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To All,This is a long post, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing it. Bob, I apologize about the length.
My grandfather had the privelege of being great friends with a man named Luke Quay, who was the former sports editor of the McKeesport Daily News. Mr. Quay often covered the Pirates during Clemente's playing years, and he was the one who (correctly) scored Clemente's original 3,000th hit an error, infuriating the man for a brief time. A few days later, he hit the double we now recognize as Roberto's true 3,000th hit, and after the game Clemente actually thankedQuay. Instead of a soft, questionable hit, Clemente and his fans could now remember Roberto's 3,000th as a no-doubt gap double. He personally gave a ball to Luke inscribed "It was a Hit. No, it was an error. No, it was superman Luke Quay. To my friend with best wishes - Roberto Clemente." It was just one of many rare keepsakes that Quay kept that were related somehow to Clemente.
Mr. Quay (and his press pass) was able to help my grandfather attend many games as his guest, among them being game 7 of the 1960 World Series, of which I have inherited the ticket stub. I never met Luke, but I have heard from my grandfather and also read in print that he was one of the few Pittsburgh writers who, (along with a few from the Courier), respectfully refused to quote him phonetically, which many racist writers did to to embarrass him in public, and would not call him "Bobby", which Roberto hated. He was a true friend of Clemente, and I'm sorry I never met either man.
A few years ago, when my grandfather gave me his game 7 ticket stub and program, he also gave me the original copy (cut out from the newspaper) of a first-person account written by Luke Quay that came amidst the confusion, chaos, and sadness that immediately followed the plane crash. The following is a word-for-word transcript of the article (no internet link exists), which is nothing special in particular to anyone but myself, but some of you may enjoy reading something that was printed very soon after the crash while all of the stories that we know so well were still being told for the first time. The date of the article is from the Daily News' evening edition of January 5, 1972, only a few days after the crash. Even though I was born long after his death, it is still difficult to get through it without getting emotional. For all I know, this is the only copy still in existence.
On this, the 38th anniversary of his death, I only wish that Roberto Clemente, the eternal saint of the Pittsburgh Pirates, may forever rest in peace, and that we Pirates fans that are sometimes divided in opinion yet always united in hope never forget his legacy.
"If You Are Supposed to Die, You Are Going to Die"
By Luke Quay
General Sports Editor
McKeesport Daily News
January 5, 1972
SAN JUAN, P.R. - There wasn't any celebrating the last time all the Pirates were on a charter plane together. But that trip home from Cincinnati in October was a happy occasion in comparison to yesterday's flight here to pay last respects to Roberto Clemente, who died on New Year's Eve during a mercy mission carrying relief supplies to the victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.
After all, the Bucs only lost the National League playoffs in October, and you always can make amends for something like that. But the loss of Clemente puts baseball into its proper perspective as just a game. Somebody might come along and take his place as a player, but there is no way he can be replaced as a man.
The shock of Clemente's passing is worn off, but the sixty some members of the Pirate's traveling party were a subdued lot. The only players not making the four hour trip from Pittsburgh to San Juan were Bob Robertson, Dave Cash, Bob Miller, and Vic Davalillo who is playing winter ball in his native Venezuela.
"The Pirates have come here to show our love and respect for Roberto Clemente's family," Buc General Manager Joe Brown told the news media gathered for a brief press conference following the team's arrival. "The people here are all part of Roberto's family and I would appreciate it if you would treat them that way and help keep the services private and personal."The 45 minute memorial service for Clemente was held in the San Fernando church of Caroline, a small chapel type place of worship with red domes and blue trim in a village of 10,000 about eight miles from the airport and three miles from Roberto's home and the program was highlighted but the following eulogy delivered by the Bucs' Steve Blass:
"We've been to the wars together,
We took our foes as they came
And always you were the leader,
And ever you played the game
Idol of cheering millions
Records are yours by sheaves
Iron of frame they hailed you,
Decked you with laurel leaves
But higher than that we hold you,
We who have known you the best
Knowing the way you came through
Every human test,
Let this be a silent token
Of lasting friendships glean
And all that we've left unspoken
Your friends on the Pirate team"
Then came a change in original plans, and the tough part of the trip, when it was learned that Roberto's wife, Vera, was waiting at home for the Pirate party. It was the first time since Clemente was lost that his widow didn't spend the entire day at the beach watching the futile rescue operations.
There were a lot of tears as Vera greeted old friends but she was remarkably composed under the circumstances.
"I have to be strong," Mrs. Clemente said. "Roberto didn't like me to cry."
Standing on the balcony of the Clemente home built on a hillside above the Atlantic Ocean, we could see the approximate spot the plane carrying Roberto and four others plunged into the sea. And for the first time we got a reliable account of the events leading up to the tragedy from ex-Pirate Jose Pagan, one of Roberto's closest friends.
"It was an old plane," he said about the ill-fated DC-7, which had overshot the runway only two weeks before and had to be pulled from the mud. "And it was loaded by inexpert people. They just kept putting down boxes wherever there was a place and didn't even try to balance the load. Everybody pleaded with Roberto not to make the trip. We said that he knew everything about baseball but nothing about airplanes. He insisted that the people in charge wouldn't let the plane take off if it couldn't make it to Nicaragua. And then he said that if you are supposed to die, you are going to die," Pagan concluded.
Pagan also revealed that Clemente's children had a premonition that their father was going to die. All three boys were staying with Roberto's mother-in-law on New Year's Eve while their mother took their father to the airport.
And Pagan reported that the grandmother told him the two oldest boys said their father was flying to Nicaragua but wasn't coming back because the plane was going to fall into the ocean.
Art Rooney and Ed Kiely of the Steelers, along with halfback Preston Pearson and tackle Joe Brown accompanied the Pirates on the overnight pilgrimage and went to the services in the San Fernando church. But both Mrs. Clemente and Buc catcher, Manny Sanguillen, who is playing winter ball here in Puerto Rico, refused to attend the memorial mass.
"Vera is like me, she won't believe that Roberto is dead until she sees his body," noted Phil Dorsey, the Clemente family's closest friend in Pittsburgh. "And while others are praying for his soul, Sangy spends all of his time out diving in the ocean trying to find his friend."
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