84 years ago today, Roberto Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. 38 years and 135 days later, after a baseball playing career that would put him into the Hall of Fame, Clemente tragically died in a plane crash off the coast of San Juan.

While many revelers were partying a little after 9:00p on December 31, 1972, a cargo plane carrying Clemente and four other men took off, destined for Nicaragua. On December 23rd, the Nicaraguan city of Managua had been struck by a massive earthquake.

Clemente and the four others were on their way to the quake-stricken city to deliver medicine and food. He died 92 days after his 3,000th and final regular season hit.

Cooperstown Cred: Roberto Clemente (1955-1972, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates)

  • Career: .317 BA, 240 HR, 1,305 RBI, 1,416 Runs, 3,000 Hits
  • Career: 94.5 WAR (Wins Above Replacement), 130 OPS+ (adjusted for ballparks and playing era)
  • 12-All Star seasons (selected to 15 teams, 2 per season from 1960-62)
  • 1966 N.L. MVP: .317 BA, 29 HR, 119 RBI, 105 Runs, 202 Hits, 146 OPS+, 8.2 WAR
  • Led the N.L in batting 4 times
  • 12-time N.L. Gold Glove Award winner
  • 254 career assists: 2nd most all-time for MLB right fielders
  • Career: 204 “Total Zone Fielding Runs Above Average” (per Baseball Reference), most ever for RF
  • Won 2 World Series (1960 & 1971) with the Pittsburgh Pirates
  • MVP of the 1971 World Series (.419 BA, .452 OBP, .759 SLG, 2 HR, 4 RBI)

(cover photo: baseballhall.org)

I never saw Roberto Clemente play. I was 5 years old in his last MLB season (1972) and didn’t start watching baseball until 1975. All I knew about the Great One was that he was one of the greatest players who ever lived, particularly with the leather. People who watched Clemente play called him the greatest right fielder they ever saw. The strength of his arm was legendary.

This throw in Game 6 of the 1971 World Series was probably the first highlight clip I ever saw of Clemente. He was 37 years old when he made that throw. It was his second to last MLB season and, as the MVP of that Fall Classic, it cemented his legend.

Clemente led the Pirates to the post-season 4 times in his 18-year career, winning the ’60 and ’71 World Series with the team. In his final post-season appearance, a 5-game NLCS loss to Cincinnati, Clemente hit a solo home run in Game 4, the second to last game he ever played.

In part because Clemente died while on a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua, the Commissioner’s Award (presented since 1971) was renamed the Roberto Clemente Award in 1973. The annual award honors the player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.”

Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe, in his JAWS system, ranks Roberto Clemente as the 6th best right fielder in history (behind Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mel Ott and Frank Robinson). It’s nice when a player’s reputation from years past is validated by modern sabermetrics. If you do a Play Index search on Baseball Reference for “WAR Runs from Fielding” for right fielders, Clemente is on top of the list.

Although he wasn’t a base stealer (83 career SB), Clemente was an outstanding base-runner and ranks 13th in the base-running component of WAR for right fielders, thanks to his 56% rate of extra bases taken.

As a hitter, Clemente wasn’t an all-time great but his 130 OPS+ means that he was 30% better than average when it comes to getting on base and slugging. Clemente wasn’t a big home run hitter (240 HR), he hit 440 doubles and 166 triples; that’s the most three-baggers for any player in all of baseball since World War II.

Normally a player must wait five years after their final season to be considered for the Hall but, in the case of The Great One, an exception was made. He was inducted in a Special Election in March 1973, the first Latin-American player so enshrined.H

Roberto Clemente Links:

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2 thoughts on “Roberto Clemente: The Great One”

  1. I not only had the pleasure of seeing Clemente play, I actually met him. I’m a bit vague on the details because I was in grade school, maybe 7 or 8 years old. Clemente had a relative who worked at PS 61, downtown Manhattan where I attended, so he came to visit us during an auditorium assembly. Quite an event, though I had just recently started following baseball, so it didn’t impact me as much as others in my school, for whom Clemente was a great source of national pride. (Although I am not PR, everyone thought I was growing up, and also my daughters turned out to be 50% PR!)

    I wasn’t until later, witnessing the utter devastation of the Puerto Rican community, did I realize how much the man was beloved by his people. I’m certain that if it were up to the PR people, they’d canonize him.

    What has impressed me about the PR people is how Clement, a Black man, who faced Jim Crow era discrimination once he came to the Mainland States (which confused and disturbed him) nonetheless became the most admired and famous PR of all time despite his skin color.

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  2. I never understood why Jay Jaffe considers Stan Musial a right fielder. Musial played more games at both First Base and Left Field than he played in Right Field. So if you remove Musial, Clemente is really the 5th greatest RF of all time (by Jay Jaffe’s system).

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