Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente was born on August 18, 1934 in San Antón, Puerto Rico. His parents were Don Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker. Roberto was the youngest of seven siblings, five brothers and two sisters. During his childhood, his father was a foreman at the sugar fields in the area. Since the family didn’t make much money, Roberto worked with his dad in the fields. Roberto Clemente started liking baseball when he was young and he usually played with the neighborhood teams. He attended Vizcarondo High School in Carolina. During his first year in high school, he was watched and later recruited by Roberto Marin so he could play softball with the Sello Rojo team after Marin saw Clemente playing baseball in San Antón. He was with the team for two years playing as a shortstop. Roberto Clemente joined Puerto Rico's amateur league when he was only 16 years old. He ended up playing for the Ferdinand Juncos team. Clemente's professional baseball career began when Pedrín Zorilla offered Clemente, who was 18 at the time, a contract with the Cangrejeros de Santurce, which was a winter league team and franchise of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League (LBBPR). He sat on the bench for his first year but he was later promoted to the Santurce Cangrejeros starting lineup the next season. While Clemente was playing in the LBBPR, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract. Roberto ended up signing the contract on February 19, 1954 and moved to Montreal to play for the Montreal Royals. Clyde Sukeforth, who was a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, noticed that Clemente was being used as a bench player for the Royals and talked to him about being drafted to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The pirates selected Clemente as the first round draft pick on November 22, 1954 and Roberto played for them for 18 years before finally retiring. On December 23, 1972 the capital city of Nicaragua was affected by an earthquake and Roberto was offering help. He was on one of the planes that went