Roberto Clemente:
Breaking Barriers for Latinos in Major League Baseball and Beyond
Jeana Kim-Bolt
Junior Division
Historical Paper
Paper Length: 2315
"I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."1
Professional athletes are generally people whom fans all over the world admire and try to emulate. However, Roberto Clemente, a native Puerto Rican baseball star during the late 1950s and 60s, was mocked, teased, and discriminated against for being a black, Spanish-speaking foreigner, despite his phenomenal talents. Although not as well-known as Jackie Robinson,
Clemente’s perseverance and heroic, barrier-breaking efforts through adversity have proven equally important to Latinos as Robinson’s achievements were to blacks. Clemente became a role model for Latin American children everywhere and helped to improve the acceptance and treatment of Latino baseball players and Latino citizens in our country. Tragically, he died young in a plane crash while on a rescue mission, but his legacy lives on.
Roberto Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico.2 He was an athletic child, and particularly excelled at baseball, the passion of Puerto Rico. As an adult, he recalled, “When I was a little kid, the only thing I used to do was play ball all the time.
With a paper ball, with a rubber ball, with a tennis ball.” One of Clemente’s old neighbors insisted that whenever she saw him, he’d be throwing something or playing catch, even by himself.3 He continued to improve in the sport and by the age of 17, he was playing for los
Cangrejeros de Santurce‒the Santurce Crabbers‒in the Puerto Rican minor leagues.4
1 “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.” Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Smithsonian, www.robertoclemente.si.edu/english/virtual_legacy.htm. 2 Brudevold-Newman, Ben. “A Roberto Clemente Timeline.” National Public Radio, 30 Apr. 2006, www.npr.org/2006/04/30/5369952/a-roberto-clemente-timeline. 3 Maraniss, David. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero. Simon and Schuster, 2006, pp. 21-22. 4 “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto.
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During his successful stint with the Cangrejeros, Clemente caught the eye of Major
League scouts. In 1954, Clemente was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers‒Jackie Robinson’s team‒for a $10,000 bonus, a lot at that time, and joined their Triple-A minor league team in
Montreal. His bonus, however, exceeded the $4,000 maximum for a minor league position, a violation of baseball rules, so the Dodgers were forced to release him. He was chosen, instead, by the Pittsburgh Pirates and that was a fateful decision. At the time, the Pirates were a bad team, coming off the worst season of all the teams in the National League. Because they needed to start over with new players, Clemente earned a starting spot in the outfield and he debuted in the
Major Leagues on April 17, 1955. That year, he achieved a respectable batting average of .255.
He would stay with the Pirates throughout the rest of his career.5
"Everyone knows I've been struggling all my life. I believe that every human being is equal,
but one has to fight hard all the time to maintain that equality.”6
In Puerto Rico, a multicultural society, Clemente’s race wasn’t a big issue. In the USA, though, he learned that it was. During his first spring training with the Pirates in Bradenton,
Florida, when Clemente was 20, he experienced the open racism, segregation, and Jim Crow laws he had previously only heard about. While in Florida, Clemente’s team stayed at the segregated Bradford Hotel, so he and three other black and Latino players were forced to find
5 Jamail, Milton. “Roberto Clemente.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, updated 14 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Roberto-Clemente and Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2007, pp. 19. 6 “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.”
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different, inferior, lodging.7 That was just the beginning. Once he began as a professional player, the press frequently made fun of his Spanish accent and imperfect grammar, ridiculing his
English comments and interviews. Journalists would purposely misspell words the way he pronounced them, such as “I heet ball” instead of “I hit the ball,” making him seem inferior and less intelligent.8 Another quote was written as “I no play so gut yet. Me like hot weather, veree hot.”9 Clemente later insisted that he had never started sentences with “me,” making the quote not just inappropriate, but dishonest.10 They would also Americanize Clemente’s name against his will. Many of his baseball cards read “Bob Clemente,” even though he hated that name.
There weren’t many black or Latino players in the Major Leagues at the time, and there were no black or Latino members of the press, so people had little understanding or respect for his heritage.11
To Puerto Ricans and other American Latinos, Roberto Clemente was already a local hero and therefore bore the burden to act like one. Like most ballplayers, he had to avoid scandal in his personal life to protect his position on the team. He was a family man who never attracted unwanted attention for selfish mistakes. On November 14, 1964, Clemente married Vera Cristina
Zabala in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They stayed together for the remainder of his life and were devoted parents to three children‒Roberto Jr., Luis Roberto, and Enrique Roberto.12
7 “Clemente Meets Jim Crow.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/roberto-clemente-meets-jim-crow/. 8 Boehme, Gerry. Roberto Clemente: The Pride of Puerto Rico. Cavendish Square Publishing LLC, 2016, pp. 44, Olmstead, Mary. Roberto Clemente. Raintree, 2005, pp. 36, and “Roberto or Bobby Clemente?” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/roberto-clemente-roberto-or-bobby-clemente/, 9 Boehme, Gerry. Roberto Clemente: The Pride of Puerto Rico, pp. 44. 10 Beschloss, Michael. “Clemente, The Double Outsider.” HistorySource, New York Times, 19 June 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/upshot/clemente-the-double-outsider.html. 11 “Roberto or Bobby Clemente?”. 12 Brudevold-Newman, Ben. “A Roberto Clemente Timeline” and Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, pp. 12.
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On the field, besides confronting racism, Clemente also had numerous health issues. As a result, many people claimed he was a hypochondriac, someone who complains about minor ailments. He wasn’t, though. His injuries included back pains following a horrible car accident in
1954, a severely hurt arm in 1959, a contraction of malaria in 1965, and arthritis in his neck, which occurred throughout his career. In reaction to this, he had a logical response: “You think
I’m a hypochondriac? A hypochondriac cannot produce. I produce.” Clemente’s brother, Justino
Clemente Walker, proclaimed, “People used to say he was a [hypochondriac]. But he was tough.
He played through a lot of painful things. The American press didn’t understand that.”13
"Always, they said Babe Ruth was the best there was. They said you’d really have to be something to be like Babe Ruth. But Babe Ruth was an American player. What we needed was
a Puerto Rican player they could say that about, someone to look up to and try to equal."14
Clemente played exceptionally well in the late 50s, but his talents were still not fully recognized or appreciated. His team, however, improved significantly during those years. The
Pirates were the worst team in the National League when he debuted in 1955. By 1960, though, the Pirates won the National League Pennant. Clemente batted an exceptional .310 in the World
Series and Pittsburgh went on to defeat the mighty New York Yankees in seven games.15 The
American press clearly didn’t appreciate his talent, however. Despite batting a solid .314 that season, and having a higher slugging percentage and more runs batted in than the top two
13 Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero. Penguin Group, 2013, pp. 24, 29-30 and Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 21. 14 “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.” 15 “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto.
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vote-getters, Clemente only came in eighth for the National League Most Valuable Player award.
16 Each year following, he continued to bat over .310, but remained overlooked for individual honors. It wasn’t until 1966 that he finally became MVP, a year he batted .317, hit 29 home runs, and drove in 119 runs. Throughout his career, Clemente was also a very good fielder, especially known for his throwing arm.17
Over the following six years, Clemente only got better. In his 18-year Major League career, he won 12 straight Golden Glove awards for his outstanding work in right field, had 12
All-Star game selections, won four National League batting titles, and was the 11th player at the time to reach 3,000 hits. This was a great accomplishment, considering the thousands of players who had played before him.18 Even today, 3,000 hits is the mark of a surefire Hall of Famer.
The Pirates were a solid team for most of the 1960s and were feared by the end of the decade. Despite his advanced age of 37 and continuing injuries, Clemente’s defining moments as a baseball player shone through in the 1971 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles.
Although Pittsburgh was the underdog, Clemente batted an amazing .414 and led his team to a stunning seven-game victory. He was elected the World Series MVP and was at last recognized across the nation as a true baseball legend.19
16 “1960 Awards Voting.” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1960.shtml. 17 “Roberto Clemente.” mlb.com, www.mlb.com/player/roberto-clemente-112391 and “Roberto Clemente: MVP.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/clemente-nov-1966-mvp/. 18 “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto and “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.” 19 “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.”
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“If you have an opportunity to accomplish something that will make things better for someone
coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth.”20
Roberto Clemente, however, was more than just a great ballplayer. Jackie Robinson’s admission into the Major Leagues in 1947 did not abolish racism in baseball. Despite the adversity he faced as a black Latin American, Clemente persevered and became a definitive role model for Latin American children and baseball players everywhere.21 He didn't simply represent
Latinos but viewed his ballplaying as an opportunity to change American perceptions about his ethnicity and to help achieve equality. As Clemente’s friend, sportscaster Luis Mayoral once said, “Roberto Clemente was to Latinos what Jackie Robinson was to black baseball players. He spoke up for Latinos; he was the first one to speak out.” An example of this again occurred during the regular spring training in Florida, when the white players on the team ate at segregated restaurants while Clemente and the other black players stayed on the bus. Clemente demanded that they eat together as a team or they wouldn’t ride the bus. Jim Pagliaroni, a Major
League catcher, stated, “When there were reporters around, he had his business face on. Roberto knew what he meant to the people of Puerto Rico. He could have been elected Mayor there. He always was aware of his image there that he wanted to be very positive, a good role model. He never played the victim and never made excuses.”22 Often, during live television interviews, he would suddenly slip into Spanish to address other Latinos in the States as well as family and
20 Markusen, Bruce. The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. Westholme, 2006, pp. 30. 21 Markusen, Bruce. The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, ypp. 1. 22 Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 19 and “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.”
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Puerto Ricans back home. This was unheard of and awkward for newscasters, but was a way
Clemente showed his love for his fellow Latinos.23
Clemente was also a philanthropist. He disseminated the medical expertise he gained from his own injuries, and offered free baseball clinics for children, especially children from poorer and more disadvantaged families. He hoped to continue to expose Puerto Rican children to many sports and provide them with sports education so that they could have more opportunities as well. Unfortunately, his premature death prevented this.24
On the Pirates, Clemente was a very loyal teammate and was always willing to help others with their problems. One of his most well-known lines was “Never lie to me, and we’ll always be friends.” He was a quiet, unflappable leader of the team and a superstar on the field.
He was incredibly dedicated to his peers and in turn his teammates respected him.25
“My greatest satisfaction comes from helping to erase the old opinion about Latin Americans
and blacks.”26
Clemente also took his role as a humanitarian very seriously and was particularly interested in helping his fellow Latinos. On December 23, 1972, a severe earthquake struck the busy city of Managua, Nicaragua. Many were killed and thousands were left homeless. Just eight days later, Clemente joined a relief team and boarded a plane in Puerto Rico with supplies for the
23 “Roberto Clemente.” Sports in Puerto Rico, University of Michigan, 2004, umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects06/student_projects/spr/clemente.html. 24 “Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente” and Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, pp. 17. 25 Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, pp. 4, 111-112 and Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 21. 26 Jamail, Milton. “Roberto Clemente.”
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victims. Various engine problems caused the plane to crash only about a mile off the Puerto
Rican coast, causing the devastating deaths of Clemente and four others. His body was never recovered. Perhaps appropriately, however, Roberto Clemente died in his homeland, a nation that continues to revere him.
Clemente’s demise attracted worldwide attention and baseball fans around the globe were deeply saddened by his early death at 38. He had only just reached 3,000 hits at his last game, and despite several injuries, he was still among the better players in the National League, with a few more good seasons ahead of him.27 Clemente’s longtime teammate, Pittsburgh pitcher Steve
Blass, lamented the loss of his friend and team leader when he said, “The real impact on the baseball season was at spring training when Roberto wasn’t there. Everybody was there but
Roberto. Then it really hit hard for the team as a whole.”28
Clemente’s impact was so great that Commissioner Bowie Kuhn bent the rules for his admittance into the prestigious Hall of Fame. A rule that stated there must be a five-year wait after retirement until players can be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame was waived, and in
July 1973 Roberto Clemente became the first inducted Latino player. He earned 93% of the votes.29 In 1973, the annual award given for the good virtue and favor of a player was renamed the Roberto Clemente Award in his honor. That award still exists and recognizes both Latino and
27 Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 22 and “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto. 28 Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 17-18, 22 and “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto. 29 Jamail, Milton. “Roberto Clemente,” Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen, pp. 22, “Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto and “Tributes to Clemente.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/clemente-dec-1972/.
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non-Latino players for humanitarian work.30 The fact that the award is named for a Latino athlete is all the more remarkable considering the racism and unfair treatment Clemente initially faced.
Clemente has become an icon in Pittsburgh, his adopted city, and when the city held the
1994 All-Star Game, a bronze statue of Clemente was unveiled outside the stadium.31 This statue is a powerful reminder of Clemente’s achievements for Latinos and blacks across the nation in breaking ethnic barriers.
For Roberto Clemente, even being an average ballplayer in the Major Leagues would have been a fierce struggle and a tremendous accomplishment. Not only did he face racism and segregation for being a black Latino in the States, but he also had numerous injuries that understandably should have limited his performance. Clemente, however, persevered despite these daunting obstacles and became a superstar in the sport of baseball. Additionally, he affected how people view Latino athletes by serving as a steady team leader who was respected by his teammates for his personal qualities.
However, his professional success is only part of his legacy. In the process, Clemente also transformed the public’s perspective on professional athletes through his extensive humanitarian work. To have the Roberto Clemente Award attached to his name shows that athletes can make important contributions outside of their sports careers. He eventually gave his life due to his generous humanitarian efforts toward his fellow Latin Americans, and his diligence and dedication make him a person to admire and emulate. He broke barriers for Latin
Americans, both inside and outside of baseball. Number 21, Roberto Clemente, is considered a
30 Jamail, Milton. “Roberto Clemente.” 31 Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, pp. 9.
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national hero in Puerto Rico and knowledgeable baseball fans as well as people outside the sport revere his many contributions to this day.
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Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
Clemente Family. Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero. Penguin Group, 2013. Clemente’s wife, adult children, siblings, and parents wrote this book so it provided a
unique perspective from his family and close friends.
“Roberto Clemente: MVP.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/clemente-nov-1966-mvp/. This site had a pair of newspaper articles from 1966 about when Clemente became
MVP, an award that was long expected for the talented player.
“Tributes to Clemente.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/clemente-dec-1972/. This site had two newspaper articles from just after Clemente’s death, which voiced the
feelings of the devastated fans around the globe.
Secondary Sources
Beschloss, Michael. “Clemente, The Double Outsider.” HistorySource, New York Times, 19 June 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/upshot/clemente-the-double-outsider.html. I used this source to learn more about the segregation Clemente experienced while down
south for spring training, as well as about the changes to his quotes in the media.
Boehme, Gerry. Roberto Clemente: The Pride of Puerto Rico. Cavendish Square Publishing LLC, 2016.
This site had one of the quotes from the Pittsburgh Press where Clemente’s interview was
mocked, because of his Spanish accent.
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Brudevold-Newman, Ben. “A Roberto Clemente Timeline.” National Public Radio, 30 Apr. 2006, www.npr.org/2006/04/30/5369952/a-roberto-clemente-timeline. This site was a timeline including all of the important milestones in Clemente’s life with
some short facts for each date.
Jamail, Milton. “Roberto Clemente.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, updated 14 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Roberto-Clemente. This site was one of the first sources I used and provided a brief overview of Clemente’s
life and legacy. Although it was not very useful for the final paper, it helped me
understand more about Clemente at the beginning of the NHD process.
Maraniss, David. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero. Simon and Schuster, 2006.
This source had several pages on Clemente’s childhood, which most of my other sources
lacked. It included several interesting facts about his ball playing as a kid.
Markusen, Bruce. The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. Westholme, 2006. This book was not very useful in the paper-writing but I used it for one quick fact in my
paper.
Olmstead, Mary. Roberto Clemente. Raintree, 2005. I used this website very minimally, but I was able to find more information on the
reporters who would misspell Clemente’s quotes to mock his accent.
Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2007.
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Only one chapter of this book was about Clemente, but it provided a lot of useful
information about his death and the perspective of his teammates on the tragedy.
“1960 Awards Voting.” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1960.shtml. This site gave me more information about the 1960 National League Most Valuable
Player rankings, showing me how Clemente played that season compared to the other top
finishers.
“Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.” Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Smithsonian, www.robertoclemente.si.edu/english/virtual_legacy.htm. This was one of my first sources and it proved to be very useful. I used multiple quotes
from Clemente from the site, and learned more about his philanthropy and legacy.
“Clemente Meets Jim Crow.” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/roberto-clemente-meets-jim-crow/. This was one of my most useful sources, a short video clip on Clemente’s first spring
training in Florida, and how he first experienced such overt racism.
“Roberto Clemente.” mlb.com, www.mlb.com/player/roberto-clemente-112391. This was Clemente’s MLB webpage and provided the stats of each of Clemente’s
seasons. You could, by these stats, see how his ball playing fluctuated over the years but
improved over time as well.
“Roberto Clemente.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto. This was Clemente’s Hall of Fame webpage and included a picture of his Hall of Fame
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plaque. I used several facts from the brief text about Clemente’s career and legacy.
“Roberto Clemente.” Sports in Puerto Rico, University of Michigan, 2004, umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects06/student_projects/spr/clemente.html. I learned more about Clemente’s interviews and his Spanish-speaking on live television
from this website. Interviewers were often very confused when he started talking in
Spanish, but it was simply his way of showing his love and pride for his fellow Latinos.
“Roberto or Bobby Clemente?” American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/roberto-clemente-roberto-or-bobby
-clemente/. This was a video on the mockery and ridicule of the American press on Clemente. Many
of Clemente’s baseball cards read “Bob” Clemente because his name was Americanized
against his will.
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