"He was one of the most dignified human beings I ever met, but he also could be very funny. Last year, we went to have breakfast in San Francisco. There was an elderly black woman in the restaurant who keeps looking at Clemente. Finally she comes over and says, "Mr. Blue, can I have your autograph?" "Iām sorry," he says, "but Iām not ." "Oh!" she says and walks away. Roberto looks at me, shrugs his shoulders and says with a smile, "See? Thatās fame and fortune for you." The time Iāll never forget is when we went to a Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia. There were three of us ā Roberto Clemente from Puerto Rico, Eddie Acosta of Panama, and me, a Hungarian. A real old Chinese waiter comes over. Roberto says to him, āWe want sweet and sour pork, duck almond, fried rice, wonton soup ā but we donāt want individual servings. We want it all in big dishes so we can serve ourselves." The old Chinese waiter looks at me, a real puzzled look on his face. So there we are ā a Panamanian, a Hungaraian, a Puerto Rican, and a Chinaman. Roberto is laughing. He stands up and says real loud: "For Heavenās sake, doesnāt anyone speak English in this joint?""
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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
Les Banos (Pirates official photographer and frequent dinner companion of Clemente during his final few years), as quoted in Clemente! (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 221
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roberto_Clemente
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Roberto Clemente
baseball player
1934 ā 1972 Ā· United States
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 ā 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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