People From San Juan

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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.""

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

"Is he keeping his hands behind him on the bat, even while he strides forward with his front foot? This is usually the sign of a great hitter, who can commit part of his body to a pitch while maintaining sufficient control and arm strength to do you damage at the last split-second. Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente had this superior ability to wait on a pitch with their arms back, even as they stepped forward. There was no set way to pitch them except to vary your pitch selection while remaining alert to signs of particular strengths, weaknesses, or preferences that they exhibited in any given at-bat."

"He stood there, far away from the plate with that great big long bat, and with those strong hands he controlled it like crazy, hitting pitches on the other side of the plate. There was that one area out there at the knees off the outside corner. If you hit that spot with a pitch, he’d look and walk away. If you missed it, he’d hit the ball very hard."

"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."

"[Clemente] was another of the people who played "Thou shalt not pass me with a fastball." He had extremely good power to right-center field. I found out through trial and error that the best way I could pitch to him was down and away. Always keep the ball down. He was a super high-ball hitter. Most of the great hitters are high-ball hitters. They see the ball better up there. And all good hitters hit hit with their hands above the ball. For that reason, they were always getting the big part of the bat on the ball when it was up higher in the strike zone."

"I was trying to waste the pitch. I wanted him to swing on a bad pitch. I didn’t care if I walked him. I wouldn’t even care if I hit him. I had two bases open. [...] I knew the two bases were open. I figured if maybe I could get him to swing again at a pitch around his head."

"Clemente's the best defensive outfielder I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been on his ballclub and I don’t know what he’s like as a team player, but this guy can do just everything to beat you – run, hit, throw, catch, and just kill you with power. He’s the best player I’ve seen in the big leagues."

"He made the greatest throws I ever saw in my life. He would go into that bullpen (along the right field line in Forbes Field) where you couldn’t see home plate. One time, he went for a ball that spun into the bullpen. A guy was tagging up from third base with one out. He knew he had it made, he didn’t run hard. All of a sudden this rocket came from nowhere. It was like a strike, right across the plate. He (Clemente) couldn’t even see home plate!"

"Toughest hitter to face? I can’t figure out one. There probably were five: Roberto Clemente would be at the top of the list. Rico Carty, Bill Madlock, Bob Watson… and the world-famous Rance Mulliniks."

"I saw him hit line drives off the brick wall at Forbes Field. One of them was the hardest ball I ever saw hit. I saw Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey and Dick Allen hit some long balls against us, up and out, but Clemente's was different. I just never saw a ball hit so hard.""

"The good hitters, it just steeled their resolve. I saw Henry Aaron get knocked down, maybe twice in a row, and then they’d make the perfect pitch, a low outside slider, and he’d hit the most awesome line drive homer over the right center field fence. Same thing for Willie Mays. Knock him down and you just made him a better hitter. Same for Willie Mays. Same for Roberto Clemente."

"I would watch him hit and hit and hit. He was the best I’d ever seen at setting pitchers up. He’d look bad one at-bat and then kill them with the same pitch the next."

"Back then, there were few hitters who could hit the ball with any authority to the opposite field. The ones that went to the opposite field were Punch-and-Judy hitters, but Clemente could drive the ball. I didn’t know how to pitch to somebody like that so I stayed off the plate and that’s where he hit. I had no clue how to pitch to Clemente. I just tried to keep it down."

"When I managed the Pirates, Clemente did everything any man could do on a ball field. In my years in baseball, I have never seen a greater ball player than Clemente."

"Clemente is the most exciting player in baseball today. While the other players are getting the headlines, he is always doing something to help the Pirates win. To me, he is the best."

"Did you see how Clemente has been running against the Orioles? Man, how he runs! He has been that way ever since he got into the big leagues. He gives it everything he has—with his bat, with his glove, with his arm and with his legs. Like you say, people didn't appreciate him enough. They do now."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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?""

"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."

"They said don’t pitch him inside. I didn’t pitch him inside for three or four years. When I did pitch him inside, he hit a home run, the wind blowing 30 miles per hour against him. He hit it 25 rows deep."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"Bob Watson, assistant general manager of the Houston Astros, votes for Glenn Wilson of the Astros. He puts Wilson in his all-time top five, along with Reggie Smith, Ollie Brown, Ellis Valentine and Roberto Clemente. "Actually," he added, "Reggie Jackson had just as strong an arm as any of them, but you never knew where the ball was going.""

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

"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."

"I saw various. I never saw Willie Mays. I saw Roberto Clemente. He could hit, run, field and throw. Intelligent player. And he played to win. I remember hearing Clemente say that he always tried his best, so that he would never have any self-doubts about whether he gave it his all. I think the same words were attributed to Willie Mays or Joe DiMaggio. I saw Olmo, not a lot. But from what I saw, the way he played left field, you did not forget him. Olmo was elegant. It was Clemente and Olmo."

"Over and over again, I have said Willie Mays is the greatest baseball player I ever saw. But Mays always says Roberto Clemente was the greatest player he ever played against. And other players have agreed with his opinion."

"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 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."

"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."

"The guy was 38 years old and was still putting out 200 per cent on the playing field. That’s how I’ll remember Roberto Clemente. He was a winner. He could rise to the occasion – any occasion. After eight years up here, I’m convinced Clemente was the greatest I’ve seen. Yet, he was always smiling. He would always stop and talk to you."