Roberto Clemente: A Humanitarian For All

In addition to being among the all-time best professional baseball players, Roberto Clemente was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973 as the first enshrined Latin American, which was one of many other prestigious awards that he received in his lifetime. In addition, his name is in cornerstones of hospitals, schools, and other public building as evidence of his great humanitarian accomplishments, charity works, and what were called “gifts from his heart” for the underprivileged in Puerto Rico, where he was born, and all of Latin America during his off-seasons.

As a philanthropist and teacher, he was not only generous with his finances, but he also shared gifts from his heart including chiropractic knowledge that he learned from his own 1954 back injury, and, with his love of children, he gave free lessons in baseball. For children from low-income families, Clemente held baseball clinics where he would spend his time educating and coaching kids in baseball.

Even in the last days leading up to Clemente’s death, he continued to give from the heart. After a devasting earthquake that occurred on December 23rd, Clemente wanted to aid the victims of Nicaragua. However, on December 31st, 1972, the plane carrying supplies and Clemente never made it to Managua, Nicaragua’s capital city due to a fatal crash.

Before his death, Clemente planned to build a sports center for kids near his Puerto Rican boyhood home as a place where children could learn to play sports and how to become good citizens. His wife, Vera, made that dream come true, and now over 100,000 children enjoy the Roberto Clemente Sports City every year.

In 1998, a cenotaph in bronze by José Buscaglia placed at the Roberto Clemente Municipal Sports Complex in Carolina honors Clemente as a Son of Carolina, Philanthropist, Exemplary Citizen, and Hero of the Americas and the World. Although cenotaphs are usually funerary monuments that are dedicated to heroes whose bodies were not recovered from battlefields, this work honors Clemente’s wish to “want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give.”

His Pittsburgh Pirates Minor League team started a “Roberto Clemente Day of Giving” in his honor. That day introduces people to local charities, food and clothing are collected for people in need, raffle tickets are sold to support the charity fund, and team players who served the community receive awards. Players complete a minimum of 10 hours of volunteer work for the Pirates Community Commitment Program.

Originally published at bobkleinnewportbeach.wordpress.com on September 19, 2018.