Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente was born on August 18, 1934, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He was the youngest child in a big family, and his father worked in the sugarcane fields. As a boy, Roberto had one dream: he wanted to play baseball.

In 1955, he started to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He didn't speak much English, and some reporters made fun of his accent. Some people treated him badly because he was Black and Latino. But Roberto didn't give up. He worked hard, he learned English, and he spoke up when Latino players were treated unfairly.

Soon he was one of the best players in baseball. He had one of the strongest arms in the game. He won twelve Gold Glove awards for his defense. In 1971, the Pirates won the World Series, and Roberto was named the most valuable player of the series.

On September 30, 1972, he hit a double in Pittsburgh. It was his 3,000th hit. Only ten players in history had reached that number before him. He was the first Latin American player to do it. It was also his last hit in a regular-season game.

Roberto cared about people outside baseball, too. He often visited sick children in hospitals, and he gave free baseball classes to kids in Puerto Rico.

In December 1972, a terrible earthquake hit Managua, Nicaragua. Roberto collected food, water, and medicine and sent it on planes. Then he heard that some of the help wasn't reaching the people. So he decided to go himself. On December 31, 1972, his plane left San Juan full of supplies. A few minutes later, it crashed into the ocean. His body was never found. He was thirty-eight.

In 1973, Roberto Clemente became the first Latin American player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. That same year, Major League Baseball gave his name to its prize for players who help their communities. Today, the Roberto Clemente Award is one of the biggest honors in the game.