Robert Clemente

New Year's Eve, December 31st, 1972, Roberto Clemente was klled when the plane he was travelling in crashed. The plane was taking medical, food and clothing supplies to earthquake stricken Nicaragua. His wife Vera and friends begged him not to take the trip (poor weather and an unstable cargo plane) but Roberto was determined. He was infuriated that the previous supplies had not made it to the victims. Roberto was going to personally see to it that the victims received the much needed supplies. Unfortunately, the plane went down off the coast of Puerto Rico. Roberto's body was never found. Just months after Roberto joined an elite group of players with 3,000 hits, he was gone.

In 1954, the Pittsburgh Pirates obtained Roberto with the # 1 pick in the draft. Clemente joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955, where he played his entire eighteen year Major League Baseball career from 1955 to 1972. Roberto played in two World Series, batting .310 in 1960 and .414 in 1971. He was the National League Batting Champion four times, was awarded twelve Gold Gloves, selected National League MVP in 1966 and was chosen as the MVP in the 1971 World Series.

Posted by Ron at December 31, 2004 08:32 PM