People From San Juan

"I was at once shocked and satisfied when, in a game that August, he lined a drive back to the pitcher’s mound and broke the leg of the awesome Cardinal right-hander . (Through the rest of Gibson’s career, I felt toward him the solicitude we reserve for people whom we’ve injured without meaning to.) The game that has pleased me the most in my years of following baseball was one between the Pirates and Cincinnati, a game that the Reds won 8-7. Clemente batted in all seven Pittsburgh runs, going five-for-five, with a triple and two home runs. I thought that this effort was incredibly poignant in its doomed and solitary heroism."

"[Last night] the league-leading Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Giants, 1-0, in one of the most spectacular games of baseball ever played. Vinegar Bend Mizell, whom the Giants usually wrap up and mail back to the clubhouse by mid-game, scattered five hits but darn near destroyed his defense. He sent Roberto Clemente to the hospital, and had Virdon hung up on the left field wall twice, looking like wash on an ivy clothesline. In the sixth, Alou ripped a 420-footer that Virdon plucked from the ivy, and in the seventh, right fielder Clemente crashed into the wall to glove a Willie Mays rocket but to play no more this night. Clemente smashed face-on into the concrete base of the right-centerfield stands, at the 395-foot mark, and collapsed in the dirt warning track he had ignored in his pursuit of the certain double. It required five stitches to close a laceration on his chin and his left knee was sorely damaged. The catch had to rank with the greatest of all time, as well as one of the most frightening to watch and painful to make."

"Roberto Clemente, a villainous Pirate from Puerto Rico, smashed a two-out, bases-loaded home run off rookie in the eighth inning last night to give Pittsburgh a 6-4 victory over San Francisco, and prevent the Giants from regaining third place after they had appeared a “cinch” with only four outs to go. Clemente’s slammer, the first hit by a Pirate this year, will be remembered long by the competing varsities. Going into the eighth, the Giants had what appeared to be a reasonably secure lead at 4-1, and was working on a four-hitter. But pinch-hitter {w|Dick Schofield}} doubled into the left field corner and Sanford, reaching back for just about everything he had left, struck out . When the now arm-weary Giant walked , manager came out and got him. Alvin signaled for LeMay. The first thing Dick did was hit Bob Skinner on the seat of the pants, and the bases were loaded, and 23,177 fans accepted this in mute silence that indicated they sensed impending disaster. LeMay got dangerous to pop out and had a two-two count on Clemente, the National League’s leading hitter, when it happened. Roberto smacked the next cast high and far into the black night, over the 410-foot sign in center-field. Willie Mays scratched his way up the screen in a vain attempt to grab the disappearing pellet that was a couple of feet too high."

"Ironically, the Pirates’ only run was driven in by Clemente when Marichal tried to quick-pitch him with the bases loaded in the fifth. With the count three and two, Clemente was standing in the box, but not looking at Marichal, who threw swiftly. “I was trying to smooth out the dirt around the plate,” Clemente said, “not looking, when I hear someone on the bench yell at me. I look up and see the ball, and I try to just punch at it with one hand.” He got just enough of it to drive it into the ground in front of the plate and bounce it so high that Orlando Cepeda had to wait helplessly for it to come down as the run scored and Clemente fled across the base. Clemente laughed in reminiscence. “I don’t remember anybody try to quick-pitch me since do it with Brooklyn. I punch it for double.""

"Clemente is the most complete ball player to wear a baseball uniform. He can do everything to beat you. He can hit for power, he can steal a base, he can field, and his arm alone should take him to Cooperstown."

"Clemente is the best bad ball hitter in the game today. You can't pitch him any certain way because he might just hit a line drive on a pitch off his shoetops or a foot over his head."

"Why don't that guy quit already? I've been reading every spring for five years that he is going to retire. I wish he would."

"I had a kind of dual relationship with a Roberto Clemente, a Henry Aaron, a Willie Mays. You watch them and you appreciate their professional approach and their God-given expertise of the game. Then you're competing against them. [...] Clemente and Mays and Aaron. These are the guys who, when you weren’t pitching, you just sat there and watched them play, watched what they did. Anybody who watched the ball when Willie Mays was on the field was crazy. And Clemente was very much the same."

"When I watch Clemente play, I think I'm seeing two ball games. Clemente is a ball game himself. I've seen him make plays recently that I think are great. But it seems the fans, sportswriters and his own teammates take it for granted."

"I told them Clemente hit the outside pitch, but you've got to pitch him low and away—carefully. [...] His weakness is dangerously close to his strength."

"Koufax and Roberto Clemente. I saw Mays hang on too long. The same for Henry Aaron. I admired Brooks Robinson. I’m starting to lose my admiration for him the same way. I liked Clemente because he was a bust-butt player. He was always a gentleman and wasn’t afraid to run into walls."

"If someone asked Hunter if I was a super hitter, he'd say no, because I'm not. The only super hitters I've seen are Billy Williams and Roberto Clemente."

"I’d say he’s the best hitter I’ve seen since I’ve been in the big leagues. I remember a game with the Pirates two years ago – we beat 'em 8-7. He knocked in all seven runs for 'em with three homers and a double. He hit one of his homers to left field, another to center and the third one to right Unbelievable! It was the finest exhibition of hitting I've ever seen in one game.""

"In all due respect to Henry Aaron, Stan Musial and Willie Mays, the best hitter I ever played against was Roberto Clemente."

"After Stan Musial, Clemente was the best all-around ballplayer I ever saw. I placed him slightly above Willie Mays. Could Clemente ever throw! Even better than Mays – he was more accurate."

"When Macon used to keep Clemente and Cimoli on the bench last season and play Cassini and Whitman, he sure was doing us a favor.""

"I got a hit to right field and rounded first base as most runners do. Clemente picked up the ball, faked a throw to second and threw it so fast behind me to first base I was caught and tagged out. It was my most embarrassing moment on the field."

"Allen got up one time to get a soft drink. He flexed his powerful arms and shoulders, the muscles rippling. If anybody had a better body in the present era of baseball it was the late Roberto Clemente. Allen is a heavier man, going about 190."

"They got on his back, and he carried the team. He said, "I’m not going to let my team lose.""

"I don’t know if you ever saw Roberto play, but he was the most unorthodox good ball-player I ever saw. Most good ballplayers are smooth – they do things with rhythm. Well, Roberto had his own rhythm. He looked like he was falling apart when he ran – looked like he was coming apart when he threw. His stance at the plate was ridiculous. When he swung he’d lunge and hit bad balls. There was no way he could hit the ball like that. But no one told Roberto that."

"You’d watch him and find yourself saying to the guy next to you, "Did you see that?""

"In Panama, it was Hector Lopez. The best pitcher was Humberto Robinson. He had the reputation of being hard to beat. In Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente. It was between him and Orlando Cepeda. Cepeda was a hitter like the first baseman of Detroit now, Cabrera. Cepeda could hit to right with power; he could hit deep to left, depending on where the pitch was. Rubén Gómez was the best pitcher."

"I was just a kid at the time, only 18. Clemente was a holdout that spring. There were several of us rookies who would come in and look over at his locker to see if he had shown up yet. But there would only be his uniform hanging there. Finally, he showed up for workouts and I was a little surprised. I had built Clemente up so much in my mind that I was looking for a guy like Frank Howard. You know – 6-foot-7 and 250 or 260 pounds. But he was nothing like that. He was just average size, just like any other individual. But he was the greatest ballplayer I’ve ever seen."

"I wish I had thrown the ball as hard as he hit it."

"He was a player you couldn't take your eyes off of."

"At that time, I could really run – I was one of the fastest guys on our team. I was running hard and I shouldn’t have even had to slide. That’s not supposed to happen. It’s a play that, as you see it developing, you usually just tag and go to third. I was safe, barely. I remember saying, "Wow! How did he do that?""

"If a double was needed, he would go for that. If there were two out and the Pirates needed a run, he would go for the home run. But he would not swing for the fences if his team was down by 3 or 4 runs. He would just try to get on base. That’s a team player."

"With most hitters, if a pitcher puts a pitch exactly where he wants it, the hitter hasn't got a chance. But Clemente, I've given him my best pitch, put it in the right spot and he still gets a base hit. Only the really great ones can do that."

"Clemente made some sparkling plays in the series, twice making diving catches of fly balls and it brought the comment from Piersall that Clemente is the best right fielder he has ever seen. He picks Clemente over Kaline of the Tigers."

"Clemente was about the second best ballplayer I ever saw – after DiMaggio. Al Kaline was next. I’m talking about people that did it all, for what it was worth – not to put on a show, but for what it was worth to win a ball game."

"No matter where I threw it, he’d hit it. He would hit pitches thrown over his head, down by his ankles, inside, outside. I’d get two quick strikes on him and never get the third one."

"I don’t know how a man can be running away from the ball and hit it into the upper deck. I shudder to think what he would do if he stood at the plate on every pitch and defied the pitcher to pitch to him.1 Clemente’s a one-man show as far as I’m concerned. He’s not only the best today; he’s one of the best that’s ever played baseball. He’s got power, and he’s so fast that any bouncing ball is a potential base hit. He can hit the ball into the upper deck in anybody’s ballpark – right field or left field. He’s got one of the strongest and most accurate throwing arms I’ve ever seen. He can throw from the most awkward and seemingly impossible positions. He can throw people out at second base on balls that would be triples to any other right fielder. And the thing about this fellow is that he actually breaks many of the fundamental rules of hitting. Many times he sticks his fanny out – but he still manages to hit the ball with authority. To me he is one of the most amazing athletes of all time."

"In the field, he was like Barry Bonds with the bat. [...] He didn't see any pitch that he didn't like or couldn't hit."

"Between the umpires and the shadows, the hitters didn’t have a chance. Roberto Clemente struck out four times. That tells you how tough it was."

"You look at the scoreboard when Clemente comes up and you see .394. That's too much for one man. So I have to take a hit away from him."

"I saw someone hit a short fly to right. Lee May was leaning on the third base bag. Clemente got the ball on a bounce and threw Lee out by three or four feet at home."

"Oliva hits strikes but Clemente hits everything."

"Aaron and Clemente would have been something else. We had Olmo as trade bait for Clemente, but a deal couldn’t be worked out."

"I never really pitched against him until the World Series. The scouting report said you can go up and in with him, but don’t go there twice. You can pitch him low and away, but don’t stay out there. So what does that leave? Throw it down the middle and hope he hits it at someone. Clemente beat us. The reason they won was Steve Blass’s two games and Clemente. He ran the bases as well as you could run them, made great plays and great throws. And he hit the home run to right field against me, the triple to left-center – he had 12 hits."

"Mays rounds third and screeches to a halt. When the world’s best baserunner puts on the brakes on a hit to right, you know it’s because the world’s best arm is in right. And it was a close game – we needed that run."

"A right-handed batter, Clemente hit the ball to the opposite field harder than most left-handed pull-hitters could. He didn’t achieve the home run totals of Mays or Aaron, but he played most of his career in Forbes Field, a terrible park for homers. I remember the center field at Forbes being so deep that the grounds crew would store the batting cage out in its farthest reaches during games!"

"In 1971, I was playing for the Houston Astros in a game against Roberto Clemente’s Pirates. With two out in the eighth and Pittsburgh leading 1-0, I was on first with our left fielder Bob Watson at the plate. Clemente was playing medium deep in right center field when Bob hit a laser beam toward the right field corner. It looked as though the ball would strike just above the yellow home run line, which was 'only' 10 feet above the ground. Most right fielders would have positioned themselves to play off the wall a ball hit that high, that far, and that fast. Clemente, who was 36 at the time, wasn’t having any of that. He galloped at full stride into the corner, leaped, and caught the drive while crashing into the fence."

"If I were to rate the all-time defensive center-fielders, Willie Mays would be (1-A), Curt Flood would be (1-B), and my former teammate Cesar Geronimo would be (1-C). And Geronimo had the best arm of the three. Only Roberto Clemente had a stronger, more accurate rifle."

"In 1970 I was hitting .325 in midseason, and at dinner one night I told Roberto, “I think I can hit .300 this year." He got mad. "If you think .300, then you will hit .280. If you think .325, then you will hit .300." I did as he said and hit .310."

"I was managing the other team. They had a man on base and this skinny kid comes out and well, we had never seen him, so we didn’t really know how to pitch to him. I decided to throw him a few bad balls and see if he’d bite. He hit the first pitch. It was an outside fastball and he never should have been able to reach it. But he hit it down the line for a double. He was the best bad-ball hitter I have ever seen, and if you ask major-league pitchers who are pitching today, they will tell you the same thing. After a while it got so that I just told my pitchers to throw the ball down the middle because he was going to hit it no matter where they put it, and at least if he decided not to swing, we’d have a strike on him."

"He’s the best hitter for hitting the ball someplace. He’ll give me two quick strikes on him a lot of times, then he’ll whack the third one someplace. He’s such a great two-strike hitter, and just because you get him on one pitch doesn’t mean you’ll do it again. He’s apt to knock the next one any place for two bases."

"He studied everything and he remembered everything. He knew every pitcher and every hitter – whether the hitter had power, where the outfielders should play him, whether or not the guy would try to take the extra base."

"He was the most underrated runner in the game. He never stole a lot of bases. But anytime you really had to have a steal and he was on base, he’d get it for you."

"I was reborn in Chicago. In 1971, I hit over .300 for the first time ever. Now I’m a little smarter, and I want to go for it all – I want to be back in that lineup with Billy Williams, who surpassed Roberto Clemente as the greatest hitter in the game."

"The man can hit. There's only one way to pitch to Clemente – throw it and pray."