Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Today’s Video: Ballplayer, pioneer, humanitarian

This week’s video theme of notable Puerto Rican figures continues with undoubtedly one of the greatest Latino baseball players of all time: Roberto Clemente.

The outfielder played eighteen years with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a career filled with honors including twelve Gld Gloves and two Worlfd Sreies titles. Due to his being a dark-skinned Latino, Clemente faced the same racism and vitriol aimed at African-American ballplayers. Through it all Clemente forged ahead and even reached the 3000 hit plateau in his final regular season at-bat.

Clemente spent most of his off-season doing charity work and it was this humanitarian spirit that led him to help Nicaraguan earthquake victims in December 1972. Tragically, he died on New Year’s Eve of that year as a passenger of a plane overloaded with relief supplies. About six months after his passing, Clemente became the first Latin American ballplayer to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Clemente’s legacy lives on today as one can see in this video clip:

Online Sources- Baseball Hall of Fame, YouTube, The Latin Americanist

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akau said...
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