The Houston Astros' visit to Pittsburgh afforded a chance to visit the Roberto Clemente...
Susan Wagner’s statue of Pirates great Roberto Clemente stands outside the center-field entrance at the Roberto Clemente Bridge outside PNC Park in Pittsburghgrew up with a mythical understanding of Roberto Clemente, one of baseball’s most influential Latino players. His untimely death did not allow Peña or players of his generation a greater appreciation for Clemente and his humongous influence around the sport and his home country of Puerto Rico.
“I never actually knew his story. I just knew about him, how great he was in the sport and how he was an even better person off the field,” Peña said on Tuesday afternoon. “But I never knew his story for real. Going in there and hearing everything — how he came up, how he got into the big leagues, what he did on and off the field, how he passed away — it made me feel more of a connection.”
Clemente played his entire 18-year career in Pittsburgh. He made 15 All-Star teams, won 12 Gold Glove Awards and, in 1971, became the first Latino position player to win a World Series MVP. Clemente finished with exactly 3,000 hits — a fact Peña only found out during Tuesday’s tour — and was revered throughout the sport for his charitable work.
At 38, Clemente died in a plane crash while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. The Clemente Museum has pieces of the airplane he flew on that day and, according to Peña, told the team during its tour that Clemente had a fear of flying and airplanes. “Being able to keep his story alive and show the younger guys what kind of person he was, what kind of player that he was, how much stuff that he did for the community, I think it was a great opportunity to be a part of that,” Maldonado said.Maldonado appreciated that so many of Houston’s younger Latino players made the trip on Tuesday.
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