#21 - Not Just a Number In Pittsburgh

An Iconic Image of the Great #21

I remember being in 6th grade and having to select a person that was influential in our society to base a small research paper around.  I thought about choosing a president...no, I've never been into politics too much.  How about a local legend?  No, there really weren't many of great significance where I grew up.  Then it hit me...I asked myself "What do you love the most?"  The answer was easy and obvious - "Sports, especially the Pittsburgh Pirates!"  My favorite player at the time was Andy Van Slyke, but I don't think Van Slyke would have been a great choice as an "influential person" in our society.  I kept thinking, and then I remembered...#21.  Yes, Roberto Clemente.  I rushed to my Middle School's media center and grabbed a book that I'd read twice already off the shelves: "The Life of Roberto Clemente".  It was one of those typical books in Middle School libraries.  Huge print, easy to read, only about 35 pages, but it gave me all the fodder I would need to construct my 6th grade masterpiece.  As I read each page again as if it were my first time reading it, I was struck by how influential this man was.  Not just to the Pirates, to Pittsburgh, or even to the sport of baseball, but to people around the world.

Yesterday was Roberto Clemente Day, and the Pirates honored Andrew McCutchen with their "Clemente Award" before the game.  A very fitting honor for a man that doesn't just live for baseball...as did Roberto.  After that report I became infatuated with Roberto Clemente.  I read more books and any chance I had to choose my own number I chose #21.  There were so many things that I liked about Clemente.  I loved how he was one of the most complete players to ever play baseball.  He could hit, he could run, he had an unbelievable arm, and fielding was no weakness.  I enjoyed reading about how he was the ultimate competitor and showed up big in big games.  He was everything that I strived to be as a baseball player.  Turns out, what Roberto Clemente taught me was more about life than it was baseball.  The more I learned, the more I learned that Clemente should be known as a humanitarian as much as he was a baseball legend.  He used his fame on the diamond to help others.  Everyone knows now that he was traveling to deliver first aid supplies to Nicaragua after an earth quake devastated the country when his plane crashed and he perished.  This was just one way that Clemente made an impact as a humanitarian.  Many books have been written, and more could be written, about Clemente the person.  He was the epitome of how a star should use his status to make the world a better place.

What I took away from Roberto Clemente that still sticks with me to this day, is not so much how he died, but what it meant to me.  I wasn't even born on that New Years Eve in 1972 when Clemente's plane went down and no one ever found his body.  The one thing that I learned from Clemente's life was how you just never know whats going to happen.  I keep the above photo of Roberto on my computer's desktop at work.  Every time I see it, I think to myself...you just never know when its all going to be over.  Any Pittsburgh Pirates fan that has done his/her homework knows that the photo was taken as Clemente hit a double...his 3,000th hit.  It wasn't just his final hit, it was his final at bat, and it all ended that December.  Clemente had years left in his life, not only as a baseball player, but as a husband and a father, and it was taken away.  Yesterday, the Pirates and MLB honored Roberto Clemente, but we all should remember him and what he stood for...every day.

Clemente's Career Statistics:
.317 BA / 240 HRs / 621 RBIs / .475 SLG / 1416 Runs / 3000 Hits