Roberto Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Major League Baseball right fielder and right-handed batter. Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. On November 14, 1964 he married Vera Zabala at San Fernando Church in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The couple had three children, Roberto Jr., Luis Roberto and Enrique Roberto.

Clemente played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1955 to 1972, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was awarded the National League’s MLB Most Valuable Player Award in 1966. He was involved in charity work both in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, often delivering baseball equipment and food to them. He died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972 while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. His body was never recovered. He was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973 as the first Latin American to be selected, and the only exception to the mandatory five-year post-retirement waiting period since it was instituted in 1954.

Roberto was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, to Melchor and Luisa Clemente. He was the youngest of seven siblings, and had six brothers and a sister. During his childhood Don Melchor worked as foreman of the sugar crops located in the municipality. The family’s resources were limited and Roberto had to work to earn money, this work included delivering milk cans to the family’s neighbors. Clemente demonstrated interest in baseball early in his life, and would often play against neighboring barrios. He studied in Vizcarondo High School, a public school located in Carolina. During his first year in high school he was recruited by Roberto Marin, to play softball with the Sello Rojo team, Marin took interest in Clemente when he saw him playing baseball in Barrio San Anton. He was with the team two years, and played as shortstop. Clemente joined Puerto Rico’s amateur league when he was sixteen years old, there he played for the Ferdinand Juncos team which represented the municipality of Juncos.

Clemente’s professional career began when Pedrín Zorilla offered him a contract with the Santurce Crabbers of the LBBPR. He was a bench player during his first campaign, but was promoted to the team’s starting lineup on his second season. During this season he batted in the team’s lead off position and his average was .288. While Clemente was playing in the LBBPR the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract with the team’s Triple-A subsidiary. He then moved to Montreal to play with the Montreal Royals. The climate and language differences affected Roberto early on, but received the assistance of his teammate Joe Black who was able to speak Spanish. In 1954 Clyde Sukeforth a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, noticed that Clemente was being used as a bench player in the team and discussed with the team’s manager Max Macon the possibility of drafting Roberto to the Pirates. The Pirates went on to select Roberto Clemente as the first selection of the rookie draft that took place on November 22, 1954.

Clemente debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 17, 1955, in the first of a double header involving the Brooklyn Dodgers. At the beginning of his time with the Pirates he experienced frustration based on racial tension between him and some players in his team and the local media. Roberto responded to this by stating “I don’t believe in color” and noted that during his upbringing he was taught to never discriminate someone based on ethnicity.

During the middle of the season Clemente was involved in a car accident, this led to him losing several games with an injury in his lower back. He finished his rookie season with a average of .255, despite confronting trouble hitting certain types of pitches. However his defensive skills were highlighted during this season. During the off season Roberto played with the Santurce Crabbers, in the Puerto Rican baseball winter league where he was already considered a star.

While Clemente had begun to fulfill his potential, the Pirates continued to struggle through the 1950s, although they did manage their first winning season since 1948 in 1959. During the winter season of 1958-59 Clemente didn't play winter baseball in Puerto Rico; instead, he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. He spent six months in his military commitment at Parris Island, South Carolina, and Camp LeJeune in North Carolina. In Camp Lejeune he served as an infantryman. The rigorous training program helped Clemente physically. He added strength by gaining 10 pounds and said his back troubles had disappeared. He would remain in the reserves until September of 1964. In 1960, the team compiled a 95-59 record, a National League pennant, and seven-game World Series victory over the New York Yankees. Clemente batted .310 in the series, hitting safely at least once in every game. His .314 batting average, 16 home runs, and defense earned him his first trip to the All-Star game. Through the rest of the decade, Clemente firmly established himself as one of the premier players in baseball. For the rest of his career, he batted over .300 in every year save 1968, when he hit .291. He was selected to every All-Star game; and he was given a Gold Glove after every season from 1961 onwards. He led the National League in batting average four times (1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967), led the National League in hits twice (1964 and 1967), and won the Most Valuable Player award for his 1966 season, when he hit .317 while setting career highs in home runs (29) and RBI (119). In 1967 he registered a career high .357 average and scored twenty-three home runs and 110 runs batted in.

In 1971, the Pirates again won the National League pennant behind Willie Stargell's 48 home runs and Clemente's .341 batting average and faced the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Baltimore had won 100 games and swept the American League Championship Series, both for the third consecutive year, and were the defending World Series champions. Undaunted, Pittsburgh came back from down two games to none in the series to win it in seven for the second time in Clemente's career. He was the clear star of the series, with an incredible .414 batting average (12 hits in 29 at-bats), typically spectacular defense, and a crucial solo home run in the deciding 2-1 Game 7 victory. His efforts earned him the World Series MVP award.

Struggling with injuries, Clemente managed to appear in only 102 games in 1972, but still hit .312 for his final .300 season. On September 30 in a game at Three Rivers Stadium, he hit a double off Jon Matlack of the New York Mets for his 3,000th hit. It was the last at-bat of his career during a regular season, though he did play in the 1972 NLCS playoffs against the Cincinnati Reds. In the playoffs, he batted .235 as he went 4 for 17. His last game ever was at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium in the 5th game of the playoff series.

A hero in his native Puerto Rico, Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work.

When the city of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was reduced to rubble by a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who had been visiting Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake.

Clemente decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to quake survivors. But the airplane he chartered for a New Year's eve flight had a history of mechanical problems and sub-par flight personnel, and was overloaded by 5,000 pounds. It crashed into the ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972. A few days after the crash, the body of the pilot and part of the fuselage of the plane were found. An empty flight case apparently belonging to Clemente was the only personal item recovered from the plane. Teammate Manny Sanguillen, a catcher and Clemente's best friend, was the only member of the Pirates not to attend Roberto's funeral. He chose instead to dive into the waters where Clemente's plane had crashed in an effort to find his friend. Clemente's body was never recovered.

On March 20, 1973, the Baseball Writers Association of America held a special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame. They voted to waive the waiting period for Clemente, due to the circumstances of his death, and posthumously elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame, giving him 393 of the 420 available votes, or 92% of the vote. MLB presents the Roberto Clemente Award every year to the player who best follows Clemente's example with humanitarian work. Clemente was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1973, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. In 2003, he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame. On October 26, 2005, Clemente was named a member of Major League Baseball's Latino Legends Team. At the Major League Baseball All-Star game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 11, 2006 many of the players on both teams wore yellow wristbands with the initials "RCW" in honor of Clemente. At the end of the fourth inning, Clemente was awarded the Commissioner's Historical Achievement Award by the Commissioner of Baseball, given to his widow. At the moment of the award's presentation the Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig stated that: "Roberto was a hero in every sense of the word".

Puerto Rico has honored Roberto Clemente's memory by naming the coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico Coliseo Roberto Clemente and a baseball stadium in Carolina, Puerto Rico Roberto Clemente Stadium. Today this sports complex is called Ciudad Deportiva Roberto Clemente. In Pittsburgh, the 6th Street Bridge was renamed in his memory, and the Pirates retired his number 21 at the start of the 1973 season. The City of Pittsburgh maintains Roberto Clemente Memorial Park along North Shore Drive in the city's North Side. In 2007 the Roberto Clemente Museum opened in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh. Some schools such as the Roberto Clemente High School in Chicago, Illinois and the Roberto Clemente Charter School in Allentown, Pennsylvania were named in Clemente's honor.

On August 17, 1984, the day before what would have been his 50th birthday, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp honoring Clemente. Designed by Juan Lopez-Bonilla, the spare clean design shows Clemente wearing his Pirates cap, with the Puerto Rican flag in the background. In 1999, he ranked Number 20 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, the highest-ranking Latino player. Later that year, Clemente was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Clemente won twelve Gold Glove Awards for his defense, a record among outfielders, which he shares with Willie Mays. He recorded 269 outfield assists during his career. Roberto participated in his first World Series in (1960, when the Pirates won in seven games against the New York Yankees. Clemente was part of the Pittsburgh Pirates that won a seven-game World Series over the Baltimore Orioles in 1971. he was the team’s regular right fielder on both World Series, and was effective in the offensive aspect scoring at least one hit in all of the games. He is one of only four players (as of the end of the 2006 season) to have 10 or more Gold Gloves and a .300+ lifetime batting average. He is the only player to have ever scored a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam.

Long time broadcaster Tim McCarver calls Roberto Clemente "the greatest right fielder of all time".

* Roberto Clemente, Jr. * Players from Puerto Rico in MLB * List of famous Puerto Ricans * List of people who have disappeared * Top 500 home run hitters of all time * List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles * List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples * List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs * List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI * 3000 hit club * List of Major League Baseball batting champions * Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

* * * Latino Sports Legends * Society of American Baseball Research BioProject biography of Clemente