Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients

"From a personal standpoint, I have known Clemente since he came up to the Pirates 17 years ago and the thing he did that impressed me most in the Series against the Orioles wasn't that he hit .414 or got off those excellent throws, but that he got up and chased the ball when he kicked it into distant left centerfield after falling down trying for a backhanded shoestringer on 's triple in the first game. "Swoboda would've had it!" said a newspaperman I know. Seriously, though, what impressed me so much about Clemente's get-up-and-go-after- it sequence is this was so typical of his performance. He'd do the same thing in the second game of a series with San Diego as he was doing now in the second game of a series with Baltimore."

"One more thing for the record: Babe Ruth was far and away the best ballplayer I have ever seen. Closest to him for home run hitting alone, in my book anyway, were Jimmy Foxx, Johnny Mize, and Harmon Killebrew. Hank Aaron would rate in my top half-dozen, along with Joe Dimaggio, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, and Roberto Clemente."

"He happens to be nursing a troublesome left shoulder at the moment and this circumstance is sure to provoke some of his critics into saying there goes Clemente with another one of his imaginary ailments again. Clemente has no guilt complex or anything like that but he knows there are same people who are going to say that about him now because these same people have said the same thing before. They don't know his left shoulder hasn't been right since he ran into a wall in Florida chasing after a foul smash in a game against the Red Sox. Nine of 10 other outfielders wouldn't even try for it in a spring training contest. They also don't know Clemente took a cortisone shot in his shoulder Tuesday after rapping two hits against the Phillies, and that he has a huge lump atop his shoulder nearly the size of a baseball. But that's nothing new because there are some things most people don't even want to know."

"He soon perfected one technique that I’ve never seen another player do. A hard ground ball hit to the outfield on synthetic turf often gets through for extra bases. Roberto would run after the ball and, instead of trying to backhand it, and throw, Roberto would slide on his left side, his feet extended, just like he was sliding into a base. As soon as he’d intercepted the ball, he’d immediately pop back into a standing position and get rid of the ball. It was unbelievable! Oh, I’ve seen Roberto make so many plays I could talk about them forever. In old Forbes Field, the right-field line went down 300 feet and then angled out quickly. Billy White of the Cardinals once batted a ball over first base fair, it hit something, and skittered into the bullpen area behind the stands. White was already rounding second on his way to an easy triple. Roberto charged over from right field, slid into the gravel, grabbed the ball, kicked off the wall with his foot, and threw a perfect strike to third base. Roberto couldn’t even see third base when he threw – he was in behind the lower stands – but the ball zoomed over the pitcher’s mound and reached third on a fly. White was out by six or seven feet. Most remarkable throw I’ve ever seen him make."

"Perhaps the greatest play I’ve ever seen Roberto make was in Nicaragua, in 1964 or 1965, after San Juan won the title in the Caribbean Series. They had Clemente, Cepeda, Pizarro, Conde, Pagán – it was like an all-star team! [...] But during that series, Roberto made such a fantastic play that they nearly raised a monument in his honor out in right field. Ossie Echevarria, a Panamanian, one of the fastest men in baseball, was the runner on first base. A ball was hit to right-center, nearly by the wall. Normally, any runner would make it from first to third on such a hit, especially a guy like Echevarria. Clemente cut the ball off and threw it right into Wito Conde’s glove at third – that ball looked like a jet! The runner was tagged out, and every fan in the ballpark just stood there – mouth open in amazement. They’d seen plenty of top players over the years, but never had they seen a throw like that! Three innings later, the same situation: Echevarria on first, another hit. Roberto cut it off and fired to third. Echevarria was between second and third base. When he slammed on the brakes, it looks so funny, like a character in a Walt Disney cartoon! He threw himself headlong back to second base. Incredible! It was impossible to run against Roberto’s arm."

"What's this we hear about the Cubs, who detected a batting weakness of Willie Mays, also learning how to pitch to Roberto Clemente, the sensational outfielder of the Pirates? ... It is said that and Sam Jones, who played winter ball in Puerto Rico, not only got hep to Say Hey Willie, but it is more than a coincidence that Clemente has batted only .158 against the Cubs; in fact, he made only two hits in his last five games against them."

"He was a perfectionist, like a great artist in any field. When he got to a new park, he inspected every inch of right field to see if the ground was hard or soft, how high the grass was. He was a fanatic about his waistline. Once he told me, "I have a 32-inch waist always; when I’m a bit more, I’m no good." In the off-season, I’ve seen him go to a field in Carolina with a sack full of beer bottle caps. He’d get some kids to throw him the tiny caps and he’d spend hours – hours! – batting. Then, for exercise, he’d bend down and pick them all up. He said that when he was done hitting those tiny caps, a real ball looked as big as a coconut!"

"At , the fine new training headquarters of the Pittsburgh club, one may see [, among others,] Roberto Walker Clemente, a teammate of Willie Mays in the Puerto Rican League, who has copied Mays' method of catching the ball against his navel but, alackaday, not his batting."

"One more Puerto Rican, who happened to be the four-time National League batting champion, arrived in New York this weekend and today he left 41,323 Mets fans in anguish in Shea Stadium. Roberto Clemente also left the Mets to wonder if they had a future in the National League pennant race. Just before game time, Clemente reinstated himself in the Pittsburgh lineup after missing their last 11 games with a lame back and in the third inning he struck. He whacked a long and loud two-bagger off the left-center-field wall. That did it, for the Pirates, and to the Mets, in a 2-to-1 ball game. Both Pittsburgh runs were wrapped around Clemente's swat off Gary Gentry. It drove in Matty Alou, who was on second base after a single, and Clemente himself scored when Willie Stargell elected to get the 1,000th hit of his career in that spot, a single."

"The Pirates have managed to stay up there partly because of and sometimes despite Roberto Clemente, their best hitter and, when healthy, their best ball player. But Clemente does not play all the time. Some days he says he does not feel well, and he is known to have a back condition at this time. Actually, the Pirates have a slightly better winning percentage without their best athlete in the 51 games he has missed than they do when he has played. The old Orioles, those legends famed for playing hurt, may not have understood Clemente today. The Pirates never faced a more important doubleheader than the one with the Mets today. They lost the first game, and Clemente benched himself in the second. This could have been the choice of an ailing man, but the trouble is Clemente has asked out of second games of doubleheaders when he was healthy, and when the next day was an off day. If there is one chap who is holding the Pirates together it is their man, Manny Sanguillen, who refuses to be substituted for in the position that is most substituted, catcher. Sanguillen is the rugged Panamanian who wants to play every day, gives the Pirates one of the league's better catching jobs, and is a leader. He also hits .320."

"They seem to have a new star coming up in Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican fielder. He had three singles, bunted in smart style, caught on with the fans, and was complimented by Macon at the end of the game. Which was an illustrious introduction for the colored boy."

"Refusal of the Bucs to trade Roberto Clemente probably was a wise policy but it is a distinct disappointment to Clemente, who would like especially to land in New York, where his popularity among the Puerto Rican populace could double his income in testimonials alone."

"Roberto Clemente's intention to demand a $200,000 salary next season may be startling to the Pittsburgh Pirates' ownership, but in all candor they must admit one truth: of all the baseball athletes, Clemente is the closest to being worth $200,000 a year."

"The case of Clemente came to mind again last week when the Pirates had announced they had signed the 26-year-old star to his 1961 contract. Before the World Series Roberto told the writer: “Unless I get what I want in salary I won't play for this club no more.” After the series, in which Clemente was the only player to hit safely in all seven games, he revealed: “I talk to General Manager Joe Brown and he tell me they pay me what I want. Everything is hokay now.” So, even though Clemente was the one big man of the Pirates who missed out on so many of the honors that befell his teammates, he was compensated somewhat with a big salary boost. The guess here is he'll receive between $33,000 and $35,000. Maybe that is why Roberto, a sensitive guy who tries to hide his true feelings behind a sharp tongue, says: “Just so long as they pay me what I want, to hell with everything else.”"

"Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania."

"Billy Harris, the pride of the Maritimes, was expected to be “the story” of Sunday’s second game between the Royals and Syracuse Chiefs. Instead, the hit-guy proved to be Roberto Clemente. Roberto’s home run, his second of the season, gave the Royals a 4-3 decision and their third straight over the Chiefs. [...] pitched the last inning for the Royals and took his 18th win of the year on the Clemente clout off ."

"I cannot accept the theory that a hard punch couldn't be delivered from Clay's stance, though it is obviously better to have a solid base, but there are athletes in every sport who do things they aren't supposed to. You can only judge them on results. One classic example is Roberto Clemente of the Pirates. Professionals don't understand how he can hit with his rear end flying into the third base dugout. Yet he has been the most consistent hitter in baseball over a period of five years, and no one hits the ball as hard as often ... Orthodox or unorthodox, an athlete's power generally is generated by timing and strength, and the strength being in the forearms and hands, not the legs and feet, unless he's a punter or a high jumper."

"People who didn’t see him play look at the stats and say, ‘Well, he didn’t hit 500 homers, and he didn’t do this or do that.’ But again, if you hear the players who played against him, you realize the kind of respect they have for him. Willie Mays always said that for him, Roberto Clemente was the greatest all-around player he played against."

"Clemente has impressed the scouts who have looked at the Royals. They regard him as an exceptionally promising young player. At the start of the season Macon said he didn’t expect Clemente to help very much. “He’s too inexperienced but we’ve got to keep him,” the manager said. Not long ago Clemente won an extra-inning contest for the Royals here with a home run over the left field fence. Few players have achieved that feat at ."

"Well, Buzz old boy, there are a few things for which the 11,089 cash clients in would like to say “thanks.” They thank you for Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican kid who should be a very popular player here. He runs well and yesterday he went three-for-four with his salary stick. They call him Momen and I don’t know why."

"The man getting on the tram outside the park was Harry Simmons of the International League office. The Royals had won two games from the Havana Sugar Kings 7-6 and 4-1. Homeward bound, the 4,252 customers were satisfied, chatty and cheerful. "They have a new idol, a new star,” Harry Simmons said. “Roberto Clemente.” No truer words were spoken on the weekend. Clemente’s clout over the left field wall yesterday, his first homer of the campaign, won the opening game, Hollywood style in the tenth inning. Clemente is a player with potential greatness. He is what they call “showboat” in diamond dialect. But yesterday he delivered in very surprising style, indeed. At the start of the season said that he didn’t expect Clemente to prove much help to the club. He was too young and inexperienced, the manager had said. It was noted, though, that yesterday Macon sent the colored speedboy back into the second game. He smashed a double on his first try in that event. The rain-defying throng hooted derisively when they walked him intentionally on his next trip."

"It has been a foregone conclusion for most of his career that Old Aches and Pains from Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente, the best player in the game who has never won the Most Valuable Player Award, had to have one foot in Mayo Clinic before he could make a shambles of National League pitching. Moreover, Roberto has to feel he is unloved, unappreciated. Roberto, who plays right field as if he invented it, never won a Gold Glove until the voting was taken out of the hands of the Reporter|writers. That he has never won an MVP is as big a crime as if [[Spencer Tracy had never won an Oscar. But, over the years, Roberto had to get an assist from nature. He had to have a virus, a mysterious tropical disease, trichinosis, his foot cut in a lawn mower. He has such a trick back, he can play it for you like a xylophone. He reported to camp 15 pounds underweight from a bout with malaria (or maybe it was typhoid that year – he’s had both) and he had to take aspirin all year just to win the batting championship (which he's done three times). People just thought he was a hypochondriac – partly because people with a fever of 102 do not normally bat .339. He was the Oscar Levant of baseball, the Sick Man of America. He complained about everything but amnesia. He skipped batting practice because he said hitting made him ‘tired.’ Not as tired as it made the pitchers – or the other outfielders – in the game."

"Roberto Clemente, the outfielder, is one of the Royal’s bonus babies. According to baseball regulations he must be carried by the club throughout the campaign. That, perhaps, is the only reason Clemente has remained on the payroll. Not yet 20 years old, Roberto normally would have been sent out for seasoning. But lately he has been proving that he can play in Triple-A company. Last night in Toronto, for instance, he helped plenty when the Royals shaded the cousinly Maple Leafs 8-7. Clemente tripled and singled. When the Leafs threatened to send the contest into a knot, Clemente threw Connie Johnson out at the plate from right field."

"Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates made the greatest catch in the history of the and as good a catch as he has ever made in his 17-year career to save ’ 3-0 shutout over the Houston Astros Tuesday night. Clemente, possibly the best defensive right fielder in baseball history, made two extraordinary catches in the eighth inning with the speedy on first base, one out and the Pirates leading, 1-0. hit a sharp liner to short right field and Clemente dashed in to make a sliding catch inches above the grass. “I lost the ball in the lights but I had to keep charging in,” Clemente said later. “I started sliding and I saw it again.” Then Clemente was playing in the same spot in medium deep right center when cracked a liner toward the right field corner. Most right fielders would have played it off the wall and Morgan would have scored the tying run, but the 36-year-old took off after the ball. He caught up with it at the ball, leaped high and caught it as he crashed into the boards at full speed. He said it was above the yellow home run line which runs across the wall ten feet above the ground. A homer would have put Houston ahead 2-1. “I don’t even think I could get the ball, but I had to try and I jump,” Clemente said. Houston manager , who has been in baseball 54 years, and coach Buddy Hanken, who has been in baseball 36 years, both said it was the greatest catch they had ever seen."

"Official Pittsburgh Pirate releases reveal that their brash hitting star Roberto Walker Clemente [sic] was given the nickname "Momen" by a cousin for no particular reason. There isn't even a definition listed. However, if early returns are any indication the name is sure to have a meaning shortly. Roberto is likely to knock in "mo men" this season than any other major league batter."

"If Brooks Robinson is the definitive third baseman for all time, then Clemente is the definitive right fielder. He may, in fact, be the greatest outfielder, period, although he makes no such claim. But in any list of the ten greatest catches I've ever seen, Clemente has probably made about six of them."

"Clemente, the two-time batting champion who has amazing power to all fields but only once has hit as many as 20 homers in one season, reached out for a 1-0 pitch with two out in the third and hammered it far over the right field wall for his 11th homer."

"Colored ball players in New York for last week's Major League All-Star Game, looked as though they had all just stepped out of a men's fashion ad in one of the top fashion magazines. Attired in attractive, conservative clothing and shoes the 15 tan athletes totaled $2,000 or more in suits, shirts and footwear alone. As he stepped out his Roosevelt Hotel quarters, Willie Mays was dressed in natty blue olive suit, white custom-fit shirt and deep blood shoes. A dark green suit, gold tie on white shirt donned the well-proportioned frame of Roberto Clemente as he and grey-suited Billy Williams paused to sign autographs in front of the Commodore Hotel where they stayed."

"Roberto does not hit many home runs. His best season in that regard was 1966 when he had 29. This year he had only 13. But he has power. In Wrigley Field I've seen him hit the ball as far out of the park as anyone and I've seen it often. He has, however, spent the majority of his career in old Forbes Field, where a right-handed pull hitter is going to have more long fly outs than home runs. He decided long ago to go with the pitch and hit for average."

"If Roberto "Momen" Clemente had hit 's World Series-winning homer against the Yankees in '60, it would have been "A Momen to Remember.""

"Playing baseball, Roberto Clemente conjured a vision of some African prince standing waste-deep in the surf and brandishing a spear at a retreating slave ship. Majestic. Indomitable. Perhaps his loss sounded the first real death knell over the game in this city. Without him, pennant races or no, its excitement has somehow waned. Others make diving catches; he made them one-handed, sliding across the field on his rear end, or at his knees, so self-assuredly that to see him do it a thousand times was to be certain he would not drop even one. Others deftly retrieve baseballs from the outfield walls; he snatched barehanded and flung them back like so many arrows. Others swing hard; he swung as mad suicides leap from cliffs. And all of these things he did effortlessly, no strain to muddy the esthetics of his skills; no caution to soil his craft. In time, most have forgotten his injuries and his battles with the press and the pride that drove him, and even that he died in an airplane trying to help people who needed it desperately. What has been remembered, and will be, is this: For a generation, no one played the game of baseball with more dignity or grace, and that when Roberto Clemente died, the people of an island and a city were truly saddened. A stamp in his honor could not be more fitting. I'd like to be there in that sleepy town tomorrow morning to get the very first one."

"Here's that Clemente swing once again. Look at that bat stay back; cocked. Now, a trademark: hitting off the front foot! Look at that right foot, the rear foot, a foot off the ground—something that is not advisable as a hitter, but don't tell that to Clemente, or Hank Aaron."

"Tony Kubek, the Game of the Week broadcaster for NBC, also thinks it's entirely too early to be chiseling out Clemente's obituary. "He's remarkable," says Tony. "You can’t lope to first base on a right field single with Roberto out there. He’s liable to catch you napping at first with one of those patented throws of his—or at least he’ll try.""

"During 's final season, Kubek said during an interview in Detroit that Kaline's 3,000 hits were marred by the fact that in his last year he was a . "I said I was more impressed with Roberto Clemente because he played every day," Kubek recalled. All heck broke loose, with Detroit fans tearing into Kubek for his supposed slight of their veteran hero. In classic Kubek style, he refused to trim his views for the audience. There is no more constant on-air critic of the DH rule than Kubek, which has brought criticism of him in turn from American League owners who feel that the broadcaster exceeds his role. "But the DH rule is so dumb," Kubek said all over again. "Don't the American League owners wonder why pitchers like Palmer, Ryan, Hunter and Guidry develop arm trouble? Because of the DH rule, they have to pitch too many stressful late-game innings.""

"Clemente, himself, is one of the most powerful hitters in baseball. The Pirates still talk about the line-drive home run he hit this May in San Francisco's . And they still talk about the homer he belted at Wrigley Field last season—the ball traveled about 500 feet and said it was the longest drive he had ever seen."

"I met Roberto Clemente once, after the , which he dominated with his bat, his throwing arm, his fielding, and with his presence. After the Pirates won that Series from the Orioles, Clemente flew to New York City, where the editors of a magazine had a new car to present him. The day wheeled about a luncheon in Leone's Restaurant, where a wearying procession of speakers led into a Purto Rican official, who was supposed to introduce Roberto but instead rambled on boozily for 20 minutes. When at length the man finished, Clemente strode to the microphone, and suddenly the low comedy was done. "I am 37 years old," Clemente said, "and this is the first time I have ever been asked to speak in New York." He spoke on, movingly, beautifully, about his island, his family, about his game. Someone at my table commented, "We are listening to an overflowing heart." That vibrant heart was stopped 26 months later when a time-worn DC-7 shattered in the Caribbean Sea. Clemente had organized the flight to bring food, anesthetics, sugar, and tracheotomy tubes to the broken city of Managua, Nicaragua."

"A reliever strikes out Mays, McCovey, Howard, and Clemente tonight. Believe it or not, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Frank Howard, Roberto Clemente play in the same game—and get struck out—on the first annual "All-Star Celebrity Softball" special. The reliever is , known as "King of Softball" after 22 years as pitcher in the sport throughout the United States and Canada."

"Roberto Clemente was one Pirate who made a lasting impression on me when I first saw him cover the ground in right field in Forbes Field. He could chase down and catch balls in right center that seemed impossible to catch."

"I remember watching you play. When you ran for a fly ball it was like you traveled three feet above the grass, your feet never touching. "He has invisible pillows of angel hair attached to his feet," my wife said one night, "that's how he glides across the outfield.""

"Brosnan made one pitch, high and inside. Clemente drove it against the light standard in left field. Jim King had backed up to make the catch but it was over his head. The ball bounced off the slanted side of the fencing and rolled along the cinder path to center field. Here came Foiles, Virdon and then Cole, heading home and making it easily. Then came Clemente into third. Bragan had his hands upstretched to hold up his outfielder. The relay was coming in from . But around third came Clemente and down the home path. He made it just in front of the relay from Ernie Banks. He slid, missed the plate, then reached back to rest his hand on the rubber with the ninth run in a 9 - 8 victory as the crowd of 12,431 went goofy with excitement."

"Maranda had two out in the first inning when singled, doubled and Clemente slugged one over the fence in left center. They say here it was the hardest hit ball in 's windswept history."

"Sam, who had it all—a crackling curve and a fastball with a tail on it—had a two hitter going into the seventh. Then Clemente tied into a fastball and belted it into what is almost considered never never land. [...] Clemente clobbered it through the wind and beyond the 397-foot marker in left-center. [...] Only the fourth ball hit over the left field fence, it put Clemente back into a tie with McCovey for the RBI leadership. Each has 23."

"It was a bang-bang play at first base and I called Clemente out. And he called me a "blind son-of-a-beeeech." And I said, "You can go, Mr. Clemente." And out came Mr. Murtaugh and he said to me, "Why did you run him?" And I told him what Clemente had said. And Murtaugh said, "He couldn't have said that. He doesn’t speak any English." And I said, "Well you guys taught him some English.”"

"The second Buc run, just before the burst of five, was set up by Roberto Clemente’s blast high off the [right] center wall, above the 436-foot marker. The ball got there so fast, and bounced back to Murphy so hard, that the speedy Roberto got only two bases."

"Roberto defended the cause of the Latins, especially the dark-skinned Latins, and they owe him a lot. Clemente wasn’t a star after he got his 3,000th hit, he was a star a couple of years after he rose to the big leagues. But the press denied him the credit he deserved. I think this made him try to prove that a Puerto Rican was as good as anyone in America and could do what a Babe Ruth or a Ted Williams had done, that this wasn’t a game exclusively for people from Pennsylvania, Alabama, and New Jersey, that in Puerto Rico, this tiny little country, there are great men, too, in every sense of the word."

"New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, approaching "A to Z" during the series stay in Flatbush, said: "Here's a line I dare not use for obvious reasons. I'll pass it along for you to do with as you please. In their last series in Milwaukee, the Pittsburgh Pirate players were complaining about the way they were plagued and bitten by mosquitoes during the final night game of the season. Someone asked Roberto Clemente why he hadn't been bothered by the pests, and the Puerto Rican outfielder replied: 'Hell, I guess they couldn't see me.'" It was, A to Z thought, one of the best cracks since the wiseacre in the stands at St. Louis yelled, in the midst of a Cardinal belting of : "Somebody call the NAACP.""

"There will be only two thing people will remember about pennant-winning Pittsburgh's final appearance in yesterday. Roberto Clemente clobbered a history-making homer, a three-run first-inning shot to pace the Pirates to a 6–1 victory and a sweep of the two-game series with the Giants. [...] Clemente's 13th homer was a screaming shot over the left-center fence that banged against the green wall of the stands. A 400-footer plus, it could have been the hardest hit HR in the new park."

"The case of Clemente and the city of Pittsburgh has indeed been strange. A favorite with Bucco fans, the fiery outfielder from Puerto Rico has, on numerous occasions, been described as the “forgotten man” of the city’s daily press. This characterization has indeed been odd since the records so clearly reveal that Clemente was one of the most respected members of the Pirates in ability ... at least as far as the rest of the players in the league were concerned. During the summer the pattern of the “let’s forget Clemente” movement seemed to gain momentum as it became apparent to the baseball world that the Pirates would probably win their first National League championship in 35 years. Suddenly, almost as an afterthought, the Pirates became a club that could never have made it to the hill without Captain Dick Groat, shortstop. The pattern continued through the World Series. The propaganda became so obvious that more than one major league ball player told this writer: “Clemente doesn’t stand a chance of winning the ‘Most Valuable Player Award’ with all the press agents Groat has going for him in Pittsburgh." As things turned out those words of prophecy proved accurate. Dick Groat was voted the National League’s “Most Valuable Player” and has been basking in baseball’s limelight since."

"The Dodgers, who came to town Monday in first place, dropped back down to the ‘show’ spot in the National League race Wednesday night when a former Brooklyn farmhand, Roberto Clemente, beat them with one swish of his bat. Of course, Roberto had lots of help from , who struck out 11 in posting a 3-1 triumph, but it was Clemente’s two-run homer off in Round 1 which decided the contest before 21,952 spectators. Clemente, who is battling teammate for the league batting crown, which he has already won three times, including the last two in a row, lost ground to Alou. While Clemente was 1-for-4 to drop a point to .331, Alou went 3-for-4 to jump five notches to .342. However, Clemente is enjoying another big year against the Dodgers. For 12 games, he is hitting at a .360 clip as compared to his .347 mauling of the L.A. staff last season. Clemente’s 17th homer came with one out after Alou got one of his typical hits - an infield bouncer which he easily legged out. Although a right-hand hitter, Clemente more often than not gets his hits in the opposite field, and his latest blockbuster was no exception. It landed high in the right field second deck. “I try to go to right field most of the time because the pitchers pitch me outside,” said Roberto. “Sutton throws me a fastball low and outside, so I go after it, although I didn’t know it was going to go that far. But I can go the other way if I get my pitch. Maybe you remember the ball I hit into the left field light tower here against the Dodgers a few years ago. It went out pretty good.” We remembered very well that it went out just like he said it did."

"Clemente gives equal credit to javelin throwing and his mother for his unmatched arm, the most deadly since of the Dodgers was gunning down unwary baserunners. It was also his mother who once threatened to burn Roberto’s bat as punishment because he was so preoccupied with baseball at times that he wouldn’t eat his black beans and rice. But she didn’t burn it, after all, an act of compassion for which the pitchers’ union never will forgive her, and Roberto eventually became a $100,000-a-year slugger – perhaps the best hitter in the game today. captured the American League’s triple crown last season and the lifetime averages of Aaron (.317) and Oliva (.318) topped Clemente’s .310 career mark. But for sheer consistency since this decade began, none has even approached Clemente’s accomplishments. Clemente won batting championships in 1961-64-65 and looks like a shoo-in again at the rate he is going. He is the only player in either league who has hit above .300 every year since 1960. His seasonal marks of .314, .351, .312, .320, .339, .329 and .317 average out at .326. Aaron batted above .300 in five of the last seven campaigns while averaging .301. While topping .300 in four of the last seven seasons, Robinson averaged a modest .290 for that span. The only lifetime .300 hitters in the American League are Oliva (.318), Mickey Mantle (.305), (.304) and Robinson (.304), and they aren’t remotely close to Clemente for consistent base hit production since he shifted into high gear seven years ago. Clemente, a compact 175-pounder who can go the late one better by hitting with both feet in the bucket, gives no indication of slowing down, although he will be 33 on Aug. 18. Not, that is, unless his mother impulsively uses his Louisville Slugger for kindling wood. And that’s not about to happen when her son earns as much money as the President of the United States."