Roberto Clemente: Celebrating the Life of One of Baseball's Greatest Humanitatians

While Roberto Clemente will best be remembered as one of the pioneers for Latinos in the world of baseball, he also represented Hispanic peoples off the field as well. Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and loved sports. Before he played professional baseball, he was an excellent track and field athlete. In America, he played with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955-1972. During that time, he won the National League Gold Glove Award twelve times during every season from 1961 - 1972. He was also the National League Batting Champion four times, the National League MVP in 1966, and the World Series MVP in 1971.

As great of a player as Clemente was on the field, he was just as good, if not better off of it. In 1972, a devastating earthquake struck Nicaragua. Clemente set out on a humanitarian mission to deliver supplies to the country on December 31, 1972. Unfortunately, he never made it due to his plane crashing. His body was never recovered, and his career was cut short. Normally, a player would have to wait five years after retiring from baseball to become Hall of Fame eligible, but Clemente has been the only Baseball Hall of Fame inductee to have that requirement waived. In 1973, he was inducted posthumously. Other nominations include being listed at #20 out of 100 on the Sporting News' List of 100 Greatest Players. He has also been nominated to the All Century Team, and the Latino Legends Team. However, many people were upset that Clemente was given a spot on the All Century Team, as they felt Clemente was the greatest of all Latino baseball players. Major League Baseball recognizes Clemente each year by handing out the Roberto Clemente Award to the baseball player who is the most humanitarian. In addition, Clemente was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2006, Clemente's home team, the Pittsburgh Pirates hosted the All Star Game. Many players chose to honor Clemente by wearing yellow wristbands with his initials on them. Also, during the fourth inning, his widow was presented the Commissioner's Historical Achievement Award by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Some of Clemente's top 100 statistics in respect to records are:

Games played - 2433 (61st overall)
At-bats - 9454 (36th overall)
Runs - 1416 (72nd overall)
Hits - 3000 (26th overall)
Doubles - 440 (tied for 87th place overall)
Triples - 166 (tied for 27th place overall)
Runs batted in - 1305 (tied for 89th overall)
Batting average - .317 (55th overall)
Games played in outfield - 2370 (12th overall on outfield list)