,000 years ago. On a day that became the pivotal point in human history, Jesus gave his life for all the world. May we never forget.

Pete Aman 4/15/19