Roberto Clemente

One of my heroes is Roberto Clemente. He was born on August 18, 1934. He grew up in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He helped his dad with their farm. He was the youngest of the seven children. He loved baseball even as a kid. Every day he would play baseball. He would use some empty coffee bags as the bases and an old ball made of rags. Sometimes baseball got on his mom’s nerves and she burned his bat but Roberto got it before it burned completely.

When he first played in the majors, he was playing with the Santurce Cangrejeros. Then in 1954 Roberto signed his second contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Manager of the Dodgers paid him $5,000 a year and a $10,000 bonus. In the same year the Pittsburgh Pirates bought his contract. Roberto played eighteen seasons with the Pirates.

Roberto Clemente was awarded the MVP Award in 1966. For his career, he had a batting average of .317, he hit 240 home runs and he also had 3000 hits. He had 12 Glove Awards from 1961 to 1972. He had 12 All-Star appearances. He also had four NL Batting Championships in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967.

When an earthquake hit Nicaragua, Roberto was really sad. He wanted to do something to help the people who were affected. He delivered supplies and medicine and other stuff. When he found out that someone had been stealing the supplies he decided to go on one of the planes that was delivering them. When the plane was taking off, it crashed about five miles off the shore. His body was never found. Many people were standing on the shore to see if they could find his body. They never did.

In 1973 he was voted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. He became the first Latino to get chosen for this honor. He became known as the greatest Latino baseball player. He’s my hero not just because he was a great baseball player, but because he helped others in their time of need.