Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero

“Easily the best baseball book of this year. . . . It took a writer of David Maraniss’s ability to cut through the haze of legend and make Clemente human again. . . . Maraniss writes deftly and does fine reporting. . . . Maraniss’s prose is elegant.”

—Bob D’Angelo,
The Tampa Tribune

“
Clemente
can keep the memory of The Great One alive.”

—Bob Hoover,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Splendid. . . . This biography offers Clemente as a model for the international future of baseball and a hope for the future of the game.”

—Patrick Willard,
The Tennessean

“In David Maraniss, the great right fielder of the Pittsburgh Pirates has a worthy biographer, and Clemente is the best baseball book of 2006 so far.”

—Bruce Dancis,
The Sacramento Bee

“Brilliant. . . . What puts Maraniss in the top league is his ability not only to describe all the trees but to go above them—to show a profound understanding of his subject from every angle.”

—Kim Eisler,
Washingtonian

“A compelling biography. . . . Maraniss is a charismatic listener, a strong archival researcher, and a fluid writer. . . . Maraniss captures, simultaneously, Clemente the baseball star, Clemente the family man, Clemente the civil rights pioneer, Clemente the humanitarian, and Clemente the occasional diva. . . . Maraniss’s biography is worthy enough to serve as a memorial.”

—Steven Weinberg,
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland)

“
Clemente
is a hit. . . . Maraniss’s new biography of the first Latino Hall of Famer [is] a treasure: It is doggedly researched . . . and provides a rounded portrait of a seminal figure in baseball history.”

—Neil Best,
Newsday
(column)

“David Maraniss, whose biography of Vince Lombardi was a tour de force, has delivered another brilliant effort with
Clemente.
”

—Bill Madden,
Daily News
(New York)

“Authoritative. . . . Maraniss brings Clemente to life beyond the enviable on-field statistics and storied laser-like heaves to third and home from deep in the right-field corner.”

—Ray Sanchez,
Newsday

“Maraniss brings the Pittsburgh outfielder’s life back to us in vivid and entrancing detail. . . . As Clemente’s rifle throws almost always did, Maraniss’s writing hits the mark again.”

—Bryan French,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Superb. . . . I had hopes that Maraniss’s biography would be as good as his previous sports biography,
When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.
I was not disappointed. . . . Maraniss loves baseball, and the book is a pleasure to read. . . . This is an American story, in the broadest sense of the term.”

—Elizabeth DiNovella,
The Progressive

“This baseball season is fielding an unusually rich, deep selection of books. . . . At the top is David Maraniss’s biography,
Clemente.
”

—Carol Herwig,
USA Today

“Maraniss brings imagination, energy, and even poetry to his superb biography of one of the greatest ballplayers ever to delight a stadium full of fans. . . . Clemente’s exceptional story . . . is well known among baseball fans. The achievement of Maraniss’s book should be to introduce this remarkable man to a much wider audience.”

—Bill Littlefield,
The Boston Globe

“Maraniss captures Clemente in all his ‘beautiful fury.’ . . . Maraniss’s skills as a reporter raise this above many sports biographies.”

—John Wilkens,
The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Thoroughly entertaining.”

—Erik Spanberg,
The Christian Science Monitor

“[Maraniss is] one of the two premier sports biographers of the era.”

—Jeff Pearlman,
Newsday

“Maraniss admirably fills in the blanks in a life and a death each shrouded in its own kind of mystery. . . . Maraniss does a thorough job of revealing the public and the inner Clemente and adding to the historical record of the tragic plane crash. . . . [An] intriguing picture of baseball’s first Latin American Hall of Famer.”

—Peter Schmuck,
Baltimore Sun

“A graceful and informative biography. . . . Box scores and season totals are brought to life by ex-players reminiscing. . . . And there are priceless baseball back stories.”

—James Rowen,
The Capital Times
(Madison, Wisconsin)

“Fantastic.”

—Daniel Brown,
San Jose Mercury News

“A welcome addition to the baseball library. Maraniss . . . is adept at laying the cultural groundwork, no insignificant thing in Clemente’s story.”

—Bill Reynolds,
The Providence Journal

“Maraniss does a great job of conveying Clemente’s fierce pride and genuinely heroic philanthropy.”

—Philip Martin,
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

“
Clemente
is much like the man. Dignified. Proud. Elegant. Graceful. . . . The definitive book on the late Clemente.”

—Bob Hersom,
The Sunday Oklahoman

“An out-of-the-park tape-measure blast that could be one of the best sports biographies ever written.”

—Marc Horton,
Edmonton Journal
(Alberta)

“A thorough and engaging look at Clemente. . . . Maraniss has done a good job providing a look at a fallible but heroic figure.”

—David King,
San Antonio Express-News

“Maraniss wipes away the mist of time to restore Clemente’s depth and sharp edges. It’s a celebratory book, because Maraniss is a fan. But it’s also an honest
biography. . . . Reading Maraniss’s chapters on the plane crash is like reading Gabriel García Márquez’s
Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
”

—Jim Higgins,
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(feature)

“A finely paced account of the Puerto Rican player’s life by a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter.”

—John B. Saul,
The Seattle Times

“Maraniss is a skillful, thorough writer with an eye for telling detail. His books bespeak his passion and compassion without gilding their subjects. . . . [Maraniss is] a fact-finding contemporary historian with an artist’s touch and feel.”

—Ed Bark,
The Dallas Morning News

“For once, a player is measured not by his stats but by the personal qualities and quirks that made him special. Maraniss’s bio is poetic, conveying the outfielder’s talent, drive, and love for his Puerto Rican homeland. No wonder he’s practically a saint in Latin America.”

—
Entertainment Weekly
(Grade: A-)

“The too-short life and tragic death of the beloved Hall of Fame Pirates slugger and Latino trailblazer take center-field honors in this incisive, lyrical chronicle by a Pulitzer-winning journalist.”

—
Entertainment Weekly
(“The Must List”)

“I felt . . . joy and astonishment reading through David Maraniss’s compelling biography
Clemente. . . .
What makes this book so good is that Maraniss is such a fine researcher. . . . Maraniss is able to peel back one layer after another on what had been the accepted and conventional sports reporting of that era. . . . This book draws a compassionate account that gives the human dimension to the life of this remarkable ballplayer.”

—John C. Ensslin,
Rocky Mountain News

“The stats are not what made Clemente a legend, and author David Maraniss’s wonderful narrative details the reasons why Clemente the humanitarian is revered to this day. . . . The story that Maraniss tells is one of a real man, not of a saint. Clemente would have been pleased.”

—Pamela Moreland,
San Jose Mercury News

“Maraniss gets across both Clemente’s feeling of being underappreciated, his truly spectacular talents, and his commitment to Hispanic players. His account of the events leading up to Clemente’s death in 1972 in a rackety plane trying to get relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims is excellent and detailed.”

—Katherine A. Powers,
The Boston Globe

“Maraniss has done here for Clemente what his
When Pride Still Mattered
did for Vince Lombardi; namely, to put a stamp of immortality on his subject without casting him in bronze. . . . Maraniss’s
Clemente
is the first biography to approach Clemente’s story with both a fan’s passion and an outsider’s ability to convey that passion.”

—Allen Barra,
The New York Sun

“Captures the pride, anger, artistry, and flair that made the Pittsburgh Pirate right fielder so special. It is an admiring portrait, but written with an awareness of its subject’s flaws. . . . Despite Maraniss’s grasp of the intangible elements of Clemente’s greatness, it is his no-nonsense research and reporting that sets this book apart. His mining of contemporaneous newspaper and magazine clips, and radio transcripts, gives a freshness to decades-old material. . . . His interviews and document-gathering provide the most detailed picture yet of Clemente’s fateful final months. . . . Maraniss’s book brings a new sense of heartache and outrage to the tragedy and a fresh appreciation of Clemente’s life as a whole.”

—George Bennett,
The Palm Beach Post

“It is high time that such a heavyweight as David Maraniss . . . should deliver such a thorough and enjoyable read as
Clemente. . . .
Maraniss nails the legend perfectly.”

—Garth Woolsey,
The Toronto Star

“A well-balanced look at a complicated man who truly left the Earth too soon.”

—Rick Shefchik,
Saint Paul Pioneer Press

“To say that [Maraniss] hits a home run is an understatement. . . . The book is a lot like its subject . . . powerful, intense, hard-hitting and loaded with soul.”

—
Latino SUAVE
magazine

“What Maraniss unearths is not only a complex view of a hero but a vivid portrait of the cultural landscape of the United States. . . . Readers will walk away with an understanding of the myth and the man.”

—
Segunda Juventud

“A detailed, well-researched testament to Clemente’s intense, all-too-brief life.”

—
BookPage

“A nuanced, expertly written life of much more than a sports hero. . . . He is clearly at home with the workings of the game. . . . Yet Maraniss scores a double play by tracking Clemente’s evolution as a social force.”

—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

“Maraniss sticks to the facts in this respectful and dispassionate account. . . . Maraniss deftly balances baseball and loftier concerns like racism; he presents a nuanced picture of a ballplayer more complicated than the encomiums would suggest, while still wholly deserving them.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“David Maraniss weaves a compelling narrative of the pride, petulance, passion, will, and humanity of one of baseball’s most accomplished and tragic figures.”

—
Pages
magazine

Memory and Myth

1.
Something That Never Ends

2.
Where Momen Came From

3.
Dream of Deeds

4.
The Residue of Design

5.
¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!

6.
Alone at the Miracle

7.
Pride and Prejudice