Clemente: The Passion And Grace Of Baseball's Last Hero (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Roberto Clemente was a legendary ballplayer - a .317 career batting average, 3000 hits, four N.L. batting titles, twelve gold gloves, 1966 National League MVP, 1971 World Series MVP, and the first Latino elected to the Hall of Fame. Impressive as these statistics and facts may be, they cannot capture Roberto's greatness. To try to capture Clemente this way, David Maraniss writes, "is like chemists trying to explain Van Gogh by analyzing the ingredients of his paint. Clemente was art, not science...it was hard to take one's eyes off him". Maraniss' new biography of Clemente, (the first since shortly after he died) captures the many facets of this complex man who truly did live his life both on and off the diamond with passion and grace.Where the earlier Clemente biographies, written shortly after his death, were little more that tributes and eulogies for the fallen hero, Maraniss writes of the man in all his complexity, and though he deservedly calls him a hero, he does not treat him as a saint. Notoriously thin skinned and prickly, Clemente had a career-long feud with the press. Though it was aggravated by the racism of the time, (Clemente was infuriated when the press would quote his interviews using phonetic spelling to capture his accent) and the language barrier, his sensitive personality, often perceiving slights where they were not intended, was equally to blame. He was obsessed with his health and ailments, complaining constantly about his pain, and some accused him of being a goldbricker and a hypochondriac, yet he seemed to play at his best when in his greatest pain, and ended his career breaking the record for most games played in a Pirates uniform. He constantly and vociferously complained about how he did not get the recognition that he deserved, and played every game like it was the seventh game of the World Series.Clemente was baseball's last hero, not just for his greatness on the field, but for his life off the baseball diamond. He constantly (and quietly) visited children in hospitals throughout his career, both in the states, and in his beloved Puerto Rico. He dreamed of building a sports city for the children of Puerto Rico (a dream fulfilled after his death). He paved the way for Latin players in the major league, and mentored many of them throughout his career. He once said, "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", and he lived by that line. And of course, he died a hero's death, attempting to bring aid to victims of Nicaragua's earthquake. Steve Blass, Clemente's teammate, put it best - "The rest of us were just players - Clemente was a prince."Maraniss has written a worthy biography that is more than just a sports book. The incredible character that Clemente was - the passionate grace with which he lived his life, and the heroic way in which he lost it should interest even those only marginally interested in baseball. I highly recommend it to all.
Clemente, by David Maraniss, is an excellent biography of Roberto Clemente. I have admired Roberto Clemente since I was a child and I still believe he was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. I was a hugh baseball fan (Pirates fan) from about age 8 through my 20s. I was lucky enough to see Clemente play at Forbes Field a few times when my boys baseball program in Hollidaysburg, PA provided bus "field trips" to a game in Pittsburgh each summer. Later, during the first few years I was a undergraduate student at Pitt, I attended many Pirate games where we sat in the bleacher seats in left field for a few dollars. Forbes Field was on the Pitt campus during those years. In July 1970, the Pirates moved to Three Rivers Stadium and I attended a few games there although it was more expensive and not as convenient. I wore Clemente's number when I played VFW baseball as a teenager. I was still a student at Pitt in the Fall of 1971 when the Pirates won the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles on October 17th in Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and I was part of a huge celebration that filled the streets of Pittsburgh. Clemente was voted Most Valuable Player for that World Series. Unfortunately, I could not afford to attend any of those series games. This book reveals many details about Clemente's personal life as well as providing much detailed information about his eighteen seasons in the major league. Each season is covered including details about significant individual games. I particularly enjoyed the coverage of information about Clemente's relationships with other Pirate players, with Bob Prince (the voice of the Pirates), and with the sports press, who often misinterpreted his pride in himself, his race and his country. Also, it was great to read the detailed coverage of every game of the 1960 and 1971 World Series when the Pirates prevailed to become World Champions. Of course the tragic end of Clemente's life on December 31, 1972 due to the unethical and careless business practices of the air freight company and the failure of FAA safety policies and procedures brought back sad memories of Momen. However he died a hero's death in an attempt to help the people of Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake.
What do You think about Clemente: The Passion And Grace Of Baseball's Last Hero (2006)?
You’re reading a story and you already know the ending. This is what I kept thinking about David Maraniss’ outstanding biography of the Pittsburg Pirate who had 3,000 hits, won 2 World Series, collected 6 or 7 silver sluggers for the highest batting average, was unmatched then and now for outfield assists, and had a hitting steak in 14 straight world series games. I kept wanting to luxuriate in the rich descriptions of the series wins in 1960 and 1971. The little baseball nuggets – like the fact that Elroy Face on that first series winning team was basically a 2 to 3 inning closer before pitchers were ever called closers, or the same Branch Rickey who brought Jackie Robinson to the majors in the 1940s also took Clemente from the Dodgers in probably the most lucrative Rule-5 draft in history – were to be savored. But eventually I knew that Maraniss had to get on with it and describe Clemente’s fateful humanitarian mission headed to Nicaraguan earthquake victims with an awful plane, awful pilot, and too much cargo in 1972. The details of the author’s description of this fateful event are just heartbreaking. But, getting to know Roberto Clemente better was well worth it for this big-time baseball geek.
—Nick Mann
I wanted to read about Roberto Clemente after he was mentioned in a Freakonomics episode about how we speak of the dead. Clemente was used an example of a man who may have been complicated in life, but became sanctified in memory because of his death in the service of humanity. Freakonomics suggested that perhaps Clemente was not really such a great baseball player, or perhaps great at times, but not putting in 100% all the time. The Clemente of Maraniss's book was a great ball player all the time. He "ran like he had been set on fire by the flames of hell." He got hits on bad pitches. Balls dropped from the air into his basket glove, and he fired them strait and true to where they needed to be. It is mentioned that he was accused of being a hypochondriac, but Maraniss explains that he suffered some severe and legitimate medical problems, including a car accident that gave him chronic back pain, and a bout with malaria that weakened him. Maraniss's Clemente is complicated in other ways, though. He smoldered with resentment at slights real and imagined. He bristled against sportswriters. He felt unappreciated. He once inexplicably slugged an autograph seeker, knocking three of his teeth loose. And yet, he was a devoted friend, and always cared about helping poor people. His death while bringing relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims is inspiring, but it is also maddening. The affair was a perfect storm of incompetence. The plane was unsafe. The crew was inexperienced. The plane was overloaded. Clemente shook hands, asked no questions, and said, "They know what they are doing." If he had hired a reputable carrier, he probably would have lived. It was very sad. His desire to help was admirable, and an example for us all, but a touch of worldly cynicism in the process would have gone a long way. But overall, Maraniss argues that Clemente deserves his reputation both as a great ball player and a great man.
—Cheryl Gatling
This story is a non fiction book about Roberto Clemente who was a baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente changed the face of baseball because he was Puerto rican and there were not many of Puerto Ricans in baseball at the time. He proves to everyone that he deserved to be in the major leagues. He was also a very charitable person donating his time and money to foundations.The story was told through the passion of Roberto Clemente and how he overcomes the racism of the baseball league and the pressure of other peopleI gave this book 4 stars because it was an outstanding book telling about his life from a young boy in Puerto Rico to moving to America and becoming a baseball player. It tells about his difficulties and pressure being a Puerto Rican in a major sports team. But i didn't really learn to much about his early life, but i did learn that he was an outstanding baseball player and had a great career but also was a great person outside of baseball helping other people and donating to charites. He even flew supplies to Puerto Rico were a devestating earthquake happened.My favorite quote from this book was "Thats the great thing about this organization is even though i came from a different back round my teammates really treated like ive been on the team for years." I like this quote because everyone was mean to him because of his race but his teammates didn't see that they saw that he was a great player and he deserved to be in the majors
—Michael Kjeldsen
