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.