To Absent Friends - Vera Clemente

 Vera Clemente

1941-2019

If the Pittsburgh Pirates had a "First Lady", it would had to have been Vera Clemente, the widow of Pirates Hall of Famer, Roberto Clemente.  Mrs. Clemente died this past Saturday, not long after her family announced that she was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.  As Post-Gazette reporter Jason Mackey put it, Vera, a widow for almost forty-seven years, is now no doubt enjoying a long awaited reunion with her husband.

Vera Clemente never remarried, instead continuing the philanthropic and humanitarian work begun by her husband.  She was a frequent visitor to Pittsburgh, and it was not unusual to see her at Three Rivers Stadium and PNC Park attending Pirates games over the years.

I remember some years back, probably in the early 1980's, a caller to Myron Cope's radio show recounted how when he, the caller, was in Puerto Rico on vacation, he looked up Mrs. Clemente and paid a visit to her home to pay his respects to her and the memory of Roberto Clemente.  Kind of a creepy story on one level, but he recounted how gracious and charming Vera was to he and his family when they called upon her.

RIP Vera Clemente.

The Roberto Clemente Museum

The generally "By Appointment Only" Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh's Strip District held an open house today, so Marilyn and I finally got a chance to see this dandy little enterprise.  It is privately owned and operated, and it boasts the largest collection of Clemente memorabilia and photos anywhere.  As I heard a docent say today, it's like having a little piece of Cooperstown right here in Pittsburgh.  As it is not generally open to the public, it's not easy to get in to, but it is also not impossible, either, and if you are a Clemente fan, a Pirates fan, or a baseball fan, you really should try to get to see the place.

A sample of some of the photos that I took there today.

Had to have proof that I was there!

 Cool painting with iconic photos on either side

A wall filled with Roberto's awards

More great photos 

Athletes from various other Pittsburgh teams

 and other MLB teams as well donate signed jerseys

 to be used as fundraising items.

Couldn't resist this one

 A completed "Build It Yourself" Forbes Field 

designed by my friend, Len Martin, from the book

 that he and Dan Bonk published in 1994.

 After hit #3,000

What Pittsburgh sports museum would be complete 

without an homage to Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

The Museum is housed in an old fire house on Penn Avenue which gives the place a really cool look.  Attached to the Museum is a wine making operation that sells special edition wines, many of which are bottled under labels of other celebrities and sports figures who use the resultant bottles of wine to sell or auction for their own charities or foundations.  Among barrels that we saw that are still in the aging process are wines designated for Jerome Bettis, Mike Trout, and Yadier Molina, among others.  We also bought a couple of bottles for our own use.  The labels on the bottles should be self-explanatory:

It was a fun day rekindling memories of "The Great One".

Memorabilia in the News

Pirates Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell have been in the news of late, or, rather, their "stuff" has been in the news when their respective widows, and in Clemente's case, his children, announced that the late Pirates stars' memorabilia will be put up for action later this summer in two separate auctions.  Gold Gloves, MVP Awards, World Series and Hall of Fame Rings and lots and lots of other neat stuff will be available for folks to bid on and take home.

This might surprise some people that families would do such a thing.  On a recent Pirates telecast, Steve Blass seemed horrified at the thought of Clemente's World Series rings being sold.  Blass flashed his 1971 Series ring to the camera and said some to the effect that "this baby will NEVER leave my possession."  

I get Blass' sentiment, but I also get the Clemente and Stargell families' motivation.  This is all, after all, just "stuff" and what are they, the families, going to do with it as they get older?  Also, we have no idea as to the financial situations of the Clementes and Mrs. Stargell, so who are we to judge?

However, I do get a kick out of the disingenuous statements released by both families.  It went something to the effect of  "We know that Roberto/Willie have many thousands of devoted fans out there, and we thought that now was the time that these mementos and artifacts be shared among them."

So, I said to Mrs. Grandstander "You know, one of those Gold Gloves of Clemente's would look nice on a shelf in our office.  Maybe Vera and the boys will 'share' one of them with me, as I was and remain to this day a devoted fan of Roberto."  Well, I suppose that there are many definitions of the word "Share", and in this case, the relevant definition is "it's yours if you are the high bidder, preferably something in the high five figures."

I seem to remember that when Bill Mazeroski did something similar with all of his stuff a few years back, he pretty much came out and said that he'd like to have the money for himself in his later years and for his children and grandchildren after he's gone.  No b.s. about sharing with the fans from Maz, nosiree!

Like I said, I have no problem with what these two families are doing, and I hope that they get what they feel they need for whatever their reasons may be, but they can spare us the song and dance about sharing with the fans.

Roberto Clemente vs. Barry Bonds

Here is a very brief excerpt from the ESPN the Magazine article alluded to in my previous post.  Author Kevin Guilfoile. who interned in the Pirates PR Department in the early days of Barry Bonds' career, made the following observation in the article.  I hope that you take the time to read the entire article, but this part is too good not to highlight on it's own:

When you're as talented and famous as Barry Bonds or Roberto Clemente, too much is going to be expected of you. The demands on you will never end. And you can react to those demands in a number of different ways. Barry Bonds decided that he would just never give anybody anything, because he knew if he gave them one thing today, they would ask for three things tomorrow. And he was probably right about that, as wrong as it must have been for his soul.

Roberto decided to do the opposite. If you asked him for one thing, he gave you four. He worked hard to become one of the best who ever played the game, then he gave away the trophies that proved it.

He gave as much as he could. He gave more than he could.

On the day of one of his biggest triumphs, he might have told three different friends he was giving them the same historic baseball bat.

He never stopped giving.

He gave right up until the day that giving literally killed him.

Clemente's 3,000th Hit Bat: Am Incredible Story

My friend Nina Schreiner sent me this article from ESPN the Magazine, and Bob Smizik has a link to it on his blog today, and I feel compelled to do the same here:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/Roberto-Clemente-bat/enduring-mystery-roberto-clemente-bat

It is a story written for the Magazine by Kevin Guilfiole, son of former Pirates PR Director Bill Guilfoile.  It a story as compelling as any movie you will see or mystery novel you might read. It is about the bat that Roberto Clemente used - or did he? - to record his 3,000th, and final, major league hit.

I won't try to summarize it.  Just read it!

Twenty Straight

I plan to offer up my final thoughts on the 2012 Pirates with a lengthy post later this week when the season finally, mercifully, concludes, but I can't let the day on which they officially clinched their 20th consecutive losing season (say it after me now, "the longest losing streak in North American sports history") without noting this milestone, or should I say "millstone".

And when it actually comes right down to it, what can I say?  As I mentioned on Facebook a few days back, the Pirates and their play in the month of September, combined with their front office follies, have left me speechless.  So I will leave it to Bloggin' Bob Smizik who led his blog entry tonight with this great paragraph:

Forty years to the day after Roberto Clemente gloriously walked into baseball history with his 3,000 hit, the team he once so proudly represented slunk into baseball ignominy with a 20th straight losing season.

That, my friends, is a good piece of writing.

Standing With Clemente

I had the pleasure of engaging in some mild vandalism early yesterday morning when SABR buddies (from L to R) Len Martin, Jim Haller, Dan Bonk and I visited the parking lots in the vicinity of Heinz Field and marked the spots where home plate and second base were located at Three Rivers Stadium.  It was especially appropriate that second base was located and marked since today, September 30, is the 40th Anniversary of Roberto Clemente's 3,000th, and final, hit, a double against the New York Mets.   You can see us gathered around the marker above, but here is that same spot in a picture with which you are no doubt more familiar:

Actually, full credit for locating these marks goes to Len and Dan who used Google Maps, satellite Images, GPS coordinates and God only knows what else to determine the location of these spots.  Len then produced the templates for home plate and second base as well as the wording that you see on them.

If you care to see these for yourself, take a stroll down General Robinson Street towards Heinz Field.  As you walk down the left sidewalk just past Stage AE, you will see the second base marker.  Then, walk 127 feet to your right, cross General Robinson into the parking lot, and you will be at home plate.

Here you see the vandals at work:

While Len and Dan were doing this. Jim and I were pretty much standing lookout in hopes that the cops didn't come and haul us away to the hoosgow.

Next up: refreshing the paint job on home plate of Exposition Park, which is located in yet another parking lot about a half a block closer to PNC Park.  Len, Dan, and a few other SABR guys were responsible for finding that land mark back in 1995.  We ran out of time yesterday, so that will wait for another Saturday morning raid in the future.

I leave you with one more picture from yesterday:

This is a nice early morning view of downtown Pittsburgh as seen over the rooftop of Stage AE.  I took it while standing at "home plate" of Three Rivers Stadium.  Thanks to Len Martin and Dan Bonk, you can now stand in this same spot and imagine yourself to be Willie Stargell or Roberto Clemente, digging in at home plate, ready to do battle with Bob Gibson or Tom Seaver.

The Clemente Picture

Below you will see a picture of the picture of Roberto Clemente that I won at the World Series Gala at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown last week. We bought the frame and decided to hang it in a place of honor in our den at home.

Appropriate that it hangs below a painting of Forbes Field, don't you think?

To Absent Friends - Larry Shepard

Thanks to Loyal Reader and NPL Buddy Harv for tipping me off to the fact that former Pirates Skipper Larry Shepard passed away yesterday at the age of 92.

Shepard had a rather undistinguished tenure as Pirates manager in 1968-69, although, in terms of winning percentage, it was a lot more distinguished that the administrations of recent Bucs' pilots. My one memory of Shepard was that at one point he seriously lobbied Joe L. Brown to trade Roberto Clemente to the Washington Senators for, I believe, short stop Ed Brinkman. (That would have made Aramis Ramirez for Bobby Hill look good by comparison!)

I also remember asking Bill Mazeroski at a golf outing a number of years back what he thought of Larry Shepard as a manager (can't remember why that even came up at the time). Maz' response was that Shepard "was okay for an a******." (If you can't figure it out, that's a body part that everyone has!)

Fairly or not, something tells me that the passing of Larry Shepard will not be met with the rush of sadness and great memories as did the recent passing of Chuck Tanner.

RIP Larry Shepard.