Saluting Pittsburgh's finest

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 2008 by Richard E. Vatz, Lee S. Weinberg

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Clemente was a product of his time, of course, and his time in baseball from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s was a period of de jure racial discrimination--especially through the mid 1960s--and de facto discrimination for much of the rest of his career. He had to endure racial slights, including the inability to participate in many public events when the Pirates were in Florida for spring training, as well as a multitude of slights when he played in Pittsburgh. Highly relevant to him were the obvious racial differences in earning a place on the roster for blacks and Puerto Ricans, as well as the racial indignities evidenced by baseball writers who quoted his dialect disparagingly, as m "Let Me Peetch," a Pittsburgh paper's headline concerning Clemente's complaints about pitchers who too often tried to back him off the plate with hard inside offerings. More seriously, there were individuals such as Les Biederman, a Pittsburgh sportswriter, who lobbied against Clemente's winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award due to, Clemente felt, his being a dark-skinned Puerto Rican.

Sam Nover's interview show, "Nover One-on-One," provided one of the best sports interviews we ever have seen or heard. It was aired Oct. 8, 1972, and rebroadcast Jan. 1, 1973, immediately following the hero's death in an airplane crash after his brave effort to bring relief to the people of Nicaragua who had endured a devastating earthquake. One of the authors was involved in the genesis of that interview. He contacted Nover, a WIIC sports reporter, and suggested that he interview Clemente not primarily as a baseball star, but as an interesting person. Although Nover did not know the caller, he was receptive. "That's a great idea," he replied, and months later moderated the affecting talk.

Clemente the person

The conversation between Nover and Clemente was information-filled from beginning to end. What a pleasure it is to watch an interview which seeks to know a star. The reporter and Clemente discussed the latter's philosophies of life, his commitment to everyday people, and his difficulties dealing with prejudicial individuals in the space of his 18-year-career. He talked of discrimination when simply shopping for furniture, arguing plaintively that he just wanted to "be treated equally." He spoke of his closeness to the good American worker, and even though he was considered one of the best baseball players of all time, he particularly revered "honest work," saying that no one, including himself, ever should be ashamed to do "any job." He said he wanted his children to be good and decent people, and did not think it would benefit them to be rich. He also spoke of the lack of exposure he received being a Pittsburgh Pirate, in contrast to those who played in New York or Los Angeles.

The major memories of Clemente are baseball images that those who watch sports with any regularity have seen repeatedly: his great speed in the outfield and on the bases; his idiosyncrasies like the neck-twitching for a time before he walked up to the plate; his clutch bat that, in addition to the above-cited statistics, show his hitting in every World Series game in which he ever played; and, above all, his singularly great arm that had to be seen to be believed and which cannot be adequately summarized by statistics--that, by necessity, leave out all of the runners who did not take an extra base or score out of fear of being thrown out.