Roberto Clemente quotes - page 10
When I was 15, he came to my hometown for a clinic. I remember everything, particularly the things he taught me about playing the outfield. It helped me my whole career. He showed me the way to throw the ball, and the way to catch it, and the best way to hit the cutoff man, and he taught me how to learn to anticipate where the ball would come. [... A few years later,] I was playing center field, right next to him in right field. It was a thrill. Everything he taught me helped me my whole career, and I try to teach the kids the same way.
Roberto Clemente
If Clemente were a selfish player, he could hit 25 to 40 home runs a season. But he's always been content to set up a lot of runs for the fourth and fifth place hitters. That's why I always hit him third in the lineup. That has been my argument all along with the press. I've told the writers time and time again; nobody ever takes into consideration the amount of runs he sets up with singles and doubles. He takes great pride in hitting behind the runner and he does everything possible to help a ballclub. All the players look up to him. He helps a manager in so many ways, starting with spring training. When the young Latin players come into camp, he takes them under his wing and advises them as if he were their father.
Roberto Clemente
Roberto really should not have played that second game. He was so tired from the previous night's game and lack of sleep that he passed up batting practice. But he played all twenty-five innings within a twenty-hour period... Man, when I was playing, it would take me three or four weeks to get that many hits.
Roberto Clemente
Max Macon, the manager, told me one day on the bench late in the season, "That kid will be starting at Pittsburgh next season." I said, "What do you mean?" He told me about the draft rule for anybody signing a bonus of more than $4,000 and said the Pirates would have the first draft choice and would be sure to take Clemente. He said they'd been scouting him. You could tell he had talent. And he was such a nice kid.
Roberto Clemente
During the Series, after arriving in Baltimore, Roberto practiced for hours studying how the ball caromed off the right field fence at different angles and locations. His determination was of such a magnitude that one could be excused for believing he'd gone crazy. Crazy like a fox is more like it, as the World Series would ultimately demonstrate; time after time, Roberto, having left nothing to chance, would appear in precisely the right spot to field each carom. For me, Roberto Clemente has to be the greatest right fielder of all time.
Roberto Clemente
![When I took the job, Joe Brown, who bossed the team, said to me, "I want you to keep Clemente happy if you can," and that was easy. I used to tell Roberto that he was as good as Ted Williams. And that was something from me. Williams was a god to me and I was putting Roberto in the same class with him. [...] I never in my life thought the man could play the way he did for the Pirates. I saw Roberto Clemente make plays that were just about impossible, and I was forever praising him and he loved every second of it. (Roberto Clemente)](https://cdn.quotesdtb.com/img/quotes_images_webp/45/roberto-clemente-brown-class-1004145.webp)
I guess the best words I could use, when he first come up: great ability, played hard, but he was somewhat of a hot dog. Maybe he didn't run out a ball. He was known for that when he first come up. And, uhh... then, as he matured, he became the leader of the club, and [pause] the hot dog was gone. He just matured and became... became the guy that he was... that he was destined to be.
Roberto Clemente
This boy may not possess the color of Jackie Robinson or Willie Mays, but he has enough natural ability to be spoken of along with any of those fellows. I suppose I have a peculiar attachment to Robert [sic]. That's because we got him for a "steal," you might say. I was with the Dodgers when we acquired Clemente after scouting him in Puerto Rico. So I was thoroughly acquainted with the boy when the major league draft came up in the winter of 1954, after I had come to Pittsburgh from Brooklyn. The Dodgers were apparently bent on "hiding" Robert when they transferred him to the Pacific Coast League. But since I knew what he could do, and that he was somewhere in their farm system, I withheld the Pirates' draft selection until I found the boy. We got him for the relatively small draft price-perhaps the biggest steal in baseball.
Roberto Clemente
Today he said that he would wager "up to a dollar" that Roberto Clemente would hit 30 points higher this season. "He was moving his head around. It was up in the air most of the time when he swung. That's why he was troubled so much by curves. Now after one bit of instruction, he is holding his head steady."
Roberto Clemente
This is a young team and one of the advantages of working with youngsters is they're eager to learn and they're good students. They're willing to accept advice. We don't have too many power hitters on the Pirates and naturally it isn't my aim to develop the singles hitters into home run hitters. I feel if they'll just meet the ball solidly, they'll fill the bill. I think the averages have declined in recent years because most players are looking for the home run every time at bat. But we'll be satisfied with a good, consistent performance. Virdon and Clemente hit only 17 home runs between them but they ran two-three in the National League batting race.
Roberto Clemente
I especially respected and admired Clemente, who later became one of my best friends. Roberto was superhuman on the ball field. He played right field with the grace and style of a ballet dancer. His agility and strength enabled him to perform plays some fans thought to be impossible. But he was also an intensely fierce warrior who played each game as if it were his last.
Roberto Clemente
He worked at it. One of the things that he taught me was every time we'd go into a stadium – or even at home – to spend a little extra time working on things: have balls hit to you, not just fly balls or ground balls, but hit ‘em off the wall at different angles. Find the sun, hit the ball into the sun and be able to shield the sun in such a way that you don't lose the ball in the sun. His ability was no accident. He put a lot of time and effort and intelligence into his game. And what people saw was the finished product.
Roberto Clemente
Sukeforth went to Pittsburgh and consulted with Branch Rickey, who had moved from the Dodgers to the Pirate organization and was engaged in a "five-year plan" to recruit young players for the perennial losers. A few days later, Sukeforth went to Montreal to see more of Roberto. That night, while having dinner with Max Macon, the manager, he said with a mischievous grin, "I notice you haven't been playing Clemente much lately." Before Macon could reply, Sukeforth said, "You might as well use him. He's better than anyone we have in Pittsburgh right now. We're going to finish last, and we're going to draft him number one." Then rising from the table, Sukeforth waved and said, "Take care of our boy."
Roberto Clemente
I had been with other teams before I came to the Pirates. I had been with clubs in Kansas City and before that in Baltimore. But I had never been with a ballplayer like Clemente. I knew he was going to be great. I saw him make plays in '60 and I saw someone like Al Kaline try to make plays like that, and he couldn't. Clemente could throw the ball. There were few who could throw the ball like him. Rocky Colavito could and Kaline could, and Carl Furillo and Willie Mays could, but not many of them. He was such a great athlete. He could stop and go. He could've played football. He was just a natural, instinctive ballplayer. If someone said, ‘Hey, Roberto, let's go pitch horseshoes,' he'd probably win all the time. He had great speed – he was just such a natural athlete. I was in awe of his ability.
Roberto Clemente
A duster thrown to leadoff batter Roberto Clemente by Sal Maglie in the September 21 game was credited with playing a major role in the Pirates' 2 to 1 win over the Dodgers. "You should have heard our players on the bench," said Bucco coach Clyde Sukeforth, formerly of the Dodger staff. "They were madder than at anytime I've seen 'em this season. It was a stupid thing to do. It got the guys fighting mad. It would have been better to let sleeping dogs lie."
Roberto Clemente
The worse he felt physically, the better he seemed to play. He gave it 100% every day, every play. No one played the crazy right field in Pittsburgh better. I think my favorite quote from him came when Bobby Bragan asked him why he didn't find one batting stance and stick with it. Bob replied, "Bobby, it don't matter how you stand, it matter where you end up!”.
Roberto Clemente