Sports History
Remembering Roberto
By Anne Madarasz

It is half a century since Roberto Clemente first suited up for the Pirates. When he first joined the team in 1955, he stood 5-foot-11 and weighed just 175 pounds, fairly lean by today's standards when baseball stars are both literally and figuratively larger than life. Physically, he didn't get much bigger in his 18 seasons with the Pirates, competing at 182 pounds in 1972, but he grew in stature with each passing year. For many, he is as big in memory as the bronze statue that honors him outside PNC Park, a memory still strong enough that he is known by just one name, "Roberto."

When Clemente came to Pittsburgh it was America's "steel city," a place where fumes and flames filled the skies across the region. With the city's population more than double the size of today, people's work, be it on the factory floor or in offices, revolved around the business of making things. Fans journeyed from communities up and down the rivers, and those close to town hopped trolleys for Forbes Field to root on fan favorite Ralph Kiner. After Kiner was traded in 1953, fans yearned for a new hero. Yet, they were slow to warm to Clemente - stymied by his accent and by cultural differences that fans and media seemed unable or unwilling to understand.

Gradually Clemente won Pittsburghers over. He roamed the cavernous outfield of Forbes Field at will, winning 12 Gold Gloves between 1961 and 1972. He was part of the legendary 1960 World Series championship, and captured the first of four batting titles in 1961. He was the National League's MVP in 1966.

On June 28, 1970, broadcaster Nellie King asked Clemente how many more years he wanted to play, and in an erringly prescient response Roberto answered, "I would like to play until I get to 3,000 hits..."

Before reaching that milestone, Clemente and the Pirates added another World Series in 1971, with Roberto named Series MVP. He finally collected No. 3,000 on September 30, 1972.

Just three months later Clemente was gone. He died tragically in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Pittsburgh was plunged into mourning.

In 1973, baseball's Hall of Fame bypassed the standard five-year waiting period and inducted Clemente. The first Latin American Hall of Famer, Clemente opened doors for those who came after him, while at the same time opening the hearts and minds of Pittsburghers and creating his legacy as the Great One.

Anne Madarasz is the Director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the History Center.

Through May 31, see Roberto Clemente's uniform and other artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution in a special traveling exhibit called "Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers."