Today's post is about a very special ballplayer. This person is one of the most inspirational, famous, and well-liked baseball players of all time. He is in the Hall of Fame and has an award in the MLB named after him that is given every year to the most charitable player on and off the field (it was recently awarded to Dodgers pitching ace Clayton Kershaw). I think you all know who this person is: Roberto Clemente.
Besides probably being one of the most charitable athletes in history, there's a reason Clemente is in the Hall of Fame. In his career from 1955-1972 with the Pirates, he went to 15 All-Star Games, won the Gold Glove Award for right field 12 times, and won the 1966 NL MVP Award. He was overshadowed by guys like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle, but nonetheless managed to get 3,000 hits in his career (exactly 3,000) and bat .317 lifetime. With his help, the Pirates won the World Series in 1960 against the Yankees and in 1971 against Baltimore, with him winning World Series MVP in '71. He remains the only player ever to hit a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam, which he did in a 9-8 win over the Cubs on July 25, 1956.
Going back to him being very charitable, during the off-season, Clemente was very involved in donating baseball equipment and food to those in need in Latin American countries. If he wasn't doing that, then he was holding baseball clinics for kids. Sadly, he died in 1972 at the young age of 37 because of a plane crash he was involved in while flying to Nicaragua to try to help survivors of a recent earthquake that struck the country. His body was never found. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame the following year in a special election, instead of the usual five year minimum wait.
So, what is the point of this post you ask? The point is that you should always try to keep things in perspective, not take things for granted and be charitable. A lot of people have had great suffering because of Hurricane Sandy and, if you aren't as bad off, then you should be thankful for what you have and try to help. Anyway, I hope you appreciated this post. Thanks for reading!
Roberto Clemente was afraid of the food and medical supplies landing in the hands of the black market and decided to take the supplies to Nicargua himself. The plane had trouble a couple of times before take-off but Clemente didn't want to cancel the trip. The rest, as they say, is history. And he hit his 3,000 hit off Jon Matlack of the NY Mets, if I'm not mistaken. What a ballplayer Roberto was!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I didn't know about the black market stuff but I did know about the plane not being so good. Thanks for the info.
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