BY RICH MANCUSO AND MATT GAGNE
New York Daily News
Tuesday, August 21st 2007, 11:19 AM
Julio Pabon's (r.) campaign to retire Roberto Clemente's 21 has garnered more than 10,000 signatures, including some from major league ballplayers.
Julio Pabon was in the press room at Yankee Stadium last week, wearing a yellow T-shirt with "Retire 21" emblazoned on the front and back.
"I get more commendations for that shirt than when I wear a shirt and tie," said Pabon, founder of Latino Sports Ventures, a Bronx-based marketing firm with an office and memorabilia shop on Grand Concourse, just a subway stop away from the hallowed grounds.
"Whenever I wear it, all types of people ask me where I got the shirt, or if there's a petition they can sign," Pabon added. "I like to wear whatever I can to spread the message."
The T-shirt is nothing without the slogan, which has been the rallying cry since July 2006 for a national campaign to have Major League Baseball retire Roberto Clemente's jersey number. Clemente, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Hall of Fame right fielder and the first Latin American inducted into Cooperstown, died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972, en route to Nicaragua to deliver aid to earthquake victims.
Pabon, coordinator of the "Going to Bat to Retire #21" campaign, said Clemente's legacy stands in contrast to today's game, which has become defined by corporations and controversy, and should be commemorated by the league.
"In today's world, everybody needs to see the type of person Clemente was," Pabon said. "(They need) to remember that there was a man who gave so much, who wasn't about the dollar sign, who was one of the best in the game, but still had the time for fans and the people ... He went out of his way to help people, not because he was told to it by an agent, or because there was a media relations asking him to do something."Pabon's push to retire Clemente's number began around last year's All-Star game in Pittsburgh and has continued as one of his business' pro-bono projects. The campaign is currently in its second phase, with a documentary - "The Legacy of 21" - being shown around the country; it debuted last November at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and will return to New York this fall for Hispanic and Puerto Rican heritage months.
The campaign's initial phase, circulating a petition, resulted in more than 10,000 signatures being collected, and support is starting to grow in major league clubhouses, with players making donations as Latino Sports Ventures gears up for the third phase - a final push to raise awareness beyond the Latino community.
"It will be a serious fundraising drive," Pabon said. "Taking out ads in major newspapers around the country, doing radio ads, posters, bumper stickers, the works - all promoting 'Retire 21'."
Further promotion aside, the idea has been discussed among major league executives and may be gaining traction.
"Major League Baseball continues the effort to retire the number of Roberto Clemente and the issue is under advisement," said Silvia Alvarez, MLB's Director of Multi Cultural and Charitable Communications, who added that the league supports Pabon's cause, and Clemente's legacy by giving an award each year in his name for sportsmanship and off-field efforts.
"I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to happen," Pabon said. "Not because of any overtures we're doing. It's going to happen because someone in Major League Baseball is going to wise up and realize this is good for baseball."
For Pabon, a 55-year-old Puerto Rican raised in the Bronx, "Retire 21" is more than a side project or publicity mechanism for his business.
It's not a political mission, he insists, or an effort to counter the recognition bestowed upon the late Jackie Robinson, who broke basesball's color barrier in 1947 and whose No. 42 was retired 50 years later. It's simply part of his worldview.
Take, for example, last Friday afternoon, just two days after Pabon strolled through Yankee Stadium in his "Retire 21" T-shirt. He is in a restaurant on 48th Street in Manhattan, emciing a luncheon to honor Magglio Ordonez, the Detroit Tigers right fielder, who was named the 2006 American League Comeback Player of the Year by Latino Sports Ventures and the Latino Sports Writers and Broadcast Association.
It is just one in a series of events honoring winners of the 2006 Latino/MVP awards, and a tradition that dates back to 1989.
"The concept is to recognize the contributions and talent of Latino ballplayers in the major leagues," said Pabon, who grew up in the South Bronx and was able to explain how far the Latino community has come.
"When I was a kid, to see a Puerto Rican flag? Forget it," he said. "You'd have to go look in an encyclopedia ... there were no positive role models."
The goal now? Give Clemente his due respect.
"What better way to remember him?" Pabon says of retiring No. 21. "Some people think it's going to be erased from baseball, but that's not the case. It's going to highlight it. Teams will put up a plaque somewhere at the stadium and kids will ask, 'Why can't anyone wear No. 21?' And they'll find out about a fantastic baseball player who was a great human being."
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