The Latino Model Roberto Clemente Essay - 1571 Words

During the mid-1950’s, Major League Baseball was in the midst of an influential movement. Jackie Robinson had broken baseball’s â€Å"color barrier† in 1947, which helped usher in the participation of other minorities, especially the Latinos. Just as the blacks were faced with adversity, the Latino players experienced the same. The teams integrated slowly and sportswriters often scorned the players having difficulty developing English as a second language (Regalado 678). Roberto Clemente joined this complicated era of baseball and his reputation was backed with a stellar baseball career, which set the foundation for the involvement of many other Latino players. With Clemente’s cultivated background, one can see how he became to be one of†¦show more content†¦Not only did he have the individual statistics, but he also helped lead the Pirates to two World Series Championships, in 1960 and 1971; he won the MVP for the 1971 series as well. He thought about retirement after the 1971 season but felt there was more to be gained in representing the Latino population. Following the 1972, where he had achieved the milestone of 3,000 career hits, he went to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua but perished when his plane crashed in the ocean. A few months after his death, in April 1973, the Baseball Writers of America voted to induct Clemente into the Baseball Hall of Fame, where he became the first Latino player to ever be inducted. While he may seem he couldn’t have been any better on the field, he was just as great off the field. Clemente knew that leadership and social responsibility in the Latino world was also a part of his career (Regalado 679). In fact, he stated, â€Å"Lots of kids will try to imitate me, and maybe I will have the chance to do some good for people,† in an interview with the New York Times (Regalado 679). Clemente’s presence on and off the field challenged the misconceptions about Latino players, especially those from Puerto Rico, by the typical American at the time. Driven by the need to succeed, he emerged as a symbol for not only Latino recognition but also Puerto Rican (Regalado 683). Many Latinos left their homelands to