I remember where I was when I heard the news about his death... I would have been 11 and a several of my 100's of baseball cards had Clemente on them, but they were always held in a special place apart from the other cards. I grew up with the Astros and was even an Astro Buddy back then, but Clemente was my favorite player for no other reason than he was Roberto Clemente. Saw him play once in the Dome... I was a kid and I was far away, but I swear he smiled the whole game. Here's a good piece...
RC was a great story. it's a shame that all you hear now is about is athletes who do drugs and beat their wives...
Clemente was my favorite player also. Cedeno was 2nd. I remember the front page of the Chronicle, "Clemente Killed In Plane Crash". It hurt a lot. Saw him play in the Dome in 1971. He hit a triple and I watched his arms and legs go all over the place. He certainly had a unique style of running.
Roberto Clemente is a GOD up here in Pittsburgh. There's a big statue of him outside of PNC park, and any time you talk about baseball here, the locals always bring up Clemente, and what a great player, and an even better person, he was. In Pittsburgh, it's all about Roberto Clemente and Jerome Bettis, 1 and 2.
I saw him play in the Dome as well, and remember when he was killed. He was a great man who died helping people from his homeland after a devastating earthquake. I do not believe he broke down as many racial barriers as Jackie Robinson, but he is certainly a great role model for all human beings, not just Latino professional baseball players.
CMU -- glad to see there's another Clutchfan up here! I've been meaning to go by Duquesne to see the campus. I've seen Pitt, Carlow, CMU, and Robert Morris U. Maybe I'll do that sometime soon.