Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero (58 page)

only a lost battle
:
Ric Roberts,
Pittsburgh Courier,
April 14, 1955. In the column it was noted: “If Jackie Robinson had remained with the Kansas City Monarchs all the years since he joined them back in 1945, he would have earned no more than $35,000. At Brooklyn his income has certainly aggregated more than $252,000! He is the leader in a glittering procession . . .”

Rickey was feeling the harsh sting
:
Confidential letter to Mr. Joe Bradis of the AP from Branch Rickey, Branch Rickey Papers, July 30, 1954, LCMD.

Freese liked to tease Clemente
:
Int. Gene Freese.

On stationery with a Bing Crosby/Hollywood logo
:
Before reaching Rickey’s desk, Crosby’s note was read by the Mahatma’s friend and aide Ken Blackburn, who added this handwritten message: “Mr. Sisler has already written Mr. Crosby re these boys and their clippings . . . Ed McCarrick is also following and will again contact these boys when he returns home, K.B.”

The fiberglass and plastic batting helmet
:
Supplementary Financial Information, American Baseball Cap Inc., Branch Rickey Papers, June 30, 1962, LCMD.

Two weeks later, after another hot streak
:
Bill Nunn Jr,
Pittsburgh Courier,
June 16, 1955; int. Bill Nunn Jr.

“he speaks only a little broken English”
: Pittsburgh Courier,
June 16, 1955; ints. Bill Nunn Jr., George Kiseda, Roy McHugh, Nick Koback.

GO TO HILL! NEGRO FAMILY TOLD
:
Pittsburgh Courier,
July 2, 1955;
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
April 25, 2004.
Courier
reporter George E. Barbour began his story: “ ‘I’ll throw you out,’ Richard Cook, burgess of Glenfield, told this 200-pound reporter Monday when he went to Cook’s office to learn why the latter had advised a Negro family last Friday not to move into an all-white residential section.”

Clemente’s first friend in Pittsburgh
:
Ints. Duane Rieder, Bill Nunn Jr., Bob Friend; Jim O’Brien,
Remembering Roberto.

The Garlands had let rooms
:
Ints. Vera Clemente, Bill Nunn Jr., Carolyn Rauch.

Looking south and downhill
:
Observations of Schenley Park geography and sociology drawn from leisurely tour of the area provided by longtime resident Bill Nunn Jr.

with no help from the baseball team
:
Stefan Lorant,
Pittsburgh, The Story of an American City;
Sports Town, David Shribman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
2004.

5:
¡ARRIBA! ¡ARRIBA!

Bob Prince, the play-by-play announcer
:
Ints. Howard Fineman, Richard Santry, Bruce Laurie, Myron Cope, Nelson Briles, Bob Friend, Harding Peterson;
baseballLibrary.com
.

Clemente wrote Brown a letter
:
February 26, 1960, Duane Rieder collection, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Native Pittsburgher Duane Rieder, a first-class photographer, has turned the second floor of his firehouse studio into a shrine to Roberto Clemente. Along with a fine collection of photographs, he has accumulated baseballs, letters, even a blue pinstriped suit that Clemente bought in Chicago.

The regular season started on the road
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press,
April 12–15, 1955.

A face in the crowd
:
Int. Howard Fineman. As a native Pittsburgher, who became a national political writer for
Newsweek,
Fineman was fascinated by the role of department stores in the cultural sociology of his hometown: “Pittsburghers had this thing of always being the biggest or best between New York and Chicago. People in Pittsburgh never looked to Philadelphia for anything. As far as we knew, Philadelphia never existed. If you had ambition in Pittsburgh, it was for New York. One of the ways in which Pittsburgh was the training ground was the department store business. What came to be called the Golden Triangle, the central part of downtown Pittsburgh, was compact and Manhattanlike in its own way. And it was a training ground for the guys who would end up running Macy’s or whatever. When I was a kid [1950s and early 1960s] there were five department stores in downtown Pittsburgh: Kauffman’s, Gimbels, Horns, Frank and Seder, and Rosenbaum’s.”

During an Easter Sunday doubleheader
:
Ints. Bob Friend, Dick Schofield;
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press,
April 18–22, 1955.

The Pirates were as consistent
:
World Champions Pittsburgh Pirates 1960 Statistical Résumé, Pittsburgh Baseball Club, Galbreath Collection, Darby Dan.

One of the paper’s weekly features
: Pittsburgh Courier,
May–September 1960. In his guest column, utility infielder Gene Baker, who was widely respected by baseball insiders, wrote optimistically about the future of blacks in the game’s management. “I’m one of the optimists who like to think the day will come when Negroes are accepted in front-office jobs the same as they are on the playing field. When that day arrives, I would like to be ready to fit into the pattern.” Baker went on to become a scout and minor league manager for the Pirates, but never got his full shot at a top job.

“Som’ Co-lored people”
: Pittsburgh Courier,
June 25, 1955.
Courier
sports editor Bill Nunn Jr. followed in the tradition of his father, Bill
Nunn Sr., a longtime editor at the
Courier.
The son played basketball at Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh and then at West Virginia State, returning to work at the
Courier
in 1948. He was a close friend of most of the black major leaguers, starting with Jackie Robinson. The baseball player guest column began with a regular article under Robinson’s byline that was ghost-written by Nunn.

The Pirates had several candidates
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
September 2, 1960;
Pittsburgh Courier,
August–September 1960: Ints. Bill Nunn Jr., Roy McHugh, Myron Cope, Bob Friend, Dick Schofield, Joe L. Brown.

Less than a month later
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press,
August 15–September 15, 1960;
The Incredible Pirates, We Had ’Em All the Way,
LP (Rare Sport films Inc., 1960).

6: ALONE AT THE MIRACLE

The last time the Pirates played
:
Bob Addie,
Washington Post,
October 5, 1960; Edward Prell,
Chicago Tribune,
October 5, 1960;
Pittsburgh Press,
October 4, 1960.

“We’ll fight ’em until our teeth fall out”
:
Will Grimsley, AP, October 4, 1960.

The Pirates would win
:
Int. Bill Nunn Jr.;
Pittsburgh Courier,
October 1960.

Another scouting report got in more digs
: Life,
October 5, 1960.

Among those making the trip
:
Int. Matino Clemente;
Pittsburgh Courier,
October 1, 1960. In another
Courier
story headlined
FIVE TAN PLAYERS READY FOR SERIES,
Ric Roberts noted that not since “1950, when the Yankees routed the Phillies in four games, have we seen an all-white World Series. We can be certain that at least one of our heroes will be in the call to arms at Forbes Field on Wednesday, October 5. Over 40,000 Pirate fans will greet his appearance at bat with the Spanish urging
¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!”

A fellow named Ralph Belcore
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press,
AP, October 5, 1960.

“Only in Pittsburgh”
:
Red Smith,
New York Herald Tribune,
October 5, 1960.

A telegram had been taped
:
Branch Rickey Papers, LCMD;
Pittsburgh Press,
October 6 1960.

Law had the stuff
: San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York Herald Tribune, New York Times,
October 4–7, 1960;
The Incredible
Pirates,
LP; ints. Bob Friend, Roy McHugh, Harding Peterson, Bill Nunn Jr., Dick Schofield.

“Any questions?”
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
Dick Groat, October 6, 1960.

The first-inning rally
:
Account of Game 1 drawn from ints. Bob Friend, Harding Peterson, Dick Schofield, Roy McHugh, Joe L. Brown;
The Incredible Pirates,
LP;
Baseball Classics, 1960 World Series
(Rare Sportsfilms Inc.); articles in the
Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Tribune, New York Post,
and
Washington Post.

It rained all that night
: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Pittsburgh Press, Washington Post,
October 7, 1960.

“I don’t blame Danny”
:
Int. Bob Friend.

In the mess of this slaughter
: New York Herald Tribune, Washington Post,
October 7, 1960;
The Baseball Encyclopedia;
Ralph Berger,
The Baseball Biography Project,
SABR.

The batting star
: New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Courier,
October 7, 1960; int. Dick Schofield.

“If you quit on the Pirates now”
:
Don Hoak column,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
October 9, 1960.

For the critical fourth game
:
Game account drawn from columns by Vern Law, Don Hoak, and Pennsylvania Governor David Lawrence in
Post-Gazette; Washington Post, New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Press,
October 10, 1960; ints. Bob Friend, Dick Schofield, Joe L. Brown.

Bob Friend was ready
:
Int. Bob Friend; Don Hoak column
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
October 12, 1960.

In the locker room after the game
:
Ted Meir, Associated Press, published in
San Juan Star,
October 12, 1960. The
Star
article ran under the headline:
CASEY ADMITS ROBERTO IS GOOD RIGHT FIELDER.

The focus of the world
: Washington Post, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune,
October 12, 1960.

“The fellow who did the most throwing”
: New York Times,
October 13, 1960.

The thirteenth of October
:
Account of Game 7 of World Series and postgame drawn from
Baseball Classics, 1960 World Series; The Incredible Pirates,
LP; ints. Bob Friend, Dick Schofield, Harding Peterson, Joe L. Brown, Roy McHugh, Myron Cope, Bill Nunn Jr., Howard Fineman, Matino Clemente;
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh
Courier, Pittsburgh Press, New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Herald Tribune, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune.

Nunn noticed that Clemente
:
Ints. Matino Clemente, Bill Nunn Jr.; Bill Nunn Jr.,
Pittsburgh Courier,
October 22, 1960. After describing Clemente’s actions in the clubhouse and during the walk to his car, Nunn’s concluding paragraph read: “And as the auto pulled away from the curb and Clemente sat back and relaxed, it was obvious that here was a player who had enjoyed his victory celebration a lot better on the streets of Pittsburgh than in the clubhouse he shares with his teammates.”

7: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Handmade welcome-home placards
: San Juan Star,
October 17, 1960.
HOME FROM BATTLE
read the cutline above a
Star
photograph accompanying the front-page story that showed Clemente kissing his mother.

There was only one small note
:
Jim Douglas,
ROBERTO SAYS HE’S NOT SURE HE’LL PLAY HERE,
San Juan Star,
October 17, 1960.

The winner was indeed a Pirate
:
Ints. Matino Clemente, Vera Clemente, Roy McHugh, Myron Cope, Bill Nunn, Jr., Bob Friend, Dick Schofield, Joe L. Brown;
San Juan Star,
November 18–19, 1960,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette;
Sam Nover, “A Conversation with RC,” 1972.

“My father was a boy”
:
Int. Enrique Zorrilla.

Power and Clemente were fast friends
:
Ints. Vic Power, Matino Clemente, Luis Olmo, Eduardo Valero; Zorrilla family archive; Thomas E. Van Hyning,
The Santurce Crabbers.

On the day he reached Fort Myers
: New York Times,
March 2, 1961.

Wendell Smith, the influential black sportswriter
:
Wendell Smith papers, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York; Brian Carroll, Wendell Smith’s “Last Crusade,” 13th Annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, National Baseball Hall of Fame; Jack E. Davis, “Baseball’s Reluctant Challenge,”
Journal of Sports History,
Summer 1992;
Pittsburgh Courier,
March 26, 1961;
Chicago’s American,
January–August 1961. In an April 3, 1961,
Chicago’s American
article, “What a Negro Ballplayer Faces Today in Training,” Smith wrote: “To the average white player, the six weeks spent training is merely a blink of pleasant time in a ballplayer’s life, but
to his Negro teammate it is an eternity of humiliations and frustrations.”

Clemente was described as “bitter”
:
Bill Nunn Jr.,
Pittsburgh Courier,
April 15, 1961.