Blog number 11: A little more on Roberto Clemente

In class, Prof. Stark briefly talked about Roberto Clemente, and I thought that a little more could be said about the man, both on and off the field that related to Latin American pride and heritage. Then I found this video, which in 4 minutes said pretty much everything for me...




http://www.biography.com/people/roberto-clemente-9250805/videos/roberto-clemente-mini-biography-35740739713


That quote from the video "If you have a chance to help others a fail to do so, you're wasting your time on this Earth", and that alone, to me, explains why he was such a well-liked and honorable man. Later in the video it says something along the lines of him being to Latino players what Jackie Robinson was to African American ball-players, and he really opened the door of opportunity for Latino players like essentially 3/4 of the current Detroit Tigers team. To be that player, that link between past and future makes Clemente more of a hero than his baseball stats could ever explain. Wikipedia says that the only member of the Pirates organization to not attend his memorial service was the catcher and a great friend of his, who was busy diving in the waters off of Puerto Rico looking for his body. People drove miles to the beach expecting him to "just walk out of the water" and as the man says "it was just devastating, you didn't even have to be a Pirates fan or even a baseball fan". The fact that he died fulfilling his motto of helping others makes him that much more of a hero and an icon for ages to come. Professors Stark and Serrata both seemed to be in agreement that he was the greatest Latino ball player so far, and one does not get that image across Latin America without going beyond the greatness of a player, and into the greatness of a human being. Honestly, before class on Friday I never bothered to find information on Roberto Clemente and to find out all of this about him, really is astonishing to me that I had not heard it all before. Clemente was a Pittsburgh Pirates hero, and a baseball hero, but above all else, a hero of a human being, and he died displaying that personality perfectly.