Andrew Conte - All About Roberto Clemente

All About

Roberto Clemente

Andrew Conte

All About Roberto Clemente
Copyright 2016 Andrew Conte

Published by Blue River Press
Indianapolis, Indiana
www.brpressbooks.com

Distributed by Cardinal Publishers Group
Tom Doherty Company, Inc.
www.cardinalpub.com

All rights reserved under International and
Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a database or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 9781681570891

eISBN: 9781681571065

Author: Andrew Conte

Series Editor: Charleen Davis

Editor: Dani McCormick

Interior Illustrator: Bryan Janky

Book Design: Dave Reed

Cover Artist: Jennifer Mujezinovic

Cover Design: David Miles

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

For John David

Roberto Clemente loved baseball
but didnt know his passion and courage
would change the game forever

All About

Roberto Clemente

Preface

Roberto Clemente often dreamed that he would die in a plane crash. The nightmares frightened him, but he could not let them stop him. He had too many things he wanted to do. He worried he would not have enough time.

Born on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in 1934, Roberto often felt like he had two strikes against him.

His skin was very dark at a time when many Americans treated people differently based on the color of their skin. Growing up, he thought of himself only as Puerto Rican. But when he arrived in the United States, people told him he was black. People who did not know anything about him were mean to him just because his skin looked dark to them. For the first time, Roberto started to see himself differently.

Like many people in Puerto Rico, Roberto grew up speaking Spanish. When he came to the United States, most Americans spoke only English. He could not communicate his feelings or even ask for directions or help. Worse, when he tried to speak English, many Americans made fun of the way he talked because they could not understand his thick accent. They laughed at how he misused words. Roberto felt isolated and lonely.

Puerto Rico, though small, was full of activity, talent, and beauty

When people misunderstood Roberto, he resolved to start speaking with his body. He could play baseball. Many said he played the game better than anyone they ever had seen. So while people made fun of Roberto for the color of his skin or the way he talked, he worked at playing the game the best that he could. He hit the ball farther. He ran the bases faster. When the ball came to him in right field, he would pick it up and throw it back harder than almost anyone. No one laughed at the way Roberto played baseball. Instead, they cheered for him and called out his name. Many of those who first had laughed at Roberto realized they had been wrong.

It was not enough to just play the game well. Roberto had been very poor as a child. Even as he started making money from baseball, Roberto remembered what it had been like on the island when he had to make his own baseball equipment from whatever he could find. He knew that many children back home still could not afford gloves, bats, and baseballs. He remembered that for some, it would be hard just to find enough to eat or a safe place to sleep at night.

As he started becoming a famous athlete, Roberto wanted to help others. He handed out money to people who needed it. He visited sick children in the hospital. He bought food and clothing for people who could not afford them. When he traveled home to his island of Puerto Rico, he worked hard to show the Puerto Ricans that he also had not forgotten them. He showed the people who laughed at him that they should treat others the way they wanted to be treated.

I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give, Roberto once said.

Maybe he really did know that he would not have much time.

Roberto was the Pirates star player, but he had to fight hard to get there

Chapter 1

Growing Up in Sugar

Roberto Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934, on the island of Puerto Rico. It takes a couple of hours to fly there from Florida, but the island is a part of the United States called a territory. Roberto was both American and Puerto Rican.

Puerto Rico is a US territory and one of the Carribean islands just southeast of Florida

He also had the last names of his father and motherClemente and Walkeralthough most people in the United States knew him only by his fathers name.

Robertos father, Melchor, carried a radio and a boxed lunch with him on his way to work in the fields where he earned less than $2 per day

Robertos father, Melchor Clemente, worked as a foreman in the sugar fields behind their house. Before the sun came up most mornings, Melchor woke up and started walking to work. He wore a straw hat and carried a transistor radio. Melchor was in charge of other workers and he made twice as much money, but he earned only about twelve dollars a week.

Robertos mother, Luisa Walker, worked at home. She sewed and made lunches for the workers in the sugar fields. She ran a small market out of the familys house, selling milk, flour, rice and eggs. Sometimes when she sold meat, Luisa would buy a beef carcass, throw it into a wheelbarrow and take it home to butcher into smaller pieces that could be sold. She had a very strong right arm.

Roberto was the baby of his family, five years younger than any of his siblings. He had two half-siblings, a brother and a sister, from his mothers first marriage before her husband died. Robertos half-brother, Luis Oquendo, was 18 years old when Roberto was born. When Luisa married Melchor, they first had three sons Osvaldo, Justino and Andres. Justino was six years older than Roberto and taught him how to play baseball. Roberto always told people later in life that his brother had been a better player but did not get the chance to play in the major leagues.

Robertos mother, Luisa, made and sold food to help make money for the large family

Roberto also had a sister, Anairis. When Roberto was just an infant, she died in a gasoline explosion near an outdoor stove. She was only five years old. Roberto did not remember her, but he often said that he felt her presence throughout his life.

Whenever someone asked him a question or wanted him to do some chore, Roberto would answer by saying, Momentito, or give me a moment. He said it so often that the children started calling him Momen and the name stuck.