One of the most special players in baseball history: Who is Roberto Clemente?

A guy who once made exactly three triple-1s in one game. I mean, it is so difficult to do this... Especially if we are talking about the American Major League, where the best are... This is such a rare event. He was the National League's batting leader for four years in the '60s. He had 12 Golden Gloves. He was the MVP of '66 and the '71 World Series. He was an all-star 16 times. He had a flashy career and a fancy game. He could hit, no doubt: He had a unique striking style. He used to run: When he started running, his cap flew off his head, slowly. He used to throw: He had an arm comparable to a thrower's. There was something magical about him: once you were caught, you were hooked.

I started this article with enthusiasm, hoping to write another legend, not Babe or Wilt. I don't remember now how I was able to meet him and become his fan. He was far from me both in time and in space. Moreover, he was a representative of a completely different sport. But I still feel close to him and that's why I call him Momen. Just like his family and his neighborhood friends in Carolina said... Later, there would be people in America who called him Momen. According to them, this was a very suitable nickname for Roberto. Because he was a man of "moments", and unforgettable moments, and "momen" means "moments" in English.

The British or Americans translate this saying as "Just a moment, just a moment..." This statement and nickname suit him very well. If we consider that he waited hundreds or even thousands of times until the right moment to swing his stick. That's why it can be said that he infuriated his friends. Or should we say, his family? Because, as befits a Latin family - although not as large as the Buendia family in One Hundred Years of Solitude - he had a large family, perhaps enough to establish a baseball team: the Clemente Walker family.

There is a tradition in Puerto Rico that children take both their mother's and father's surnames, but they are usually known by their father's surname.

Roberto Clemente is saddened to know that he lost his older sister when he was a child. She was burned in a kitchen accident and passed away when her wounds did not heal. However, he had three full brothers and three half-siblings from his mother Luisa's first marriage. In other words, his nuclear family amounted to the nine people required for a baseball team.

Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. After his early and sudden death, the National Baseball Hall of Fame changed its rules so that a player who had been dead for at least six months would be eligible for entry. In 1973, Clemente was posthumously inducted, becoming the first Caribbean and the first Latin-American player to be honored in the Hall of Fame.

The rules in American games are, as you know, a bit tricky. It would be inappropriate to talk about these rules now. It changes at regular intervals anyway. There are big differences between the rules of that time and those of now. To summarize, though, if the Dodgers wanted to add Roberto Clemente to their Major team, they only had 1 year to do so. Otherwise, another team could have added Roberto to their team unconditionally.

That's exactly why they hid Roberto all the way to Montreal.

The instructions given to Montreal were clear. Roberto would be used as little as possible, hidden as much as possible, and anyone who asked would be told lies that his back was damaged, his arms were weak, whatever was necessary. No one could have known how interesting this situation would become for Roberto in the future.

Of course, how possible would it be to hide such an extraordinary treasure as Roberto Clemente? It didn't happen. Montreal had to use him against Syracuse. In his first attempt, Roberto hit 2 doubles2 and 1 home-run3.

Everyone knows that pirates are fond of treasures, seize the opportunity, and are skilled at finding hidden treasures. The Pittsburg Pirates seized the opportunity at the end of the season and drafted Roberto. The Pirates of the day were flashy losers. They were losing, losing, and losing again. Roberto was a promise to the Pirates of the period.

Roberto's Major League debut with the Pirates was against the Dodgers in his rookie season. Even then, his glorious number 21 jersey was not enchanted with immortality. He was wearing the famously unlucky number 13 jersey. Roberto had almost never been on good terms with the media. Racist discourse was very popular in America at the time. They fueled the Dodgers vs. Pirates rivalry with racist discourse, and even some of their teammates participated in this discrimination. His first years with the Pirates were quite difficult. As a Latin American, he had difficulty expressing himself because he spoke little English and because he was black because he was of African ancestry.

Although Puerto Rico's status was slightly different from that of other states, as a minority group, Puerto Ricans were little different from other X-Americans on the North American mainland.

After World War II, there was a large migration from Puerto Rico to America. Although this is a bit of an exaggeration, almost half of the population of the island of Puerto Rico had to migrate. The majority of this migration was to New York, which was becoming a center of attraction in every field at that time. Everyone knew that New York had been a city of gangs since the 19th century. Most of these gangs were separated and excluded based on their ethnicity.

Like every other Puerto Rican, naturally, Roberto Clemente was an American citizen and was eligible to serve in the American army. Roberto decided to enlist in the army at the end of the 1958 season. He was with his unit during the winter months of the 1958-59 season when other players continued to play in Puerto Rico.

I can tell you about the numbers. The numbers will tell you that the great athlete that is Roberto Clemente batted 9,454 times and drove in 1,305 runs during his Major League career. The numbers will put an exclamation mark of 3000 hits at the end of his career. This is really true. Roberto Clemente had 3000 hits. About three months before boarding the fateful plane to Managua during Christmas time, which connected the year 1972 to 73... About a week before he boarded the plane, that is, on December 23, one of the most devastating earthquakes that South America had ever seen occurred in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. . A few months before the earthquake, Roberto Clemente coached an all-star charity event in Managua.