Roberto Clemente on Time

"The American League must be that fountain of youth they talk about. A lot of National League pitchers did pretty good in the American League this year."

"Sometimes people stop me in the street and ask me eef I am Harry Belafonte. When I say no, they get mad and walk away."

"In other years, we talk pennant with mouth, do nothing on field. This year we do our talking on field, keep mouths closed about pennant."

"Blass, if you pitch me inside, I will hit forty-three home runs a year, thirty-seven of them off you!"

"I felt kind of bashful when the fans cheered. I'm a very quiet, shy person, although you writers might not believe it because I shout sometimes."

"I like to work with kids. I'd like to work with kids all the time, if I live long enough."

"We are on the field doing what we love to do. They have to work in the mill or other places eight hours a day, and work much harder than us and they pay their way in."

"I didn't like the trade. Santurce is close to my home town and I like the fans there. They good to me and cheer me all the time. I may not go back. I may work in Pittsburgh."

"I could always hit a home run, but if I try to do that all the time, maybe I not hit over .300. I am more valuable to my team hitting .330, .340, than I am swinging for home runs."

"It is my greatest year, but my biggest disappointment."

"We play too many games with too much traveling. We should stay in one city longer and have a day off now and then. It would be beneficial for the teams, keep them in top physical shape more."

"Clemente, who says Josh Gibson is the best hitter he ever saw, is anxious to see Ted Williams when the slugger comes here a week from Monday for the benefit exhibition between the Pirates and Red Sox."

"I owe a lot to the opportunities I have had. I think we have a great country, and the day that all people of all races have equal opportunity to be useful to their community, we're going to have a better country."

"It is easy to explain. This is the first time I ever went into a season without aches and pains. One year I was bothered by a bad back and it carried into another season. Another year I hurt my hand. This year I feel good."

"One day I could play and three days later I couldn't move. Our relationship was shaky because if one day you can play and the next day you can't, a person has to wonder if there's not something wrong in your head. But we straightened it out."

"Bragan and Walker talked to me the most. The fellow who helped me most of all was Buck Clarkson. I think he lives in Donora. He managed me in the Puerto Rican League when I was a boy. He used to see me throw a ball from the outfield 400 feet on the line, most of the time wild. And I hit good. Buck Clarkson used to tell me I am as good as anybody in big leagues. That helped me a lot."

"If I make up my mind I’m going to hit 20 homers this year, I bet you any amount of money I can hit 20." A change of style would do the trick, he claims, but what sort of change? "Nothing. A little change in the hands, that’s all. I don’t want to tell you what it is."

"Last year I lose almost 20 pounds. When I go home end season I weigh only 163. I worry more 'bout bad back than I worry 'bout baseball. Now I feel goot. Ver goot. I sink I play one fitty games and I hit thee hunnert. I feel I hab goot season. Maybe fiteen home runs, nyenee RBIs, steal maybe dirty bases."

"Anytime I feel something is wrong I'm gonna say something. Baseball has changed in many ways since I first came to the big leagues. Ballplayers feel they can speak up much more now than they did then. I spoke up even then. I didn't like some of the things the white players said to Roberts so I said some things to them that they didn't like."

"You know, Nellie, when I was young I would run on fly balls hit to the outfield. I'd go around second base and I suddenly realize the ball is going to be caught. Sometimes I would run across the infield and never re-touch second base. Sometimes the umpires wouldn't notice if the players wouldn't. I didn't know how to run the bases well the first couple of years."

"I threw the javelin in high school, but that’s only part of the reason for my good arm. I got my good arm from my mother. Today she’s 73, yet she can throw a ball from second base to home plate with something on it. Last year, when they opened the amateur winter league in Puerto Rico, she threw out the first ball from a box seat to home plate. She had something on it, too. She’s in good health."

"I think winning the batting championship again would be my biggest thrill. I put it above the Most Valuable Player award. After all, hundreds of players are trying for the title. If I win, that means I'm best. It also means the first championship I won was no fluke. A lot of people like to say it was. I believe I stand a good chance of winning this year if my weight holds up. Right now I think it will."

"I no play so gut yet," the Puerto Rican star tried to explain yesterday. "Me like hot weather, veree hot. I no run fast cold weather. No get warm in cold. No get warm, no play gut. You see." Clemente likes Forbes Field and Connie Mack Stadium the best of all the parks he's played in but has a strong dislike for Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds because of the crazy bounces the balls take as they ricochet off the walls."

"For years, I have been pleading with somebody in charge at Forbes Field to put clay instead of sand in the batter’s box. Sand causes your feet to slip. Clay gives you a chance to keep your feet solid. So all I got for years was sand and more sand. Batters would dig holes. I come to bat and scrape dirt to cover up the holes. Suddenly this year, they put clay in the batter’s box. Now I have firm footing. Now I can get a toe-hold."

"No, no. Bill should play two or three more years. Talk to him. Tell him he can get in shape. I know he can play better second base than anybody. He is two years younger than I am. He is the greatest second baseman of all time, a real super star. But people forget too fast what he has done for the Pirates. Nobody I ever saw could field with him. He won the World Series with his home run against the Yankees. I don't like to see him retire."

"It seems to me they like to play up my faults. If I make a bad play, it seems to get more publicity than the good things I do. They always compare me with Paul Waner and things in the past. I didn't play ball 25 years ago. I'm playing now. I think I should be judged on this basis. I get tired of hearing that Waner was a better hitter than me. A lot of old fans tell me I field better, run faster and throw harder than Waner. Nobody says anything about that."

"I feel better now than I did at any time last season; the shoulder really hurt me bad last year. The left shoulder still gives me some trouble. It makes me swing differently. I have to adjust. Sometimes I find I'm over-cutting the ball. That is not my natural style. I used to swing and I just knew I could hit the ball hard. I knew when I could hit to right field, when I could pull. Now it's different. I have to force myself more than I ever did. Maybe it's because I'm getting old. Maybe."

"I want play but back hurt. If I no can play good, I no help team. So I wait until pain goes away. I no swing bat good, no run good, no catch ball like old times. I try but pain, she too much. Some days, no pain. Other days, pain all time. Some days pain so much I theenk maybe I quit baseball. But I need money so I play baseball." Clemente doesn't even want to think of an operation on his back. He says he had two brothers and a sister who died following surgery and his family opposes operations."

"“I sick, I have nervous stomach. I can hardly eat. I’m taking lot of vitamins and I’m getting stronger. But I still sick.” Clemente said he’s been bothered by stomach trouble since last August. "During the winter I feel real bad. I lost 18 pounds but I’ve picked my weight back up a little since then. I don’t feel too strong and sometimes when I run I get short of breath. Sometime I feel good and sometime I don’t feel like playing ball at all.” “If I get a little stronger, I hit with more power and I help the club more."

"I'm very happy. Very happy. This is a great honor. The only thing I would trade this for is a pennant. This is the first year a manager made me feel like I wanted to keep going all the time. In 1965 he told me I'd hit .325 when I was sick with malaria and batting about .270. Last spring he told me he wanted me to hit 25 home runs and drive in 100 runs. He made me feel I belonged. He did the job. Maybe he isn't the best manager in the game but he works hard. He made us what we are. Got to give him credit. I had my best year for Walker. So did a lot of others."