Lincoln Blog
July 27, 2010:
Believe it or not, there actually was a time when the Pittsburgh Pirates were among the elite teams in baseball.
During that era no star shone brighter than Roberto Clemente.
Roberto Clemente was the Pirate's star right fielder in the early 1970s. During the 1972 season he recorded his 3,000th career hit. His future -- and that of the Pittsburgh Pirates seemed limitless.
Off field, Roberto Clemente was as big of a star as he was on the diamond. On the last day of 1972 he boarded a plane to personally deliever relief supplies to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua.
The plan crashed into the ocean on take-off.
There were no survivors.
Clemente has received many honors for his careers as a humanitarian and as a baseball player.
But he has yet to receive the ultimate honor: Having has number -- 21 -- permanently retired by Major League Baseball.
At a time when major league baseball seems more like a collection of spoiled millionaire players who abuse drugs to enhance their performances baseball needs a hero.
It already has one.
Roberto Clemento was everything that Major League Baseball was, should be, and must become again.
Retiring Roberto Clemente's number would signal that even in this modern era, disgraced by abuse, those at the highest level of the sport still remember the games ideals.
Roberto Clemente was that ideal.
And retiring his number would hold him up as a role model for today's players, and for the millions of fans who long to see the luster returned to America's game.
