People From San Juan

"Clemente started a home-run binge against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, August 30th, by hitting a liner over the 375-foot mark in right field,1 and in one stretch owned four homers in five games. He hit one against the Giants over the right field fence in Candlestick Park and the next day drilled one over the left-center fence that Garry Schumacher, Giant publicist, declared was the hardest hit ball there all year. Clemente powered a 420-foot shot into the center field portion of the stands [sic]2 at Forbes Field against Jim Owens and the Phils on September 4th for his fourteenth of the season."

"Dick Stuart took a look at Roberto Clemente slashing line drives one day and made a pertinent observation. “There must be the best 169-pound slugger in baseball,” Stuart said of the Pirate right fielder. Clemente lost some weight during the winter in his native Puerto Rico and never has been able to regain it. But he hasn’t lost his fierce swing… He was leading the Pirates not only in batting but also in RBIs with 23, and of his three homers, two went to right field, indicating his power to all fields. Clemente slammed a homer into the right field stands in Pittsburgh [on May 9th] and also performed the novel feat of drilling one over the right field wall in Philadelphia [on May 19th]."

"Roberto Clemente almost made history Saturday - missing by a foot or so of being the first right-handed batter to hit a ball to the right field roof [at Forbes Field]. Clemente's homer in the first inning landed against the facing of the right field roof, a tremendous blast as it was. The Houston bullpen reported Saturday the ball struck the right field foul screen but Bobby Bragan, who was in the bullpen, corrected the version. "The ball was within a foot or so of landing on top of the roof and perhaps two or three feet in fair territory," Bragan said. "It probably was the longest ball ever hit to that field by a right-handed batter.""

"If the Dodgers had kept Clemente with them at —as they did with Sandy Koufax—the course of baseball might have been drastically changed. This intrigued me and I did some research on the subject. For years, the Dodgers kept looking for a left fielder to pair up with in center and in right. This might have been an all-time outfield: Clemente-Snider-Furillo. Imagine Clemente taking dead aim at the comfortable home-run area in Ebbets Field for four years and the short left field fence in the Coliseum for the next three years. The Dodgers won the pennant in 1955 and again in 1956. They won after a playoff in 1959 and copped it again in 1963. But wouldn't it be safe to assume they could have won in 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1962 with a Clemente in their lineup?"

"Clemente made an almost unheard-of assist in this game. With runners on first and second and Pirates charging for the plate, pushed a bunt into the vacated shortstop position for one run. tried to go from first to third but Clemente, sizing up the situation quickly, came in from right field to short and threw out Bond at third."

"Just how do you catalogue Roberto Clemente? He is about to win his second straight National League batting title and his third in five years, yet he’s never driven in 100 runs. But you take him out of the Pirate lineup and you’ve never seen such a change in a team. It’s difficult to visualize what a difference Clemente makes to the Bucs. His mere presence in the field is insurance against extra bases, an outfielder who can rob you time after time. At bat, he swings viciously. He may knock you down with a line drive or beat out a slow roller or a high bounce. He worries a pitcher as much as any hitter in the league. When Clemente is out of the lineup, the Pirates just don’t seem the same. The other players know it, particularly the pitchers, and so does the opposition."

"was just one strike away from pocketing a 5-4 Cub decision over the Pirates when he found himself in a head-to-head battle with Roberto Clemente. This was the ninth inning in Chicago and there were two outs, none on. Abernathy had Clemente no balls and two strikes, but apparently the Pirate slugger worried the Cub reliever and he grew too careful. He threw three balls and then Clemente put on a dazzling display of bat control. Abernathy threw eight straight strikes and Clemente fouled off every pitch, seven to right field. Then he drew a walk and , who always hits Abernathy, hit him again. Abernathy worked the count to 3-and-1 and Stargell fouled two pitches, then rammed a long, line-drive double high off the center field wall to score Clemente from first with the tying run. The Bucs won it with four runs in the eleventh, but it was Clemente who saved it with his remarkable performance."

"Roberto Clemente gave the fans something exciting to talk about last night at Forbes Field although the Cardinals decked the Pirates for the second straight time, 4-2. Clemente hit his second tape measure home run over the Barney Dreyfuss Memorial in centerfield in the eighth inning and this brought down the house. It also impressed the Cardinals, you can be sure. No righthanded batter in the 57-year history of Forbes Field ever has performed this feat twice. Clemente did it Sunday. [...] Was this one a better shot than the one on Sunday? "Sunday was the longer ball," Clemente said. had the identical reaction of of the Astros. "I thought at first I might catch it," Flood related. "Then I thought it would hit the wall and I'd get the bounce. I just didn't think any righthander could hit a ball that far.""

"The Bucs almost had Belinsky out of there in the first inning. Alley had the first of three hits and rode home when Staub tried in vain to make a pick-up of Clemente's pop single. The ball eluded Staub and Morgan had to chase it so Coach gave Clemente the green light. Chuck Harrison relayed to John Bateman but Clemente hit him hard, knocked the ball loose and touched home plate with the second run, on a triple and an error by Harrison. Clemente beat out a high hopper with one gone in the sixth, took third on Mazeroski’s single and showed the fans how to run the bases after Manny Mota bounced to Harrison. Bateman had the ball to tag Clemente but Clemente waited until Bateman made his move, then jumped over him and touched home plate with his hand."

"In July 1971, just before his thirty-eighth birthday, he made what may have been the most spectacular catch in the history of right field. In the eighth inning, with the Pirates ahead 1-0 in a crucial game, two out and a man on base [i.e. , shortly before being traded to the Reds], Houston’s , a right-handed hitter, sliced a vicious shot into the corner. Clemente ate up a great stretch of turf with his back to the ball, leapt with a half-twist in full flight, made a one-hand catch above the Astrodome’s yellow home-run line, and in a fully extended, leaping-stab posture hit the wall wide open. He didn’t feel for the wall, he ignored the wall, and WHAM. When he got up, the left or glove side of his body was swelling, bleeding, and bruised at, respectively, the elbow, knee, and ankle; and the game was saved. That's one reason Clemente was always hurting: he was always so brave in the field. Men in their late thirties just don't make sliding-on-the- stomach catches, skidding-on-one-hip catches, on a regular basis."

"Retired Cub broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, who saw this home run [hit by Dave Kingman on May 17, 1979], revealed that the ball was greatly helped by a strong wind of 35 miles per hour. Brickhouse estimated Kingman's blast in reality went about 500 feet. In fact, Brickhouse stated Kingman's drive was not the longest ball he had ever seen. A 500-foot blast by the late Roberto Clemente remains the hardest hit ball Brickhouse has seen which was unaided by the wind."

"Clemente's was the longest I ever saw at Wrigley; longer than Kingman's. That's the one I'll always remember."

"In later years, there would be people who would say that Roberto was a hypochondriac. They could have been right, but if they were, it made the things he did even more remarkable. Because I can testify that I saw him throw his body into outfield fences, teeth first, to make remarkable plays. If he thought he was hurt at the time, then the act was even more courageous."

"Roberto Clemente looks like a bad hitter until the bat strikes the ball."

"Baseball survives because guys like Clemente still play it."

"Max says Chico is a faster runner than Roberto Clemente, the Royals' youthful outfielder, though he doesn't look it, maybe because he's a smoother runner. But what about Clemente? He has enough power to hit the ball out of most parks, though he still chases the curve. He has come up with a number of circus catches and he has a rifle arm, though it isn't always accurate. There isn't any doubt about his ability to run."

"Only recently, he speared a long line drive one-handed and ran face first into Forbes Field's right field wall, knocking himself unconscious. As memorable as that catch may be to the fans who saw it, it could not compare with one he made back in the 1954 season at Montreal. He was playing left field then, and the left field fence was made of wire. A batter smashed a mighty drive that appeared certain to clear the fence. It did, but Roberto lunged over the fence and speared the ball with his glove as it dropped over. There was only one difficulty. Roberto was hung up on the fence. He lay atop it on his belly, his face and arms in home run territory and his legs and feet in outfield territory. The fans in the outfield bleachers went to his rescue and after considerable lifting and tugging, finally extricated him, dumping him back into the outfield."

"In the age of power, the fact that Clemente has never hit more than 23 home runs (and has never driven in more than 94 runs) weighs heavily against his prestige. There is no doubting that his muscular arms and outsize hands are capable of power, for one of his home runs – a shot over ’s left-center bleachers – stands as one of the longest smashes ever hit out of the Cub ball park.1 Yet because he plays half his schedule in spacious Forbes Field, where the man who guns for home runs undergoes traumatic revelations of inadequacy, Roberto wisely has tailored his style to the line drive and the hard ground ball hit through the hole. Thus he hit only ten home runs last year, but he is certain he can hit 20 home runs any season he pleases, Forbes Field notwithstanding. “If I make up my mind, I’m going to hit 20 homers this year,” he bellows with indignation. “I bet you any amount of money I can hit 20.” A change of style would do the trick, he claims, but what sort of change? Ah, Roberto becomes tight-lipped. He is one of baseball’s most sinister practitioners of intrigue. “Nothing,” he replies. “A little change in the hands, that’s all. I don’t want to tell you what it is.""

"8 : "Clemente Slam—Ouch!; Pirates Clip SF by 6–4," San Francisco Examiner (Saturday, July 15, 1961), p. 35"

"Then the scene moves to for what proves to be the imaginative highlight of the program. While "" gets the Bartók treatment, the empty stands, the bare field, the portraits of the Pirate members of the Baseball Hall of Fame move slowly across the screen. In a few moments, the music—still the same tune—goes into an up tempo as the crowds file in and, oh, delightful moment, Roberto Clemente belts one over the right center field wall."

"If they ever want to rate the 10 greatest catches of all time, Roberto Clemente’s fantastic catch of ’s line drive in Houston’s on June 15 will have to be among them. Houston manager called it the greatest catch he has ever seen. Pirates’ second baseman rates it equal to any catch Clemente ever has made. "It was a lot like the one Clemente made in 1960 against Willie Mays," said Maz. In the 1960 catch, Clemente crashed into the right field wall at Forbes Field and suffered a gash on his chin which required seven stitches. Clemente isn’t sure which catch is his best. Most of the 16,307 fans in the Astrodome felt it was the best catch they had ever seen. They gave Clemente a standing ovation for his feat, which deprived Watson of a home run which would have put the Astros ahead, 2-1. Instead, held a 1-0 lead and the Bucs, after Clemente’s eighth-inning catch, scored twice in the ninth for a 3-0 win. Here was the setting for Clemente’s heroics: Joe Morgan was on first base with two out. The second out had been recorded when Clemente made a sliding grab of ’s hump-back liner in short right. Watson, a right-handed hitter, followed with a vicious liner toward the right field corner. Clemente, going full speed, raced toward the wall and, in one sudden move, made a twisting leap for a one-handed grab, back to the plate, just before the ball would have hit above the yellow line on the wall, which is home run territory. When Clemente came down, his body hit the wall. He suffered a bruised left ankle and his left elbow also was swollen. Blood spilled from a gash on the left knee. Clemente slumped on both knees, back to the infield. The Houston fans stood up and cheered. After Blass hurled a scoreless ninth for his fourth shutout, he said: "This shutout belongs to Clemente.""

"Then there's the story about The Throw, which happened in the late 60’s at Forbes Field. Clemente made the most remarkable throw I ever saw … and he got an error on the play! The Bucs were playing the Cardinals, it was one of the middle innings and the Cards had runners on first and third. I don’t recall the runner on third, but was on first. I believe singled to right, and the runner on third scores. Cepeda is about to stop at second, but the ball rolls through Clemente’s legs, and Cepeda takes third (reason for the error being charged to Clemente). The ball rolled to the warning track in right (not close to the foul line), and Clemente picks up the ball with his back to the plate. He whirls and throws a no-bounce strike to at home plate and Cepeda is out trying to score. After the play, I looked around the press box to find the oldest baseball observer there. Leo Ward, the traveling secretary of the Cards, had been watching baseball since the teens. His quote: "If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t believe it.""

"Pittsburgh’s exciting right fielder, Roberto Clemente, waged a one-man war against Los Angeles with a spectacular display of throwing and batting. The fiery Puerto Rican smacked a triple, double and single to keep Koufax in hot water, but it was his arm that captured the fans’ fancy and left two baserunners for dead. ended a promising scoring spree in the second inning when Clemente’s strike to Ducky Schofield nailed him as he tried to scramble back to second base. When ’s triple eluded Clemente in the seventh, he retrieved the ball and threw it on the fly from the warning track to home plate. And then Roberto took ’s game-winning sacrifice fly and pegged another shot to the plate that nearly nipped Fairly. The next batter, Willie Davis, challenged Clemente’s arm by trying to stretch a single. He was out at second by a couple of lengths. Not since their own was in his prime have the Dodgers seen such a display of throwing as Clemente’s."

"Koufax also was bombed for one of the longest home runs in Forbes Field annals, which hark back to 1909. In the third inning, with a 1-and-2 count on him, Señor Clemente touched off a moon shot that struck high on a light tower in center field, some 450 ft. from the plate. Had it missed the tower, it certainly would have sailed at least 500 ft."

"Roberto Clemente, a Puerto Rican, drafted from the Brooklyn chain, is only 20, but he can run, throw and smack for distance."

"Here is the greatest player in baseball today. He was the starting right fielder for the National League in the All-Star Game last year."

"In 1953, Roberto Clemente tossed away the heavy bat he’d been using, and went to a lighter model. Styles in bats change nearly as much as styles in women’s skirts. Bats have been thick-handled and thin-handled, bottle-shaped and straight, long and short, heavy and light. In the days of Babe Ruth and before Ruth, home run champion , 50-ounce bats were not unique. Today, they do not exist, nor do 40-ounce clubs, and the 32- and 33-ounce bats prevail. Sluggers today whip their light bats the way lion tamers slash away in a den of spitting cats. The secret in hitting home runs today is getting the bat around on the ball, and whiplashing it. With a lighter bat, you come around more quickly, and with a thin handle you catapult the meaty end of the bat against the ball. While at Santurce, Clemente noted that some of his teammates had switched to lighter weapons, and the ball suddenly had started to go out of sight. Ernie Banks would become a tremendous home run hitter in the National League because he shifted to a lighter bat. Hitters are a proud lot. They measure the distance of their blows the way anglers weigh their tarpon. Clemente, too, wanted to see baseballs disappear over the most remote fence. He picked up a new light bat, he swung from his heels, and POP! No, not the ball – his back. Out it flew, and the man who had entered the International League in the spring of 1954 was simply another human being with an aching back."

"There was a book that came out in the late ’60s called Baseball’s Greatest Players Today. Clemente is not in the book. Not in the book. It’s ludicrous. Just ludicrous."

"Maranda had two out in the first inning when singled, doubled and Clemente slugged one over the fence in left center. They say here it was the hardest hit ball in 's windswept history."

"Sam, who had it all—a crackling curve and a fastball with a tail on it—had a two hitter going into the seventh. Then Clemente tied into a fastball and belted it into what is almost considered never never land. [...] Clemente clobbered it through the wind and beyond the 397-foot marker in left-center. [...] Only the fourth ball hit over the left field fence, it put Clemente back into a tie with McCovey for the RBI leadership. Each has 23."

"I met Roberto Clemente once, after the , which he dominated with his bat, his throwing arm, his fielding, and with his presence. After the Pirates won that Series from the Orioles, Clemente flew to New York City, where the editors of a magazine had a new car to present him. The day wheeled about a luncheon in Leone's Restaurant, where a wearying procession of speakers led into a Purto Rican official, who was supposed to introduce Roberto but instead rambled on boozily for 20 minutes. When at length the man finished, Clemente strode to the microphone, and suddenly the low comedy was done. "I am 37 years old," Clemente said, "and this is the first time I have ever been asked to speak in New York." He spoke on, movingly, beautifully, about his island, his family, about his game. Someone at my table commented, "We are listening to an overflowing heart." That vibrant heart was stopped 26 months later when a time-worn DC-7 shattered in the Caribbean Sea. Clemente had organized the flight to bring food, anesthetics, sugar, and tracheotomy tubes to the broken city of Managua, Nicaragua."

"A reliever strikes out Mays, McCovey, Howard, and Clemente tonight. Believe it or not, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Frank Howard, Roberto Clemente play in the same game—and get struck out—on the first annual "All-Star Celebrity Softball" special. The reliever is , known as "King of Softball" after 22 years as pitcher in the sport throughout the United States and Canada."

"Colored ball players in New York for last week's Major League All-Star Game, looked as though they had all just stepped out of a men's fashion ad in one of the top fashion magazines. Attired in attractive, conservative clothing and shoes the 15 tan athletes totaled $2,000 or more in suits, shirts and footwear alone. As he stepped out his Roosevelt Hotel quarters, Willie Mays was dressed in natty blue olive suit, white custom-fit shirt and deep blood shoes. A dark green suit, gold tie on white shirt donned the well-proportioned frame of Roberto Clemente as he and grey-suited Billy Williams paused to sign autographs in front of the Commodore Hotel where they stayed."

"If Roberto "Momen" Clemente had hit 's World Series-winning homer against the Yankees in '60, it would have been "A Momen to Remember.""

"Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates made the greatest catch in the history of the and as good a catch as he has ever made in his 17-year career to save ’ 3-0 shutout over the Houston Astros Tuesday night. Clemente, possibly the best defensive right fielder in baseball history, made two extraordinary catches in the eighth inning with the speedy on first base, one out and the Pirates leading, 1-0. hit a sharp liner to short right field and Clemente dashed in to make a sliding catch inches above the grass. “I lost the ball in the lights but I had to keep charging in,” Clemente said later. “I started sliding and I saw it again.” Then Clemente was playing in the same spot in medium deep right center when cracked a liner toward the right field corner. Most right fielders would have played it off the wall and Morgan would have scored the tying run, but the 36-year-old took off after the ball. He caught up with it at the ball, leaped high and caught it as he crashed into the boards at full speed. He said it was above the yellow home run line which runs across the wall ten feet above the ground. A homer would have put Houston ahead 2-1. “I don’t even think I could get the ball, but I had to try and I jump,” Clemente said. Houston manager , who has been in baseball 54 years, and coach Buddy Hanken, who has been in baseball 36 years, both said it was the greatest catch they had ever seen."

"Official Pittsburgh Pirate releases reveal that their brash hitting star Roberto Walker Clemente [sic] was given the nickname "Momen" by a cousin for no particular reason. There isn't even a definition listed. However, if early returns are any indication the name is sure to have a meaning shortly. Roberto is likely to knock in "mo men" this season than any other major league batter."

"Well, Buzz old boy, there are a few things for which the 11,089 cash clients in would like to say “thanks.” They thank you for Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican kid who should be a very popular player here. He runs well and yesterday he went three-for-four with his salary stick. They call him Momen and I don’t know why."

"The man getting on the tram outside the park was Harry Simmons of the International League office. The Royals had won two games from the Havana Sugar Kings 7-6 and 4-1. Homeward bound, the 4,252 customers were satisfied, chatty and cheerful. "They have a new idol, a new star,” Harry Simmons said. “Roberto Clemente.” No truer words were spoken on the weekend. Clemente’s clout over the left field wall yesterday, his first homer of the campaign, won the opening game, Hollywood style in the tenth inning. Clemente is a player with potential greatness. He is what they call “showboat” in diamond dialect. But yesterday he delivered in very surprising style, indeed. At the start of the season said that he didn’t expect Clemente to prove much help to the club. He was too young and inexperienced, the manager had said. It was noted, though, that yesterday Macon sent the colored speedboy back into the second game. He smashed a double on his first try in that event. The rain-defying throng hooted derisively when they walked him intentionally on his next trip."

"Clemente has impressed the scouts who have looked at the Royals. They regard him as an exceptionally promising young player. At the start of the season Macon said he didn’t expect Clemente to help very much. “He’s too inexperienced but we’ve got to keep him,” the manager said. Not long ago Clemente won an extra-inning contest for the Royals here with a home run over the left field fence. Few players have achieved that feat at ."

"Billy Harris, the pride of the Maritimes, was expected to be “the story” of Sunday’s second game between the Royals and Syracuse Chiefs. Instead, the hit-guy proved to be Roberto Clemente. Roberto’s home run, his second of the season, gave the Royals a 4-3 decision and their third straight over the Chiefs. [...] pitched the last inning for the Royals and took his 18th win of the year on the Clemente clout off ."

"Playing baseball, Roberto Clemente conjured a vision of some African prince standing waste-deep in the surf and brandishing a spear at a retreating slave ship. Majestic. Indomitable. Perhaps his loss sounded the first real death knell over the game in this city. Without him, pennant races or no, its excitement has somehow waned. Others make diving catches; he made them one-handed, sliding across the field on his rear end, or at his knees, so self-assuredly that to see him do it a thousand times was to be certain he would not drop even one. Others deftly retrieve baseballs from the outfield walls; he snatched barehanded and flung them back like so many arrows. Others swing hard; he swung as mad suicides leap from cliffs. And all of these things he did effortlessly, no strain to muddy the esthetics of his skills; no caution to soil his craft. In time, most have forgotten his injuries and his battles with the press and the pride that drove him, and even that he died in an airplane trying to help people who needed it desperately. What has been remembered, and will be, is this: For a generation, no one played the game of baseball with more dignity or grace, and that when Roberto Clemente died, the people of an island and a city were truly saddened. A stamp in his honor could not be more fitting. I'd like to be there in that sleepy town tomorrow morning to get the very first one."

"The case of Clemente and the city of Pittsburgh has indeed been strange. A favorite with Bucco fans, the fiery outfielder from Puerto Rico has, on numerous occasions, been described as the “forgotten man” of the city’s daily press. This characterization has indeed been odd since the records so clearly reveal that Clemente was one of the most respected members of the Pirates in ability ... at least as far as the rest of the players in the league were concerned. During the summer the pattern of the “let’s forget Clemente” movement seemed to gain momentum as it became apparent to the baseball world that the Pirates would probably win their first National League championship in 35 years. Suddenly, almost as an afterthought, the Pirates became a club that could never have made it to the hill without Captain Dick Groat, shortstop. The pattern continued through the World Series. The propaganda became so obvious that more than one major league ball player told this writer: “Clemente doesn’t stand a chance of winning the ‘Most Valuable Player Award’ with all the press agents Groat has going for him in Pittsburgh." As things turned out those words of prophecy proved accurate. Dick Groat was voted the National League’s “Most Valuable Player” and has been basking in baseball’s limelight since."

"They seem to have a new star coming up in Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican fielder. He had three singles, bunted in smart style, caught on with the fans, and was complimented by Macon at the end of the game. Which was an illustrious introduction for the colored boy."

"At , the fine new training headquarters of the Pittsburgh club, one may see [, among others,] Roberto Walker Clemente, a teammate of Willie Mays in the Puerto Rican League, who has copied Mays' method of catching the ball against his navel but, alackaday, not his batting."

"Roberto Clemente's intention to demand a $200,000 salary next season may be startling to the Pittsburgh Pirates' ownership, but in all candor they must admit one truth: of all the baseball athletes, Clemente is the closest to being worth $200,000 a year."

"He soon perfected one technique that I’ve never seen another player do. A hard ground ball hit to the outfield on synthetic turf often gets through for extra bases. Roberto would run after the ball and, instead of trying to backhand it, and throw, Roberto would slide on his left side, his feet extended, just like he was sliding into a base. As soon as he’d intercepted the ball, he’d immediately pop back into a standing position and get rid of the ball. It was unbelievable! Oh, I’ve seen Roberto make so many plays I could talk about them forever. In old Forbes Field, the right-field line went down 300 feet and then angled out quickly. Billy White of the Cardinals once batted a ball over first base fair, it hit something, and skittered into the bullpen area behind the stands. White was already rounding second on his way to an easy triple. Roberto charged over from right field, slid into the gravel, grabbed the ball, kicked off the wall with his foot, and threw a perfect strike to third base. Roberto couldn’t even see third base when he threw – he was in behind the lower stands – but the ball zoomed over the pitcher’s mound and reached third on a fly. White was out by six or seven feet. Most remarkable throw I’ve ever seen him make."

"He was a perfectionist, like a great artist in any field. When he got to a new park, he inspected every inch of right field to see if the ground was hard or soft, how high the grass was. He was a fanatic about his waistline. Once he told me, "I have a 32-inch waist always; when I’m a bit more, I’m no good." In the off-season, I’ve seen him go to a field in Carolina with a sack full of beer bottle caps. He’d get some kids to throw him the tiny caps and he’d spend hours – hours! – batting. Then, for exercise, he’d bend down and pick them all up. He said that when he was done hitting those tiny caps, a real ball looked as big as a coconut!"

"He happens to be nursing a troublesome left shoulder at the moment and this circumstance is sure to provoke some of his critics into saying there goes Clemente with another one of his imaginary ailments again. Clemente has no guilt complex or anything like that but he knows there are same people who are going to say that about him now because these same people have said the same thing before. They don't know his left shoulder hasn't been right since he ran into a wall in Florida chasing after a foul smash in a game against the Red Sox. Nine of 10 other outfielders wouldn't even try for it in a spring training contest. They also don't know Clemente took a cortisone shot in his shoulder Tuesday after rapping two hits against the Phillies, and that he has a huge lump atop his shoulder nearly the size of a baseball. But that's nothing new because there are some things most people don't even want to know."

"Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania."

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