[Posted early]
Baseball Quiz: Assorted categories. 1) Name the four to have
struck out 2,000 times. [All modern era] 2) Who are the four to
have walked 2,000 times? 3) Who are the three to have 150
pinch hits in their career? 4) Who is the all-time leader in pinch
hit home runs? Answers below.
#21
Assuming a few of you saw the excellent PBS “American
Experience” show on Roberto Clemente, I thought I’d add a little
meat to the story of his fateful mercy mission to Nicaragua,
courtesy of a piece I did years ago in this space.
On December 23, 1972, a catastrophic earthquake struck
Nicaragua, killing some 6,000. The relief effort was a chaotic
affair and into the breach came baseball legend Roberto
Clemente. A Puerto Rican native, the 4-time National League
batting champion, 12-time Gold Glove winner, and 1971 World
Series MVP for the Pittsburgh Pirates was a hero to all of Latin
America and when Clemente learned that the soldiers under
Nicaraguan dictator Somoza were pilfering relief supplies before
they could get to the victims, Roberto decided to personally do
something about it.
Not knowing for sure whether the supplies on earlier planes he
had chartered reached those needing the aid most, Clemente
thought that if he showed up in Nicaragua himself, out of
personal respect for the star the army would acquiesce and
distribute the material, as well as protect the relief workers who
were themselves being harassed. So on New Year’s Eve, a DC-7
was made ready for the mercy mission.
Clemente’s wife, Vera, was concerned and offered to go with
him, but Roberto told her, “Well, we both cannot go. We have
guests coming to celebrate the new year and one of us must
stay.” Then he added, rather cryptically, “But the thing is you
should not worry about this day. It is only one day in our lives,
and for us – with love – every day is the same. We will have
them for many years.”
“But I promise you one thing. If anything – anything at all – is
wrong with this plane, I will cancel the trip.”
[Source: Vera Clemente, as told to the Star-Ledger’s Jerry
Izenberg in a December 2002 piece for the paper.]
The selected plane had been having engine problems and it was
overloaded. The first time it attempted to take off it was forced
to return for more work on the engines. Vera, at the airport to
pick up some guests, remembers shaking hands with the
mechanic, the pilot and the plane’s owner, all of whom would
later die.
At 8:00 PM that evening, Vera picked up the phone at her home.
The guests were there and amidst the noise in the house, by the
time she got to it there was only a dial tone. Later she found out
Roberto had been trying to call and he then gave a note to
another mechanic, not accompanying the flight. “Tell her we
had to try a couple of times but now we are ready and I will see
her soon.”
Vera was drawn to the relief headquarters at Hiram Bithorn
Stadium so while the party was going to dinner in Carolina, she
stopped by to check on the mounds of clothing and boxes of food
that would be loaded on future flights to Nicaragua. That’s
where she was at 9:33 PM. She didn’t know her husband had
just died.
Former major leaguer Rudy Hernandez recalls, “We were in the
bar (at his restaurant) and it was typical. All over the island,
parties were just getting started. Then I got a call and we turned
on the radio and in that instant the music stopped everywhere on
this island.” [Izenberg]
Hernandez continued:
“The streets were (suddenly) empty…All of us cried…And then,
because my place was on the beach, we saw those giant
searchlights and the light from the flares crisscrossing on the
waves and we heard the sound of helicopters.”
Former Pirate Rennie Stennett:
“That night, we went to (teammate) Bob Johnson’s apartment for
the New Year’s Eve party (he was throwing on the island). [A
lot of teammates were in Puerto Rico for winter ball.] Sometime
during the night, somebody said, ‘Look out the window, there’s a
ship on fire.’ We all looked, and we could see flames coming
from the water.” [Source: “Talkin’ Baseball” / Phil Pepe]
Stennett’s party didn’t know what had happened until about 4:00
AM, however.
One of Clemente’s close teammates, Manny Sanguillen, may
have been on the flight himself, but because he couldn’t find a
parking spot at the airport he didn’t hook up with Roberto, whom
many felt would have convinced Sanguillen to tag along. So
when Sanguillen heard the news of the crash he hopped in a
small boat with some other guys and started diving at the site to
see if he could find his friend. Hernandez recalls:
“There are sharks out there, man. I mean real, man-eating sharks
and he didn’t care. It was craziness. Craziness everywhere… It
was the night the happiness died.” [Izenberg]
As it turns out, just 90 seconds after takeoff, around 9:30 PM, the
pilot came on with a single statement, “We are coming back
around.” There were two explosions, one in the air and the other
when the plane hit the water. The fact that the plane was
overloaded was a cause of the crash, as the cargo undoubtedly
shifted severely once off the ground.
For eleven days, divers searched the wreckage but it was down
some 125 feet in extremely dangerous waters and a few of the
rescue workers were hurt in the effort. At the same time, each
day hundreds of people stood on the beach, waiting for word.
Clemente’s body was never found.
News of the tragedy struck the baseball community like a
thunderbolt. As Phil Pepe notes, though, in the midst of the
anger that Clemente should die in a mercy mission, there was at
least some small satisfaction that he had banged out his 3,000 hit
in his final game (a double off the New York Mets’ Jon Matlack,
9/30/72, and one I personally recall watching on television).
New York sportswriter Jack Lang.
“The first thing that crossed my mind was why should we wait
for this guy, let’s put him in the Hall of Fame (rather than wait
the required five years after a player retired). When I got to the
hotel, I called Joe Reichler (a retired AP baseball writer then
working in the commissioner’s office) and I mentioned it to Joe
and he said, ‘That’s funny, I was thinking the same thing. Let
me talk to (Commissioner) Bowie (Kuhn) about it.”
Kuhn was in favor of the idea, though the president of the Hall of
Fame, Paul Kerr, didn’t like it at first. He was finally convinced
it was the right thing to do and a special election was held that
spring. [One legendary a-hole, sportswriter Dick Young, was
violently opposed and wrote columns saying as much.]
Pepe adds:
“Some writers wondered if this was setting a dangerous
precedent, (but) clearly…he was eminently qualified and would
surely be elected five years after he had played his last game.”
To be elected Clemente would need 75% of those who voted in
the special ballot. He ended up receiving 93. Not only was
Clemente thus the first player to be enshrined without the five-
year waiting period, but he was also the first Latin American to
gain admittance.
But perhaps the best way to end this story is with some of
Clemente’s own words.
“If you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t,
then you are wasting your time on this earth.”
Aside from Sanguillen, one player seen but not heard in the
Clemente documentary on PBS was teammate Willie Stargell.
That’s because Stargell died in 2001, at which point I wrote the
following.
“Pops”
Pittsburgh Pirates great Wilver Dornel (Willie) Stargell died the
other day at age 61. The baseball Hall of Famer had 475 home
runs (tied for 19th all time) and 1,540 RBI (30th). But he was far
more than a slugger, he was also one of the great leaders in the
game.
Growing up, my family would take an annual summer vacation
back “home,” which was the Pittsburgh area for me. As a kid
there was nothing better than spending my days at my cousins
Joe and AJ’s gas station. They’d ring up 100 games on the
pinball machine, give me all the ice cream and Mountain Dew I
wanted, and then I’d just soak up the atmosphere as my cousins’
friends would come in to talk Pirate baseball. And, of course,
everyone loved Willie Stargell.
Unless you were a pitcher…then you faced him in terror. For
baseball fans in the 1960s and 70s, there were two hitters you
feared more than any other (especially if you were a Mets fan
like yours truly); Stargell and Willie McCovey. I have to be
honest (especially since I”ve already mentioned this in a previous
spot), but I feared McCovey the most…if I could only pick one.
But certainly Stargell hit them as far as any player in the history
of the game.
At 6’4” and 225 lbs. (McCovey was 6’4”, 215), Willie Stargell
cut a fearsome presence, pinwheeling his 40-ounce bat before the
pitcher delivered the ball. He once had the record for the longest
homer in half the parks in the National League. And consider
this, at Forbes Field, where Willie spent the first 8 years of his
career, he is responsible for 7 of the 18 shots that sailed clear out
of the stadium. [Babe Ruth was the first to hit it out of Forbes.]
In fact, Forbes Field was the most spacious park of this era and if
Willie hadn’t played there, he would probably have been a
member of the 600-homer club. Among his other prodigious
shots, Stargell was the first one to hit a ball out of Dodger
Stadium. L.A.’s Don Sutton once commented, “He didn”t just
hit pitchers, he took away their dignity.”
Considering that players like Stargell and McCovey played in a
dead ball era, compared to today, it would have been fun to see
where they’d hit some these days. Johnny Mac told me that you
would definitely have to watch where you parked the car.
Mark R. called to tell me about the time that legendary Pirates
radio announcer Bob Prince implored Stargell to hit a home run
up on “the Hill” district. It seems that Stargell had just
purchased a fried chicken joint in that neighborhood. Well,
Willie complied with a blast and forever after, with each Stargell
homer it was “Chicken on the Hill with Will.”
But Willie Stargell was more than just a slugger, he was one of
the great leaders of any sport. As he aged, the label “Pops” was
handed to him for his clubhouse presence. And his shining
moment was 1979.
At age 39, Stargell hit 32 homers in the ‘79 regular season,
fueling the Pirates to the division championship. Then in the
National League Championship Series he hit 2 homers in a 3-
game sweep of the Reds (for which he was named MVP). The
fairytale continued as Willie was the MVP, again, for Pittsburgh
in their dramatic, come-from-behind World Series triumph over
Baltimore (after trailing 3 games to 1) as he clubbed another 3
dingers. Pops was then named Co-MVP for the regular season
(sharing it with Keith Hernandez). In other words, he swept the
awards and remained the oldest player ever to gain the regular
season MVP honor until Barry Bonds in 2004.
The 1979 Pirates were the group best known for the Sister Sledge
song, “We Are Family,” which the Bucs adopted as their anthem.
And there was nothing phony about it; Pittsburgh was a happy
team, led by Pops Stargell. Commenting on the season, Willie
said:
“We won, we lived and we enjoyed as one. We molded together
different individuals into one working force. We were products
of different races, were raised in different income brackets, but in
the clubhouse and on the field we were one.”
That season, Captain Willie would pass out stars for performance
after every win and his teammates would bust their butts for one.
He was an original. And he was also just a great person.
Roberto Clemente Jr. recalled the moment that his father died in
that New Year’s Eve tragedy, back in 1972. Stargell was the
first player to arrive at the Clementes’ home in Puerto Rico. He
asked 7-year-old Roberto Jr. if he understood what had
happened.
“ ‘Of course I know what happened,’ said Roberto, recalling the
moment with the New York Post’s Tom Keegan. “Then he told
me I had to be there to help my mother take care of my brothers.
He said he would always be there for all of us, any time we
needed him. He was true to his word. He was always there for
us.”
It seemed only fitting that Stargell’s death came as the Pirates
were inaugurating their new stadium on Monday. Earlier, a 12-
foot bronze statue of “Pops” had been unveiled outside. From
here on, every Opening Day in Pittsburgh will be Willie Stargell
Day. [Additional source: Richard Goldstein / New York Times]
One other note on Pirates history. The other day, following my
visit to the World War II Museum in New Orleans, I mentioned
Hank Greenberg. The Hall of Famer finished his career in
Pittsburgh, one last season in 1947. But in reading up on
Greenberg in “The Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball,”
from the editors of “Total Baseball,” I saw the following, some
of which I didn’t know before.
Greenberg, the long-time Tiger, led the A.L. in both homers, 44,
and RBI, 127, in 1946. But….
“The Tigers figured he wasn’t worth the $20,000 raise he wanted
(boosting his salary to $75,000), and put him on waivers. The
Tigers didn’t bother to notify Greenberg of their decision; he
heard about it on the radio.
“No A.L. team claimed him. The Pirates paid the Tigers $40,000
for Greenberg, but he refused to report to Pittsburgh. He wanted
to retire [he was 36 at this point]. The Pirates wanted to create a
wall-banging duo of Greenberg and young Ralph Kiner, and they
seduced Greenberg by upping the ante to $100,000 and adding a
race horse from Pittsburgh owner John Galbreath’s stables worth
thousands of dollars.
“Management also volunteered to bring in the left-field fence by
35 feet, thereby creating the home run paradise known as
‘Greenberg Gardens’; to let him fly to games instead of taking
the train; to let him live without a roommate; and to give him his
unconditional release at the end of the season. It was an offer
Greenberg couldn’t refuse. The deal made him the first
$100,000 National Leaguer. [It took 11 more years for Stan
Musial to become the second.]
“Hampered by back ailments, Greenberg wasn’t an
overwhelming offensive force for the Pirates. He homered 25
times, but batted only .249. His patience at the plate became an
object lesson for the free-swinging Kiner, as Greenberg led the
league with 104 walks. When the Pirates decided to return Kiner
to the minors early in the season, Greenberg talked them out of
it. Kiner responded by walking 25 more times, striking out 28
fewer times, and adding 28 home runs to his previous season’s
total. The Pirates tied for last place but set a club home
attendance record with 1,283,611 fans.” [Or 17,000 a game in
what was then a 77-game home schedule, plus doubleheaders. In
cavernous Forbes Field, this wasn’t many.]
Stuff
–The NFL draft is Saturday and Sunday. Jeff Zillgitt of USA
Today had a piece looking into the last 20 drafts and California,
Florida and Texas account for 34% of the 5,395 players drafted
(above the 26% the three represent in total population). And
check this out. There are 628 NCAA schools to choose from,
including NAIA and junior colleges, but just 30 Division I
programs accounted for nearly 50% of those chosen.
Of the 600 first-round draft picks in the last 20 drafts, 195 (33%)
have been named to the Pro Bowl. At 39%, running backs
drafted in the first round are the best bets to make the Pro Bowl.
First-round quarterbacks are just below the average at 31%.
The average draft pick played 48.7 games or three seasons, while
1,035 draft picks never played a game. [Out of the above 5,395.
I actually would have thought this figure would be higher.] The
average drafted kicker, though, played 88 games, or 5 ½ seasons.
NFL teams have selected 136 Miami Hurricanes and 125 from
Florida State to lead the way. But I’m surprised by the third
school, Tennessee, with 120. Ohio State is next at 116, followed
by Notre Dame with 115.
The SEC leads all conferences with 754 selected, followed by the
Big Ten and Pac-10, each of which had 649.
Lastly, is Penn State still “Linebacker U”? Sort of. NFL teams
have drafted 17 linebackers from PSU, but 19 from Florida State
and 18 each from Nebraska, Tennessee and Miami.
–Alan Schwarz of the New York Times had a piece on Tuesday
on the Division III Trinity College (Hartford, Ct.) baseball team
that is threatening to become the first college of any size to go
undefeated, having wracked up a 27-0 mark as of this writing.
The Division III record for a winning percentage is 37-3 by
national champions Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1985. Trinity faced
its toughest challenge last Saturday against Tufts as it trailed 8-1
after four innings but ended up winning 17-10 in extra innings.
[Then Trinity won the second game of a doubleheader, 15-0.]
But I love this bit. Trinity has outscored its opposition by 260-64
thru the first 27 games, so it obviously gets some good pitching
(as opposed to Wake Forest this year, incidentally…awful season
for the Deacs). In fact, one starter, Tim Kiely, has walked only
one batter in 49 2/3 while another, Michael Regan, has given up
just six walks in 42.
Trinity alumni, by the way, include pitcher Moe Drabowsky and
commentator George Will.
–Speaking of Wake Forest, congrats to golfer Webb Simpson for
winning the individual crown at the ACC championship. Wake
needs another star for the tour, with Simpson turning pro after
the NCAA championship in another month. [Wake finished 5th
to Florida State in the team competition.]
–If you can hit .250 and play a little first base, apply to the New
York Mets, please, because right now we are stuck with clueless
Carlos Delgado, the “human rally-killer,” as the New York
Post’s Mike Vaccaro calls him.
–I didn’t know this…in South Dakota’s Black Hills they have
reintroduced the black-footed ferret, which happens to be “a
prairie-dog killing machine.” Remember, kids, if you see a
prairie dog coming up the driveway with your paper, don’t get
near it. It’s a trap. Prairie dogs carry all kinds of disease.
–Rocky, a celebrity grizzly bear that won an Oscar for his role in
Will Ferrell’s “Semi-Pro,” killed one of his trainers on Tuesday
when he unexpectedly bit Stephan Miller on the neck. Police
spokeswoman Cindy Beavers, who doubles as CEO of Beaver
Homes, offered no explanation for the attack. As Brad K. said,
next time the film community should stick to kindly black bears
that like to ride bicycles. Sadly, Rocky will be destroyed, thus
becoming a martyr to thousands of fellow grizzlies in North
America. I fear for the future.
–Mark K. reminded me that with all the talk of the Dalai Lama
these days, perhaps greenskeeper/caddy Carl Spackler should be
enlisted as a go-between between China and Tibet. Spackler,
after all, once told the tale:
“So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet,
and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A
looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I’m a
pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama,
himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace,
bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the
driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long,
into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier.
Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga,
gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff
me. And I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something,
you know, for the effort, you know.’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there
won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you
will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that goin’ for me,
which is nice.”
–Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won his 4th Boston Marathon, tying
Bill Rogers for the modern day record. It’s always fun to look at
the top few finishers’ native countries.
1. Kenya 2. Morocco 3. Morocco 4. Ethiopia 5. Ethiopia 6.
Kenya 7. Kenya 8. Kenya 9. Kenya….but what’s this? USA No.
10…Nicholas Arciniaga, Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Dire Tune (not to be confused with Dire Straits) of Ethiopia
defeated Alevtina Blktimirova of Russia by just two seconds for
the women’s title.
–Boy, I sure as heck didn’t think Chris Paul would be this good.
An All-Star eventually? Yes. League MVP? No.
–Arizona’s Brandon Webb is 5-0 as the D’backs roll. San
Francisco’s Barry Zito, he of the $14.5 million salary for this
year and far more to come, is 0-5 with a 5.61 ERA.
–Latest USA Today/ESPN College Baseball Poll
1. Miami (Fl.)
2. Florida State
3. UNC
4. Arizona State
5. Rice
8. Nebraska
18. Coastal Carolina
–Winston Churchill: “The gin and tonic has saved more
Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the
Empire.” [Julia Reed / Newsweek]
–We note the passing of Al Wilson, 68. Wilson sang one of the
great R&B tunes of all time, “Show And Tell,” a #1 Billboard hit
in early 1974.
Top 3 songs for the week of 4/24/76: #1 “Disco Lady” (Johnnie
Taylor) #2 “Let Your Love Flow” (Bellamy Brothers) #3
“Right Back Where We Started From” (Maxine Nightingale)…
and…#4 “Boogie Fever” (Sylvers) #5 “Sweet Love”
(Commodores) #6 “Only Sixteen” (Dr. Hook) #7 “Welcome
Back” (John Sebastian…this one makes me feel old, as I
remember watching the show…) #8 “Show Me The Way” (Peter
Frampton) #9 “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen) #10 “Fooled
Around And Fell In Love” (Elvin Bishop…now you’re talking
…editor’s #1 tune all time…peaked at #3 Billboard)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Four to have struck out 2,000 times in
their careers (entering 2008): Reggie Jackson, 2,597; Sammy
Sosa, 2,306; Jim Thome, 2,043; Andres Galarraga, 2,003. 2) Four
to have walked 2,000 times (entering 2008): Barry Bonds, 2,558;
Rickey Henderson, 2,190; Babe Ruth, 2,062; Ted Williams,
2,021. 3) 150 career pinch hits: Lenny Harris, 212; Mark
Sweeney, 163 [entering 2008]; Manny Mota, 150. 4) Cliff
Johnson is the all-time leader in pinch hit home runs with 20.
Jerry Lynch had 18. [Willie McCovey had 16, by the way.]
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
