United States Marines

"I can see now why Clemente was such a great hitter. He hit the same way that Rogers Hornsby said things should be done: "Make the outside part of the plate the closest part because all great pitchers pitch you away, they don’t pitch you in." And Clemente hit most of the balls from shortstop to first base. The left knee would be his strength. The left knee he would always bring back, and when he’d bring his left knee back, he would cock the back at the same time. He would never swing the bat at the baseball; he would always throw the bat at the baseball. Sometimes he would say to me in Spanish: "Joe, look at me, what I’m doing. Always try to drive the ball, don’t swing. When you swing the bat, actually your hands tighten up. If you would just cock the bat and throw the head of the bat ahead of you, it would stop your body from lunging forward." Clemente was a great hitter in that way."

"This is only my opinion, but I think Roberto Clemente was the best player in the league most of the year. He hit like the devil for us the first half of the year. Groat had his best season. He hit well but without power. Clemente hit and with power."

"The big thing about Clemente was that he played hard and went all-out in every game. He did that when he was just a kid, and he did that all the way through his last season. He always had that aggressiveness. I saw that from the first. Maybe it was the thing about him as a ballplayer that people will remember most."

"He came to me right out of high school. I could see he was going a long way. Some of the old-timers didn’t think so, but I could see great ability in Clemente. The main thing I had to do was keep his spirits up. He didn’t realize how good he was. But I could see his potential. I told him he’d be as good as Willie Mays some day – and he was. He had a few rough spots, but he never made the same mistake twice. He had baseball savvy and he listened. He listened to what he was told and he did it. Some of the old pros didn’t take too kindly to a kid breaking into the lineup, but Clemente was too good to keep out."

"I always thought the guy had great ability, but until the last two years I thought he was playing for himself. He kept to himself and it seemed like he didn't want to be bothered with the rest of the team. But in the last two years, he developed into the leader of our ballclub. He has taken control of us and looked after us and that's something he didn't do before. This is the new Clemente. He has great feeling for all the worries of the players. He keeps peace and harmony and he's our good-will ambassador, the intermediary between us and Harry Walker and the front office."

"A lot of people say he's temperamental. All athletes are temperamental to a certain extent but when I was with Pittsburgh, and I'd strike out, Clemente was always there to pep you up. He is the team leader the Pirates need because a lot of the guys go to him. He really is a super star. When I was in Pittsburgh, we had a good many black players and we needed Roberto's mature influence. He helped solidify the relationships many times."

"He is a phenomenal athlete who came to play, and plays when he's hurt. He gives you 100 per cent. [...] When I played winter ball in Puerto Rico, I played in Ponce. Roberto played with San Juan. He would sit out the first half of the season there but play the second half as though his life depended on it. That's how he got in shape. When he reported to spring training in Florida, he was ready."

"He violates many of the tested rules of hitting; by that, I mean he goes against what the greats of hitting like Ty Cobb and Ted Williams have said about hitting. He steps in the bucket but his hands are still there, ready to get the bat around on any pitch. He makes contact. He can wait on the ball and hit it down the first base line harder than most left-handers."

"Playing with Roberto eight years had to help me. He would tell you what the pitchers were throwing—slider, fastball, or curve—and what pitch they would try to get you to hit. All the young kids look up to him, and when they see how he chases a fly ball and makes those diving catches and how he runs everything out going down the first base line; well, it makes a man play harder. No words are needed."

"You watch Roberto and you can’t help getting all psyched. There’s the old man out there busting his ass on every play of the game. Look, I’m 25. If he can play like that, shouldn’t I?"

"After we lost the second game in Baltimore, Clemente came into the clubhouse and he starts screamin’ and said that we’re gonna go back to Pittsburgh and we’re gonna kick their butts three games in a row. And we went back to Pittsburgh and we did exactly that."

"It was like the passing of a torch. I was fortunate to be around those guys and they were my mentors. They showed me how to play the game, how to play the right way and to respect the game. Stargell received the torch and kept it going. I learned so much from those two men and I’ve passed on what I learned to all my players. I can’t say enough about them because they meant so much to me."

"I know that Clemente had a reputation for being a hypochondriac, but I didn’t see it. Bobby did have a lot of injuries, but he usually played with them. I remember one time walked by while Clemente was on the trainer’s table getting rubbed down and said, "Robbie, you sit this one out." And Clemente said, “No, Skip, I play.” Bobby wasn’t a hot dog either. He played the game hard. He ran hard, he slid hard, he threw hard—all the time, even in practice. Bill Virdon said, "He practices the same way he plays." He had that great arm, but I really don’t understand how it held up, because when we took infield, he’d throw like his life depended on it. He had a lot of mannerisms too, and people particularly remember the way he’d rotate his neck before he got into the batter’s box, but he was just trying to get loosened up, he wasn’t showboating."

"I knew he was good when we won the World Series in '60, but I didn't know he was going to have the career he ended up having. He could do anything. He could hit, he could hit with power, he could run, he could field and he could throw with the best of them. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. But I don't think he should've gone in when he did. He should've waited the required five years like everyone else. His kids were too young to appreciate the accomplishment."

"Clemente had the ability, no doubt about it, but he was, for instance, always trying to show off his arm. He was always trying to throw out runners at the plate, instead of throwing the ball to the cut-off man and preventing the hitter from taking the extra base. Instead of having runners at first and third, and still having the chance to get a double play, you’d have runners at second and third and no chance to get the double play. It makes it a lot tougher on the pitcher. He wouldn’t throw the ball down where Groat could grab it as the cut-off man or let it go if he thought Clemente’s throw could get the lead runner out. Clemente had a strong arm, but he was always trying to show it off. Early on, he used to throw the ball into the stands, but he got more accurate as he went on. He made some great throws and got some guys out, but there were more times he didn’t get the guy. Little things like that. As a player, you realize the significance of such things. The fan just sees him getting a guy out at home plate. But he did that two out of ten times. It looked great to the fans, and it was great for the Pirates if he got someone out like that. But more often than not, he was putting more pressure on the pitcher."

"Clemente was a great ballplayer. He could hit, run and throw. He was a great ballplayer, one of the better ballplayers I ever saw. Willie Mays was the best; he could beat you more ways than anyone else. As a ballplayer, whenever he wanted to play, there were few who could compare to Clemente. He had God-given talent and ability."

"If a guy is getting paid to play, he should be out there. You don’t sit out because you’ve got an upset stomach. Another guy who will tell you the same thing is Groat. [...] In 1959, when I went 18-1, I cut my hand and had to have stitches. I missed some games, but I came back, with the stitches in my hand, and pitched. I still had scars. I had dropped a glass in a sink, and tried to grab it, and cut myself. I was out ten days. There was a story in the papers that Clemente had pulled a knife on me in an argument and had cut me. It never happened. We never got into any kind of a fight. I was never a fan of Clemente the whole 14 years we were around each other. But it didn’t affect me. I knew he had the ability to play his position. I didn’t let my personal feelings affect my approach. In all the years I played with him, as a person, he just wasn’t my kind of person. Clemente and I never had a disagreement. But we never got close together, either. We talked and associated with each other in the clubhouse. I guess he was something of a hypochondriac, and he wouldn’t play unless he felt perfect."

"At the time, Bob Fontaine, one of the Pirate scouts who signed him, said [Jim] Aldredge could be the next Roberto Clemente."

"He had so much talent he couldn't hide it."

"Bobby always came to me and told me how Murtaugh was against him. I tried to tell him he was wrong but he just wouldn't believe me. Really, Danny was on Bobby's side all the way but Clemente didn't understand. He did more for Bob than Bob realizes. But Bobby is right about some of the writers being against him. They hurt him more than anything, especially about that hypochondriac image. Bobby is one of the greatest players I've ever seen but he's the type who needs to be encouraged by everyone."

"We were amazed at that outstanding arm. You know he used to gun that thing all the way from right field to home plate on the fly. And he liked to show it off a little bit, but... I can recall... I mean the guy had so much talent. We could see it, you know? And really, for a first-year man, he had a lot of confidence, too."

"Everybody looked at Roberto when he came up, they said, "This guy’s not the leader he should be." Well, for God's sake, the guy’s twenty-two years old. I said: "Give the guy a chance." He became a great leader. I think it might’ve happened the 1960 season with us, and it just started going like this [moving hand upwards, diagonally]."

"I think the way Clemente played – running out every hit and running recklessly into the wall – he realized he needed some time off and he took it. So many times I saw him catch balls that went into the gap and he’d personally keep the other guy from getting that extra base. For a pitcher, that was something that was really appreciated. An average outfielder many times will give up the extra base. Often that’s the difference between winning and losing. At Forbes Field, we had one of the toughest right fields to play in baseball. Clemente could play the ball off that cement wall. Clemente would cut off the ball before it could get to the wall; he’d keep it from being a triple – he’d hold it to a single.”"

"He looked so unorthodox at the plate. He was always gyrating, his ass would fly out, and he’d fall down when he swung and missed. Somebody like Don Drysdale would knock him down. He’d get up and hit a line drive. The knockdown didn’t bother him."

"I know Roberto Clemente was a special ballplayer. In San Francisco, for instance, the visitors’ bullpen was along the sideline in right field. I watched the outfielders from there, and all the other outfielders had their backs to the wall in Candlestick Park. Not Clemente. He played at normal depth. If anyone went around the bag at first base too far, he’d throw them out. I saw him do it many times. I don’t remember other right fielders doing that. He had some arm. He might have been quite a pitcher himself."

"Before I came over here to this ball club, I heard how Clemente is always ailing and wanting to sit out games, but everything I heard was bull. He goes full blast all the time. There is only one way I can describe him: unbelievable."

"People used to criticize Roberto for not playing hurt. But he was a team player. He didn’t want to play if he couldn’t go all out, one hundred percent. He wasn't as vocal as Willie Stargell, but he was a leader. All you had to do was watch him play, and you immediately knew how the game should be played."

"At the end of the 1972 season, we had just clinched the National League East title and Roberto had 2,999 hits. The Mets were in town for our final homestand. Everyone was there to see Roberto get his 3,000th hit. I had the opportunity to start my first major league game and get my first major league hit in the same game that Roberto got his 3,000th. Umpire Doug Harvey stopped the game and retrieved the ball for me. After the game,Roberto and I posed for a picture with each of us holding the baseballs from my first hit and what turned out to be his last (regular season) hit. I shall cherish the moment and the photograph forever."

"When he came back to the bench, he said, "That’s why I gave him that pitch in the first at-bat." He was doing things by that time that I never saw anyone do and I haven’t seen anyone do since. He was like a computer. He was set to play baseball. He always knew what he had to do."

"I was sent back to the minors before the season ended, so I didn’t see him again until December 27 when he gave the clinic in Aguadilla, not far from my home. [...] That day in Aguadilla, he spent the whole afternoon under the sun – giving a clinic for the kids. People kept coming up to give him money for Nicaragua, and he insisted that they write out checks so that there’d be no chance of the money being mishandled. At one point he was giving batting pointers, and there was a kid – about eighteen years old – pitching to him. The people in the stands kept yelling, ‘Roberto, bet you can’t hit a homer!’ Finally, on the last pitch, he smacked the ball right out of the stadium. He gave the kid the bat as a souvenir, and somebody else got the ball. Afterward, they erected a small monument to mark the spot where the ball fell. I think that was the last time Roberto swung a bat, and he hit a home run.."

"That boy can't miss becoming a great ballplayer."

"I've never seen a ball hit farther in Wrigley Field than the home run Roberto Clemente sent flying out in the ninth inning. It passed out of view over the left-center bleachers and it must have gone close to 500 feet. Clemente says he never hit one that far before and even the Cubs admit it was the first one they ever saw leave the park at that spot. Ernie Banks said later he never hit one over that fence and never saw one hit as far as this one. Even Rogers Hornsby acknowledged it was the longest he ever saw hit at Wrigley Field."

"I don’t know of anybody who played on the same team with more superstars than I did. I was with ’em all, all except Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax, whom I don’t count because he was a pitcher. I played with Musial with the Cardinals, Clemente with the Pirates, Richie Allen with the Phillies and Willie Mays with the Giants. The best of ’em? For natural tools, I’d have to say Clemente. All around he was the best ballplayer I ever saw."

"Well, I've always said, after playing with Bobby for '55 though '62, Bobby Clemente was the greatest God-given talent I ever saw in a baseball player. There wasn't anything that he couldn't do as well [as] if not better than anybody in the game that I've ever seen. People don't realize Bobby was built like a Greek God. He had a waist about that big around, and marvelous in the chest—very strong, very strong shoulders, strong arms. Great timing, great instinct..."

"There was nothing on the baseball diamond that he couldn’t do if he wanted to. He could have adapted his hitting style if he wanted to be more of a home run hitter, but [Pirates batting coach] George Sisler wanted him to spray the ball around and be a high percentage hitter."

"If he wanted to lead the league in stolen bases, he could have done that. He was a marvelous base runner and had great instincts. He also had a great, great arm. And he had a great body, strong at the top and a thin waist."

"No doubt about it, Bobby had the greatest God-given talent I ever saw. Bobby was a complete player. What he didn’t understand was the fact that the Most Valuable Player award is not necessarily for the greatest talent. A lot of other things go into it. He was certainly the greatest talent on that team, and you can be both the outstanding player and the MVP. None of us was as gifted as Bobby was. Everybody tries to make a big deal about us, but it was never any problem between us. We never had a cross word. I wasn’t even conscious that he resented me winning it so greatly until deep into the 1961 season."

"As a fielder, I never saw anyone play balls off the right field wall the way Bobby did. And I remember going to Forbes Field as a kid, when it was Paul Waner out there. It was spooky, how Bobby knew how to play that wall."

"If he hadn’t been killed, I could see him playing another five years. Bobby was always in great shape. He worked at it year round. He had a great body, and that was evident from the first day I ever saw him at Fort Myers training camp."

"He almost threw me out one night in St. Louis after I had singled solidly to right field. He almost got me at first. His throw got by the first baseman, otherwise he would have thrown me out. I knew I couldn't run, but that would have been humiliating, to be thrown out from right field on what is supposed to be a single."

"Now if you ask me which player I’d pick first in that same era, I’d go with Henry Aaron and I’d take Mickey Mantle. Aaron could hurt you so many ways and he had that consistent power. Mantle played when he couldn’t walk. Clemente was one of the all-time great players, but I’d take those guys over him."

"Head swinger when he misses ball, tends to lunge. Is inexperienced, but from the information I can get, he learns fast. Never makes the same mistake twice. Rawboned, well-proportioned build. The Montreal boys for the most part tell me he could have played regular on their club in '54 and been of more value than Cassini."

"The only thing you ever hear about Clemente is that he doesn’t hit enough home runs. The criticism is ridiculous, because he could hit 40 a year if he wanted to. He has the greatest physical ability of anybody I’ve seen in a long time. He’s got as much power as anyone on this ballclub. Only Robertson may have a little more."

"[Branch] Rickey was a fanatic about speed, and I guess I am too. And you can see for yourself: the [teams that] are built on speed win. I like to get a stopwatch time on a kid in a sixty-yard dash, because in baseball you run sixty yards more than you do anything: first to third, second to home, center field to right-center. But I never time a hitter from home to first. What good does it do you? Clemente – I don’t think he ever ran to first base under 4.4 or 4.5. That follow-through of his brought him up and toward third base, so it took him three tenths of a second just to get out of the batter’s box, but he was still the fastest man on our club."

"Raul Mondesi is a 40. Clemente and Shawon Dunston were the only 60s we ever had. Dave Parker was a 40."

"His hand looked like it was about twice as long as anybody else’s. That’s what…why he could throw the ball – he just had such a wrist movement. And the same way with the bat – he had very good wrists to play ball."

"Then this 20-year-old kid, Roberto Clemente, whom we drafted out of the Brooklyn organization, has been a welcome surprise. I'd say he's potentially one of the finer players in the game. What I like best about the youngster is his hustle. He likes to play ball. In your last series with us at Pittsburgh, for example, he showed up with a rather high temperature. But Roberto gave it all he was worth."

"I look at my hand and see my World Series ring. It takes 25 guys to make a team, but I know who put that ring over my knuckle – Roberto Clemente."

"Me and some of the other guys were probably making the minimum, $12,500, and here’s Clemente – a guy making $150,000. Some guys who make this money might dog it a bit, but when he hit one back even to the pitcher he’d run to first like the cops were chasin’ him. I remember thinkin’ to myself, ‘Hell, if that guy can do it, I’m gonna do it.’ Let me tell you, it’s hard to go out there every day, but once Clemente crossed over the white line onto the field, I think his philosophy was: If you’re going to go half-ass, no sense doing it. Maybe he made mistakes when he was younger, but in my years with him I don’t think he made a handful of mental mistakes. He threw to the right base, hit the cut-off man, took the extra base when he should, hit behind the runner, sacrificed himself at the plate. Guy on second he’d hit the ball and move the runner along. Next thing, there’s a wild pitch or a sacrifice fly and we win the game. A lot of people leave the ballpark and say, ‘Well, Clemente didn’t do nothing today.’ But Clemente was the guy who hit the guy over to third. And out in the field, not many guys tried going from first to third on him. He’d fire it in accurate, right on the bag. I tagged plenty of guys with two minutes to spare!"

"It was my first year in the Pirate organization; I signed with them in ’71. I lived in Pittsburgh, so when our season was over the Pirates let me come out for batting practice and take ground balls. So I took BP with those guys. Just to watch him take batting practice was something that youngsters should watch and learn. Because with his first round, he would just inside-out the ball and hit everything to right field. Then the next round, he’d move the ball around and start hitting the ball up the middle a little bit. And then in his last few rounds, he’d just start turning on the ball and stinging the ball. He used such a big bat, I recall – a big, long, heavy bat. He was so strong with his hands; the ball just jumped off the bat. When him and Stargell hit – when they were in the cage – you actually didn’t even have to be around the cage to know that one of those two was in the cage hitting. The ball had a different sound coming off their bats. It was like a rifle shot. When the rest of us were in there hitting, it didn’t sound quite like that."