Baseball should retire Roberto Clemente's No. 21

By Ray Buck, FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/
Wednesday, July 18, 2010


Roberto Clemente's body was never recovered, but his legacies as a ballplayer and a humanitarian live on.

I'm not sure which one looms larger, at times.

Baseball's first Latin American superstar died on a mission of mercy in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico nearly 38 years ago.

He was proud, passionate, outspoken. He refused to ignore inequities and indignities around him. And not just those that pertained to baseball, either.

When relief aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims fell into corrupt hands shortly after a Christmas Day disaster in 1972, Clemente boarded a piston-powered aircraft filled with food, water and supplies and a promise to deliver them personally.

The plane climbed, banked once to the left, then went down in choppy waters less than two miles offshore. The wreckage wasn't found until the next day.

The pilot had tried to radio for help, but too late.

What isn't too late is for Major League Baseball to do the right thing and retire Clemente's No. 21. Jackie Robinson's No. 42 was retired by baseball in 1997.

These two men faced similar struggles against racial prejudice in a sport that was slow to make amends, finally did, and now has, what I believe to be, an obligation to display Nos. 42 and 21 side-by-side at every major-league ballpark.

Rangers president Nolan Ryan, in the late '60s, as a young pitcher for the New York Mets, struck out Clemente twice -- first looking, then swinging -- during a Sept. 14, 1969 game at Forbes Field.'

"I never really thought about it," Ryan said when asked about retiring No. 21 league-wide. "But I do think the impact Clemente had on the game, and the way his life ended, it's an interesting idea."

Would retiring Clemente's uniform number diminish Robinson's iconic status in baseball?

"No, I don't think so," Ryan said. "Their contributions were different."

Different, yet similar. Both men exhibited a strong social conscious and an impenetrable set of ideals.

Both were human-rights advocates and trailblazers for racial equality.

Both endured death threats because of the color of their skin, as did Hank Aaron before breaking Babe Ruth's home run record in 1974.

Clemente was supposed to die on Sept. 29, 1972 -- one day before he collected hit No. 3,000. A letter sent anonymously to the Pirates, care of Clemente, read: "On September 29th, Friday at Three Rivers Stadium in the top of the second inning you will be shot while playing right field. P.S. Did you ever get shot with a shotgun before"

Clemente didn't flinch.

P.S. Clemente never flinched.

He was a .317 career hitter. Chiseled body. Regal mannerisms. A gazelle in right field. A cannon for an arm. All the cliches fit.

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you," Clemente once said, "and you do don't do that, you are wasting your time on Earth."

He lived by those words.

Just as Jackie Robinson was the right man to break baseball's color barrier in 1947, Clemente was a pioneer for proud Latinos a decade later.

Today, MLB rosters are roughly 28 percent Hispanic players, with a heavy Dominican Republic dominance. Clemente opened doors for Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Mexicans and Dominicans alike.

Latin American players of the 1950s and '60s frequently were mocked for how they spoke English, criticized for their frequent flamboyance on the field.

Clemente was the first Latin American player to (a) win a MVP award, (b) crack the 3,000-hit barrier and (c) be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Only he and Lou Gehrig were exempted from Cooperstown's five-year wait rule.

Clemente won four batting titles, 12 Gold Gloves, two World Series rings and always looked as if he slept on a bad pillow when he stepped to the plate or took his position in right field.

MLB annually recognizes one player for his off-field contributions with what was renamed the Roberto Clemente Award in 1973.

Now it's time to take the next step. Baseball isn't lily white today because of major breakthroughs by Nos. 42 and 21, each in his own unyielding way.