Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente

Team: Pittsburgh Pirates
Roberto Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico on August 18th 1934. He was the first
Hispanic baseball player to be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. He was also the second baseball
player to be put on a postage stamp. Roberto Clemente was plagued with back pain during his career, but
still he proved to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Roberto Clemente had always like baseball. He was also fortunate to join a professional Puerto
Rican baseball team at the age of 17. He spent his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. He
was thinking about quitting because he was treated very strangely. The franchise was trying to hide
Clemente from the Giants so when he played good, they would bench him. But when he did bad, they
would keep him in the game.
Clemente later returned to Puerto Rico after his first, disappointing season to visit his brother, who
was dying from a brain tumor. While he was there, a drunk driver smashed into his car and permanently
damaged three spinal discs, which would bother him through the rest of his career.
In 1954, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Clemente for $4,000 and put him out in right field. During
his first season he gunned down 18 runners. He got 20 runners out in his second season. In his second
season he had a .311 batting average and had 5 homeruns. Then in 1958 he led the National League in
outfield assists with 22.
In 1960 Clemente ...

Roberto Clemente

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