"Dale doesn't rate his own club as a contender. However, he feels that Pittsburgh will be greatly improved over its 1956 form. He likes the pitching. He raves about Roberto Clemente, the hard-hitting outfielder, and he has many favorable words to say of second baseman Bill Mazeroski. He feels that Clemente, the third leading batsman in the league last season at the tender age of 22, will become one of the great stars. He told a funny story about this serious-minded Puerto Rican youth. Clemente was at bat with the bases full, two out and the count three and one. Manager Bobby Bragan flashed the take sign. Clemente planted the next pitch out of the park for a grand-slam. Bragan appreciated the four runs, but all the same he wanted to know why Clemente hadn't obeyed the signal. He asked him. Clemente. speaking in fractured English, said. "Oh, I see take sign. So I take ball, and hit it just as far as I can.""
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Baptists from the United StatesPresidential Medal of Freedom recipientsUnited States MarinesPeople from San Juan
Original Language: English
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Sources
Dale Long (teammate, 1955-1957), as paraphrased in “Fair or Foul” by Roger Gara, in The Berkshire Eagle (Monday, January 21, 1957), p. 16
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roberto_Clemente
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Roberto Clemente
baseball player
1934 – 1972 · United States
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican Major League baseball player from 1955 through 1972, exclusively with the Pittsburgh Pirates. A posthumous inductee to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (following his fatal plane crash on December 31, 1972, en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua), Clemente became both the first Latin American and the first C
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