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Forty Years Ago Today...

Started by jbcarol, December 31, 2012, 12:50:57 pm

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jbcarol

December 31, 2012, 12:50:57 pm
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The sports world is rich with hyperbole.

Athletes are gladiators and warriors. Games are battles and stadiums are battlefields.

Those who can throw the hardest and run the fastest are casually called heroes.

But what happens when an in-game hero becomes a real one?

QuoteForty years ago Monday, Roberto Clemente boarded a plane to deliver humanitarian supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Furious that prior deliveries had been confiscated by a corrupt Nicaraguan government, Clemente decided to travel with another shipment of supplies to ensure the people who needed help would get it.

But shortly after a nighttime takeoff from San Juan International Airport, the DC-7 that carried Clemente, 38, banked left and plummeted into the sea. All five people onboard died.

He said 'I'll see you when I get back,'" Clemente Jr. recalled.

"And I said 'No, I'm never going to see you again.'"

As dozens of friends and teammates arrived in Puerto Rico for Clemente's funeral, Manny Sanguillen strapped on an oxygen tank to dive in the deep waters, hoping to find his friend alive.

Though parts of the plane were recovered, Clemente's body was never found.

Rough waters that day did not change Sanguillen's resolve. He believed he would find his friend alive. He stayed in Puerto Rico another two weeks and walked the beach daily, hoping he would find Clemente swimming ashore.
Curated SEC Infotainment and aggregated college sports updates where it just means more on Hogville.net

Oklahawg

January 01, 2013, 12:19:59 am #1
Beat me to it. One of the first MLB players that I learned to call "hero".

Sanguillen's story is gut-wrenching.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/21478623/remembering-roberto-clemente-40-years-after-his-death

I am a Hog fan. I was long before my name was etched, twice, on the sidewalks on the Hill. I will be long after Sam Pittman and Eric Mussleman are coaches, and Hunter Yuracheck is AD. I am a Hog fan when we win, when we lose and when we don't play. I love hearing the UA band play the National Anthem on game day, but I sing along to the Alma Mater. I am a Hog fan.<br /><br />A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching. - Bart Giamatti <br /><br />"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling." ― Robert M. Pirsig<br /><br />Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.  – Yogi Berra
 

pigture perfect

January 01, 2013, 12:25:36 am #2
I was 8 when this happened. but I remember. I didn't understand anything back then except a player had died. Today we know. RIP Roberto.
The 2 biggest fools in the world: He who has an answer for everything and he who argues with him.  - original.<br /> <br />The first thing I'm going to ask a lawyer (when I might need one) is, "You don't post on Hogville do you?"

Oklahawg

January 01, 2013, 12:35:55 am #3
Quote from: pigture perfect on January 01, 2013, 12:25:36 am
I was 8 when this happened. but I remember. I didn't understand anything back then except a player had died. Today we know. RIP Roberto.

I, too, was too young to really appreciate Clemente. I just knew that he played hard all the time and did everything well. And, looked cool with the flapless batting helmet. And, I loved his 1971 Topps baseball card, which I had acquired in one of my first ventures to the grocery to buy a pack of cards.

It was Bob Gibson, Joe Torre, Roberto Clemente and Al Santorini until 1976 when I saw George Brett for the first time. Al Santorini? We visited St Louis for a game vs the Mets. It was fan day, and they let fans on the field at that time to take pics and get autographs. We didn't know! We saw it in the paper before departing our hotel for the stadium (and then a long drive back to NE OK).

We searched the trunk of the car and found an old little league baseball. It was dirty and scuffed, but it would have to do. Santorini was the only player we got close enough to for an autograph (arrived about 10 minutes before it was over). Dad found the ball a couple of years ago and gave it to me for Christmas, along with his 1973 Topps card (Topps archive slab). Fan day was summer of 1971.

Sorry for the distraction! Santorini didn't fit with the others. Now, I need to go find my Dominican and Cuban baseball books and begin reading. I read a chapter or two every winter to help me get to spring training.
I am a Hog fan. I was long before my name was etched, twice, on the sidewalks on the Hill. I will be long after Sam Pittman and Eric Mussleman are coaches, and Hunter Yuracheck is AD. I am a Hog fan when we win, when we lose and when we don't play. I love hearing the UA band play the National Anthem on game day, but I sing along to the Alma Mater. I am a Hog fan.<br /><br />A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching. - Bart Giamatti <br /><br />"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling." ― Robert M. Pirsig<br /><br />Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.  – Yogi Berra

DeltaBoy

May 02, 2013, 12:15:20 pm #4
It was a sad story for the Nation.
If the South should lose, it means that the history of the heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers, will be impressed by all of the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.
-- Major General Patrick Cleburne
The Confederacy had no better soldiers
than the Arkansans--fearless, brave, and oftentimes courageous beyond
prudence. Dickart History of Kershaws Brigade.

jbcarol

January 01, 2016, 07:33:57 am #5
Curated SEC Infotainment and aggregated college sports updates where it just means more on Hogville.net

DeltaBoy

January 01, 2016, 09:18:52 am #6
He was a great one.
If the South should lose, it means that the history of the heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers, will be impressed by all of the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.
-- Major General Patrick Cleburne
The Confederacy had no better soldiers
than the Arkansans--fearless, brave, and oftentimes courageous beyond
prudence. Dickart History of Kershaws Brigade.

Oklahawg

February 09, 2016, 12:20:52 pm #7
I don't visit this forum often enough.

Worthy to bump this shamelessly. My favorite baseball card growing up was the 1973 Clemente. I must have had 20 of them at one time. Never could get enough.

I am a Hog fan. I was long before my name was etched, twice, on the sidewalks on the Hill. I will be long after Sam Pittman and Eric Mussleman are coaches, and Hunter Yuracheck is AD. I am a Hog fan when we win, when we lose and when we don't play. I love hearing the UA band play the National Anthem on game day, but I sing along to the Alma Mater. I am a Hog fan.<br /><br />A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching. - Bart Giamatti <br /><br />"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling." ― Robert M. Pirsig<br /><br />Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.  – Yogi Berra
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