Roberto Clemente in his 1964 Topps Giants Card photo with the Pittsburgh Pirates (sportsmemorabila.com file photo)

Roberto Clemente #21 should be retired

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

Although he was not the first Hispanic to play major league baseball, Roberto Clemente remains the most famous among all born in Latin America to play in the best baseball league in the world, and definitely the most historic figure.

There is only one number that was retired by all teams, and that was Jackie Robinson’s #42 in 1997. In Pittsburgh, were he played for his whole 18 year Hall of Fame career, there is a bronze statue of him at PNC Park and even the six street bridges, which is now the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Now, there are many statues of players, but how many do you know have a bridge with his name?

Just like Robinson, Clemente played under a lot of discrimination. Clemente also met racism in many forms, unlike Jackie Robinson, because, Clemente (from Puerto Rico) aside from the color of his skin, also had to fight his language and culture.

Many believed Clemente suffered more than Jackie Robinson. Because of his language barrier, Clemente was misquoted frequently, something he detested. Towards the end of his career, in the early 1970’s, as I was at Candlestick Park writing for El Mundo News, a Post Group publication Clemente’s Pirates team was facing the Giants and after he struck out, I heard somebody inside that press box shout “send him back in a banana boat!.”

Clemente was involved in charity. He chartered a plane from San Juan, Puerto Rico, filled with help for the suffering people of Managua, Nicaragua. It was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that killed thousands. Clemente’s DC-3 airplane crashed north of San Juan on December 31, 1972. His very last hit was his 3,000 hit during his final at bat on September 30, 1972.

To the credit of Major League Baseball since 1973, one year after his disappearance, the Roberto Clemente Award (once the Commissioners Award) is given to the player in every team that exemplifies sportsmanship, community involvement and contributions to his team. And at the end one player among all 30 nominated wins the award.

Roberto Clemente was a quiet man. A professional baseball player with innate talent, a proud man, respectful of everybody regardless of race or nationality and most of all, he loved the game of baseball. The field was his canvas, and he could do anything on a baseball field. He died helping people in another country, not his own. In today’s narcissistic society, more men like Roberto are needed; these are the role models our youth need.

Many players born in Puerto Rico, like Candido (Candy) Maldonado, Rubén Sierra have told me they only wanted to wear “el número 21″for Roberto. But he is not only a national hero in Puerto Rico; his name is known internationally, especially in Latin America where more and more players are coming from to play in the United States.

The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame, since it was founded in 1998 has exhibited in numerous events across the country, All Star Games, Fan Fest and Museums and community events. There is no one player more popular than Roberto Clemente. During one of our exhibits at the San Francisco Main Library, we saw a man that was kneeling and praying in front of the Clemente exhibit. I asked him about that and he told me “I am Puerto Rican and he is like a God to us. His body was never recovered, but we know he is here with us”.

With the ever increasing demographics in the US which all point that in a few decades half of the US population could be Latino, not to mention the players coming from Latin America, baseball would be wise to retire number 21.

Eventually baseball will retire Roberto Clemente’s famous “número 21”. But why not now?

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com