Bucs honor Clemente's legacy with community outreach
Roberto Clemente put on a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform for the last time 51 years ago, and the Pirates organization has honored the on- and off-field legacy that he left behind ever since.
The baseball world, from Pittsburgh to Puerto Rico and everywhere in between, watched Clemente succeed on the baseball field for 18 seasons. But his lasting impact off the field and in the community meant just as much to the city where he spent his entire MLB career.
“It’s an example that we live with literally every day,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said. “As you walk out onto the field, we have a little sign of Roberto Clemente that the players walk under every single day to remind them of the legacy of giving and of community, that he set for all of us.”
This past weekend, fans from near and far came to Pittsburgh to celebrate Clemente Day.
To kick off the festivities, the Pirates organization was joined by the Clemente family and members of Puerto-Rican based GFR Media on Tuesday, Sept. 12 to welcome “3000” to PNC Park all the way from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The impactful black-and-white photographic exhibit captured the family life and lasting legacy of No. 21 through the lens of veteran photojournalist Luis Ramos.
“It’s so exciting to have this here,” Nutting said. “An opportunity to celebrate Roberto’s incredible legacy. To be able to do it as we’re leading up to Clemente Day, to be able to do it with these photographs and this exhibit, many of which haven’t been seen. And to share with the fans so everyone can remember and just touch a little piece of just how great the Great One really was.”
This collection of never-before-seen photos featured Clemente right before the game where he recorded his his 3,000th hit, sitting in his locker reading fan mail, and demonstrated his commitment to baseball and the Pirates.
The photos displayed in the interactive exhibit hold a greater meaning to Roberto Clemente Jr., who had limited images of his dad’s baseball career before being alerted to these by his brother, Luis. When walking through the exhibit, Clemente Jr. was brought back to the times he spent in the Pirates clubhouse with his dad and being surrounded by his dad’s teammates.
“Having this great vault open up to the family was a key, was a catalyst in making this happen,” Roberto Clemente Jr. said. “We’re very fortunate and very grateful for El Nuevo Día to open the doors, and for us to come in and check out what’s there that we haven’t seen before and be able to share that with all the fans out here.”
This is the first time the exhibit, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of his 3,000th hit, left Clemente’s home country, Puerto Rico. It only made sense that the next stop on the journey was to his second home, Pittsburgh.
The lead up to Clemente Day continued Thursday evening with the Clemente Gala, hosted by the Roberto Clemente Foundation, an event that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Great One’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Andrew McCutchen, who won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2015, was honored at the gala in front of Pirates manager Derek Shelton, teammate and 2023 Clemente Award nominee David Bednar, and Pirates president Travis Williams.
On the morning of Sept. 15, local and city, county, and state officials gathered outside of PNC Park and issued resolutions recognizing Sept. 15 as Roberto Clemente Day.
To further honor the life and legacy of the right fielder on Clemente Day, the Pirates and Pirates Charities hosted their annual Clemente Day of Service, presented by FedEx. Following in the footsteps of Clemente himself, nearly 150 Pirates front office staff and 36 active players and coaches, along with their families took part in the day to give back to the Pittsburgh community.
“Clemente Day is so important,” Bednar said. “He’s what everybody should model themselves after. Obviously on the field is one thing, but off the field is way more important and speaks to a way bigger level. It speaks to what he was and who he was as a person, and how his legacy is still continuing and how we’re celebrating him now. It’s exactly what you would want. It’s truly unbelievable, the impact and how his legacy continues to live on.”
Each of the four Pirates Charities pillars -- youth baseball and softball, cancer support, military appreciation and mental health -- were represented with a project, and a fifth that supported Pittsburgh's Latino Community Center.
“This is a day that our staff looks forward to all year and even with a busy weekend ahead as we host the New York Yankees, teammates from all departments were eager to volunteer however they could,” Sarah Heffler, coordinator of community programming, said. “In just four hours, 36 uniformed staff members and their families, nearly 150 front office staff members, and dozens of volunteers from our partners at FedEx, Duquesne Light and Calgon Carbon impacted hundreds of our Pittsburgh neighbors and troops overseas, all in honor of ‘the Great One.’ We are so proud to be a part of an organization that emphasizes the importance of and so strongly encourages giving back to our community.”
To grow the game of youth baseball and softball, Pirates volunteers were joined by staff from Duquesne Light Company to renovate a field, located on the city’s South Side, which is home to hundreds of athletes who are part of the Pirates Nike RBI program. Volunteers with a focus on mental health awareness replenished donations and prepared meals for the residents and survivors served by the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. At PNC Park, over 300 care packages of food, hygiene products, games and activities were assembled by Pirates and Calgon Carbon volunteers, which will be sent to troops overseas with the help of Operation Troop Appreciation.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Pirates and FedEx volunteers spent time at the Latino Community Center restocking the food pantry, providing activities for their after-school program, and building lunch packs for any of their kids facing food insecurity.
“The Latino Community Center just wants to thank the Pirates, who we consider family, for their donations today on Roberto Clemente Day,” Belkys Torres, president of the board of director of the Latino Community Center, said. “They’ve donated food for our food pantry to make sure that families who are in need are well fed, and they’ve created snack packs for our kids in our back-to-school program. The children are going to be so excited on Monday to receive those snacks and the treats from the Pirates.”
Williams and Bednar joined Pirates volunteers at the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute to serve breakfast to the staff, courtesy of Giant Eagle, and deliver comfort items to patients of the Glimmer of Hope Metastatic Breast Cancer Center.
“When you have the legacy of Roberto Clemente as part of this organization there’s a long history. But obviously, he was a really important and key part of that, so he drives us every day to give back to our communities and serve them,” Williams said. “That’s something that’s in our DNA from day one. It’s something that all of our players, our coaches, and our staff take very seriously, and feel is important to be able to give back to our communities in the way in which Roberto Clemente taught us back in the day when he was here in Pittsburgh.”
While it’s special to have Sept. 15 as a day to honor Clemente and the work he did in the community, Pirates Charities is constantly embracing his legacy through service projects and events that touch so many lives and have a positive impact on Pittsburgh communities.
“This is a great extension of his legacy,” Roberto Clemente Jr. said. “This is exactly what he did while he was playing. Being able to come up to a hospital, lift spirits up of the patients … this is a great way of honoring his memory by visiting the hospital. The Pirates Charities have continued to do the great work and I believe it’s a great impact and he’s still impacting the community in the name of Clemente.”