Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients

"You can't defense him. He can hit down any line, hit up the middle and he can hit the long ball. In some ways, he's a better ball player than Aaron."

"The best player in the game today. I’d have to take him over Aaron and all the rest... I've only been in the league a little over a year and a half, but I don't think I've ever seen him make an easy out."

"Clemente is the best player I’ve ever seen. I said so when I first came into the league and I still say so."

"I'm looking at the best hitter in baseball."

"Willie Mays was the greatest player I ever saw. Clemente was second and Hank Aaron was the greatest slugger. But pound for pound, play-for-play, Willie Mays could do it all well. You can name four or five in what I call that elite category,” he said, adding the name of Mickey Mantle to his list of greats. “But after that, you catch hell putting anybody up there."

"I do not remember too many of the players. I seem to be more conscious of the players from when I played in Cuba. I had Orlando Cepeda launch a few on me when I was with Ponce. Oh, there was Roberto Clemente. I played against him, and he was awesome. The way he ran. The dirt flying up from his spikes. And he could hit the ball all over the place. He was terrific."

"Roberto Clemente, bats right. High fast-ball hitter, fair on breaking stuff. Power on inside strikes, hits straightaway. Often takes first pitch. Pushes bunt occasionally. Dislikes knockdown by close pitch. Runs well, takes risk on bases. Excellent defensive rightfielder. Frequently bluffs fumble of ground balls to dare opposing runners to try for extra base. (Jam him good. Keep change and slider away, preferably down.) Clemente features a Latin-American variety of showboating. ""Look at numero uno," he seems to be saying. Once afflicted with periodic back pains, he apparently was cured during a hitch with the Marines at Parris Island. His hard-headed reputation stems from a fabled episode that took place at second base several years ago. Cincinnati's Johnny Temple, upset by Clemente on a double play two innings previously, pivoted over the bag after a force play on Clemente and threw toward first base from down under. The ball caught Roberto smartly between the eyes. He didn't even blink. He once ran right over his manager, who was coaching third base, to complete an inside-the-park home run hit off my best hanging slider. It excited the fans, startled the manager, shocked me and disgusted my club."

"Furillo's arm is not what it used to be. Mays has the best arm without a doubt. I'd say Wally Post of Cincinnati is next. Furillo is probably third with Duke Snider of Brooklyn and Clemente not far behind."

"I wasn't throwing at him. I was trying to get a fastball on the inside corner for a strike. But it was high and about three inches from the plate. He stands so far from the plate that the ball was at least two and a half to three feet from him. That guy goes down every time a pitch gets within hailing distance of him. He's a scaredy-cat and complains all the time."

"The one player who impressed me the most was Roberto Clemente, both as a man and as an athlete. He was one of the nicest individuals and just tremendous as a ball player. I never saw a better player, although I always regarded Ted Williams as the best hitter."

"The fact that Clemente has been so consistent is the most impressive thing about him. He is hitting over .300 when there are fewer and fewer .300 hitters. Yastrzemski had a great season, but Clemente has had many, many great seasons, and that’s why I picked him. Our scouting reports on him are the best – the best they can be. We rate him at the top in every category. You can’t say more than that."

"Harry told me I might be a Clemente some day. So I told him, "That might be hard to do. I know Clemente. I might be something like him, but, ha, not like him. There is just one Clemente.""

"Roberto is one of the toughest hitters in the league – the kind you can’t pitch to any certain way. You may get him out on one pitch, but throw him the same pitch again and he’ll hit it for a bullet."

"Pat Corrales, now managing the Cleveland Indians, admitted the other day that he has a favorite player. He's Gary Matthews of the Cubs, who played for Corrales in Philadelphia. "He does everything he can to win," Corrales said. "I've never seen him stop driving. And if he sees a teammate who isn't hustling, he'll tell him about it and embarrass him in front of the whole club." According to Corrales, only a few other players are in this same category: Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose and Baltimore's Cal Ripken."

"Clemente has convinced me he’s the best hitter in this league. I always thought Hank Aaron was, but Clemente has shown me something. He hits nothing but line drives, and a pitcher never knows where to throw the ball to him. And he’s just about as good a ballplayer as you’ll find anywhere. He can do everything."

"There were four home runs in the game – two by Willie McCovey, the MVP, and one each by Frank Howard and Johnny Bench. With all of the long balls, the one I remember most was hit by Roberto Clemente. The Great One hit it all the way into the upper deck, but it was foul. I had seen balls hit farther, but I had never seen a ball hit that far to the opposite field!"

"I didn’t have much trouble with Roberto. I threw him a few fastballs inside to keep him from leaning in. One of those fastballs broke his wrist in my rookie season. I saw him that night at a banquet in our hotel, the Pittsburgh Hilton, and tried to apologize, but he waved my words away. "Don’t worry about it," he said. "It’s part of the game." It was also a part of the game that I continued to throw fastballs inside the inside corner to him as a reminder and got him out mostly with outside sliders."

"I was throwing strikes—getting the ball over the plate—but I wasn't getting my pitches in the spots I wanted them. I wasn't getting the pitch that I needed. I tried to make them hit the ball and they hit it. Clemente is the toughest out on the club."

"We're lucky to hold him to a single!"

"If the score had been closer, I probably would have pitched Clemente and Stargell differently. I hope those guys didn’t hurt anybody with those homers. I fed Clemente a slow curve, and he made a believer out of me on one pitch. He’ll never get another one."

"Ball four!"

"I was so drugged up at times that I couldn’t see the scoreboard from the mound. I was a walking drugstore. I had to cover one eye, like a drunk driver does when he wants to see the road. Roberto Clemente hit a line drive back through the box that could have killed me. I never saw it. I still haven’t seen it. I was that fuzzy, that blurred. But I heard it. Did I ever hear it. And I felt it, too. After I escaped being hit, I felt a little sensation on the left side of my neck – like I had a mosquito sitting there, waiting to bite it. I brushed the area with my hand and looked down and my hand was dripping with blood. Clemente’s drive had taken the skin right off the edge of my ear. How’s that for a gentle reminder that you’ve about had it?"

"My book on pitching to Clemente was that you wanted to drive him back off the plate. When he started falling away, make sure he kept falling away, and then go down and away with him. But establish enough in here where you try and take that left shoulder and make it follow that left leg. If you don’t, look out."

"I may rate Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays a shade better than Clemente, but he rates with the best of this or any era."

"[T]o get him out with fastballs, you had to keep it tight. Otherwise, Willie’d get his hands out. Roberto Clemente was a little bit like that. You heard about stepping in the bucket – when you pull the left foot out on the swing and then your body comes away. But both of those hitters, Mays and Clemente – both Hall-of-Famers – they had the knack of stepping away and throwing the top of their body at the ball, and they had some leverage there. So they hit with power to right or right center."

"I had a chance to sign him before the Dodgers gave him a bonus. I offered the kid $4,000 to sign with our club, and told him we would send him to an A league. The money meant more to him and we weren't taking on any more bonus players. He can do everything, run, throw and hit. He's a bit crude in some things he does, but that's to be expected. I doubt very much if he can play regularly in the majors this year. But you can't tell. He faced some good pitching in Puerto Rico in 1953 and batted .300. Right now, he is far above that figure. The main thing is to hope he can stay relaxed and loose when he gets to the big leagues. If the kid doesn't tighten up, maybe the Pirates will have a good ball player on their hands."

"Of course… there is really no question in my mind that the best ballplayer over the last decade has been Willie Mays. Willie is a little older now… but he is still a tremendous ballplayer and again, next year, he could be the greatest again. When you talk about the decade, you’ve got to consider Willie. Today… today we have a lot of fine players. I’d have to say that Roberto Clemente, who over a period of years has led the league in several departments, would be a great asset to any team. Henry Aaron, of course… and a lot of people underrate Pete Rose. On the basis of the little we saw of him in the World Series, you’d have to put Carl Yastrzemski right up there with the superstars. You cannot pin me down on this. You can split them up. Mays in his prime, you could make a choice. My choice would be easy. But now… now, if you must pin me down to just one… at this moment… I would say Clemente."

"That was a double anywhere in this league – except against him."

"I didn't think the ball was going out. Nobody hits 'em out of the park at that spot. [...] I thought at first I might catch it. Then I thought it would hit the wall and I'd get it on one bounce. I just didn't think any righthander could hit a ball that far."

"He stayed so far away from the plate. I have a little sinking fastball that would go away from him. I thought I could throw it on the outside corner and he wouldn’t be able to reach it, but he knew exactly what he was doing up there. He would just move in toward the plate as you were releasing the ball – he could reach over and hit it to right field with almost as much power as to left field."

"Whitey Ford, who pitched against him twice in the Series, recalls that Roberto actually made himself look bad on an outside pitch to encourage Whitey to come back with it. "I did," Ford recalls, "and he unloaded.""

"Clemente is the type player who adds extra excitement to baseball. He is a rare breed. We have one in San Francisco. The Braves have Henry Aaron. The Pirates have Clemente. We are the three fortunate clubs."

"The key play had to be in the sixth inning when we had the bases loaded. There were two out, remember, after Tito Fuentes struck out. That brought up Willie Mays and who would you like to have up in that situation? Willie, right? So Willie crashed the ball and Clemente made a great catch of the line drive. If that ball had been up a little bit… but that’s the way it goes, doesn’t it?"

"Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente were the hardest guys for me to pitch to. You might make them look bad on one pitch, but they would hit that same pitch the next time up. They had such good wrist action that they could throw the bat at the ball and make contact. Clemente was a little tougher for me. I could make him look sick on a fastball up and in, and he’d throw the bat at the next pitch and hit it nine miles. You couldn’t have a pattern with him."

"Among all the players on other teams, the only guy I had anything to do with was Roberto Clemente, who was a special case. One reason I talked to Clemente was to explain to him why I always threw at him. He swung way too hard against me, flinging himself at the ball and spinning around in the batter’s box like he was on the playground or something. I had to demonstrate to him that I was no playground pitcher, and to that end I made a point of throwing at least one fastball in his direction nearly every time he came to the plate. In most cases I wouldn’t have felt compelled to provide a reason for knocking a batter down, but somehow Clemente brought out my soft side. It was virtually impossible to ignore him because he was always talking. Usually, it was to complain about how much his back or his shoulder or some other damn thing was hurting him. "Oh, my back," he would say, "ees keeling me." He would go on and on until you had no choice but to say, "Clemente, shut the fuck up!" Then he would step in the batter’s box and swing so hard that the flagsticks on top of the stadium would bend. He was so full of shit that you had to laugh, and you couldn’t help liking the guy."

"I came out throwing hard against Pittsburgh, and we were ahead 1-0 when my old pal Clemente led off the fourth with the Pirates’ first hit – a line drive off my right shin. I couldn’t get up right away, and Bob Bauman rushed out to check my leg and spray ethyl chloride on it. I said, "I hate to tell you, Doc, but you’re spraying the wrong place." He advised me to take a look, and I saw what he saw – a dent in the skin the shape of a baseball. It was odd that I couldn’t feel where I had been struck, but since I couldn’t feel it, I wasn’t particularly worried. I told Doc to put a little tape on it and let me get back to work. Willie Stargell was the next batter, and I walked him. Then Bill Mazeroski popped out, and the count was three and two on Donn Clendenon when I tried to put a little extra on the payoff pitch and collapsed. The fibula bone had snapped above the ankle. I was taken to Jewish Hospital, my leg was put in a cast, and I was out of the pennant race for nearly eight weeks."

"There were very few superstar hitters whom I pitched away, an exception being Roberto Clemente. He was completely unorthodox in the batter’s box and would rip a pitch high and away – like the one he broke my leg with – but I could get him out low and away. Bear in mind that when I say I could get somebody out a certain way, or I had luck with him by doing this or that, it wasn’t an exact science. The good hitters all had strategies for me, too, and there wasn’t a single one of them whom I knew I was going to put away every time. The kind of guys I’m discussing here – the money players – demand special consideration because they basically couldn’t be intimidated, but I always held out hope that I could somehow throw them off their games."

"I faced Roberto Clemente. He was easy to get two strikes on, but the third one wasn’t so easy."

"I have never seen Clemente give a poor effort on a ball field. He runs hard when he hits a ball back to the pitcher. He plays every game as if the pennant is at stake. He is a ball player's ball player."

"The riches of the game are in the thrills, not the money."

"He never complained about his team's bad luck or bad talent, never stopped playing the game for joy, never stopped giving his all, never lost his proud demeanor, and never acted like anything but a winner. He was a symbol of the Cubs' fans undiminishing resilience. If he could be happy to come to the park each afternoon, then so could we."

"His wrists are the secret of (Ernie) Banks' success. Instead of taking the big Ruthian type swing of the lively ball era, he swings his bat as if it were a buggy whip, striking at the ball with the reflexive swiftness of a serpent's tongue."

"There's another case — Ernie Banks. What could he do other than hit home runs? He didn't hit .300 lifetime. He couldn't play shortstop. He didn't have an arm. He couldn't run."

"Baseball reveals character; golf exposes it"

"You must try to generate happiness within yourself. If you aren't happy in one place, chances are you won't be happy anyplace."

"It's a great day for a ball game; let's play two!"

"Sandy Koufax. Sandy was a special problem for me because he possessed exceptional control, speed and a great curve ball. He was highly disciplined, extremely committed and a very private person. These qualities enabled him to concentrate on his profession without a lot of unnecessary distractions."

"The only way to prove that you're a good sport is to lose."

"Did you hear that? I didn't hear anything. Put that question another way."

"I like my players to be married and in debt. That's the way you motivate them."