The foundation’s charitable works keep alive the spirit of one of Clemente’s sayings: “If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ bullpen has certainly done that in quite an innovative (if unusual) way: The green-thumbed group is growing a vegetable garden, apparently.

From Puerto Rico to Pittsburgh to Germany, there are schools, bridges, parks and ballfields named in his honor.įollowing Clemente’s death, the Puerto Rican government donated 304 acres near the barrio where the baseball star grew up to fulfill his dream of a sports complex. The Roberto Clemente Sports City has served more than one million children, including future major leaguers Bernie Williams, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Benito Santiago.Īs part of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Major League Baseball celebrates Roberto Clemente Day every September 15, and each year it hands out the Roberto Clemente Award to a player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.'Ĭlemente’s sons have continued their father’s charitable work through the Roberto Clemente Foundation, which provides disaster relief as well as baseball clinics and programs for disadvantaged youth. While baseball lost a star, the world lost a humanitarian. Clemente’s committee raised more than $150,000 in donations and collected 26 tons of food, clothes and medicine. Clemente used his fame to solicit donations on Puerto Rican television and door-to-door in wealthy neighborhoods. He worked 14-hour days, including Christmas Eve and Christmas, circling the island to stage local relief drives and conduct baseball clinics. We are all having the best time watching you' - Hollywood megastar. Instead of merely donating money, he tracked reports from the disaster scene on his ham radio and formed a relief committee to aid the quake-stricken country. New York Yankees vs Pittsburgh Pirates Odds, Lines, Picks, and Prediction - SeptemMLB Season. Even though the disaster happened in a country nearly 1,500 miles away from Puerto Rico, Clemente felt a sense of duty to help his fellow Latinos. Start the season off right with Pirates Opening Day.

It killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Experience Pirates baseball live from the ballpark all year long. Weeks after Clemente’s return to Puerto Rico, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, on December 23, 1972. “He and Vera would walk around each morning, and Roberto would just talk to children and ask what they had for breakfast and reach into his pockets to give them money.” Clemente even agreed to pay for a boy he befriended to travel to the United States to receive prosthetic legs. “He and Vera fell in love with Nicaragua, and Nicaragua fell in love with them,” Ruck says.

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