Roberto Clemente's 'Toolbox': The Glove

From BR Bullpen

Clemente's Contemporaries Chime In

___ The Witnesses ___
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“When Clemente was out there in right field, it was like having four outfielders." - Steve Blass

Just as Clemente’s tremendous power was not readily apparent to those who didn’t see him play every day, some of the less consistently on-display elements of Clemente’s defensive game have gotten relatively short shrift. Nonetheless, with all due respect to Clemente’s cannon or ‘howitzer’ or whatever military metaphor one prefers, it was hardly his arm alone that defined Clemente’s defensive excellence.


__ Frank Thomas and Willie Stargell on Clemente's Work Ethic _
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Clemente's aforementioned defensive excellence was, as teammate Frank Thomas (circa 1955-1958) told Jim O’Brien more than twenty years after his erstwhile teammate's demise, clearly the result of hard work.

“He worked at being a great outfielder, just like Virdon worked at it to become the great center fielder he became.” [1]

Many years later, after the 1960 and ’61 breakout seasons had propelled him – however tenuously – into baseball’s inner circle, his young protégé Willie Stargell could observe firsthand his mentor’s undiminished work ethic.

“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 [your eyes] 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.” [2]

Even Clemente’s much-heralded ‘howitzer’ was not simply a gift from God – least of all its exceptional accuracy which, after all, is what separates RC from many similarly well-endowed colleagues through the years (i.e. Colavito, Reggie, Vlad, even Clemente’s hero/mentor/rival Willie Mays). Stargell continues:

[His throwing] was something that he worked on. First of all, he would make sure he had good balance in throwing. Everything was across the seams. And he knew how to throw the ball so it could land in a certain spot and take one perfect hop to the infielder or the catcher so that it doesn’t handcuff him. He would take a garbage can and put it at third base where the opening was facing him. He would have somebody hit him the ball in right field, he would run in, bring his body under control, pick up the ball, and throw it one-hop into the can. Tough to do. But that’s what made him shine a little brighter, stand a little taller.” [3]


__ Efren Bernier, Frank Thomas and Dick Groat on Clemente's Mastery of Forbes Field's Crazy Caroms _
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There was one particular quirk confronting right fielders in Pittsburgh (circa 1909-1970) that would both require and reward Clemente’s continuing diligence: namely Forbes Field’s famously problematic right-field wall, here described by his friend Efren Bernier, recalling a mid-1970 visit to the soon-to-be demolished stadium:

“That morning he showed me the tricky right-field wall at Forbes Field, which was like a hexagon. A wrong bounce and a simple hit became a double or triple. For hours he had players hit the ball against the wall, and he even learned that the ball spinned differently if it was a right-handed or left-handed batter. It was a question of the law of physics.” [4]

But long before Bernier’s last-second tour, even before Clemente had become a star and superstar respectively during those relatively injury-and-illness-free ’60 and ’61 seasons, he had already demonstrated his unparalleled mastery of this treacherous triple factory. Frank Thomas again:

“He played the wall as well as anyone I’d ever seen. I saw Paul Waner play the wall well, too, when I was a little kid, but Clemente knew every nuance of that wall.” [5]

Teammate Dick Groat seconds this notion:

“As a fielder, I never saw anyone play balls off the right field wall the way Bobby did. And I remember going to Forbes Field as a kid, when it was Paul Waner out there. It was spooky, how Bobby knew how to play that wall.” [6]


__ Pirate Pitchers Steve Blass, Vernon Law, Bob Friend and Dock Ellis Express Their Appreciation _
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Of course, lest we forget, Clemente was the quintessential ball hawk. In the words of his fellow 1971 World Series savior Steve Blass:

“When Clemente was out there in right field, there was nothing more a pitcher could want. I figured if the ball was hit to right and stayed in the ballpark, I had a chance. Some way, if it was humanly possible (and sometimes when it wasn’t), he would get there. If they had a rally going, I knew he might make an impossible catch and double off a runner and the rally would die. With him, it was like having four outfielders." [7]

Of course, Pirates pitchers throughout Clemente's career had appreciated what he brought to the table. 1960 Cy Young Award winner Vernon Law counts his blessings:

“And could he run fly balls down! He chased a lot of my mistakes. He made so many clutch catches for me. He would run at full speed with his back to the infield and make an over-the shoulder catch, then make a great throw back to the infield. He was just very impressive." [8]

Bob Friend, unlike many of his late-fifties Pirate teammates, makes the connection between Clemente's style of play – i.e. the seemingly infinite expense of energy coupled with reckless disregard for his own safety – and the need he felt to occasionally to sit himself down:

“I think the way Clemente played – running out every hit and running recklessly into the wall – he realized he needed some time off and he took it. So many times I saw him catch balls that went into the gap and he’d personally keep the other guy from getting that extra base. For a pitcher, that was something that was really appreciated. An average outfielder many times will give up the extra base. Often that’s the difference between winning and losing.

“At Forbes Field, we had one of the toughest right fields to play in baseball. Clemente could play the ball off that cement wall. Clemente would cut off the ball before it could get to the wall; he’d [not only] keep it from being a triple – he’d hold it to a single." [9]

Dock Ellis, like Blass and many of the later generation of Clemente teammates, was frankly awed:

“I played with him long enough to see him do things I never saw other guys do. Not to say other guys could not do those things, but I saw Clemente day in and day out and I can't say anything about anybody but him. He was the best I ever played with. He did things I never saw done before in baseball. As a hitter, a runner, an outfielder - throwing the ball, running the ball down, going up on the wall, up on the screen, throwing to all four bases. I saw him throw guys out at all four bases. [10]


__ RC Makes the "Greatest Catch in the History of the Astrodome," recalled by Steve Blass, Joe Morgan, Bob Watson and others _
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Blass here recalls a specific debt he owes Roberto:

“I hope somebody has the film of a catch he made a few years ago in Houston. He was playing in right center and Bob Watson hit one down the line. Robby went into the wall – not just running but leaping into it – and made a catch that saved the game." [11]

Blass is referring here to Clemente’s legendary June 15th, 1971 game-saving catch which received, not for the first time in Clemente's career, a standing ovation from the opposing team's hometown fans for the favor he'd just done them – i.e. denying their team a dramatic come-from-behind victory. UPI's Darrell Mack dubbed it the "greatest catch in the history of the Astrodome." [12] It came in the bottom of the eighth with a runner on first. That runner was future HOFer Joe Morgan and he recalls the scene:

"With two out in the eighth and Pittsburgh leading 1-0, I was on first with our left fielder Bob Watson at the plate. Clemente was playing medium deep in right center field when Bob hit a laser beam toward the right field corner. It looked as though the ball would strike just above the yellow home run line, which was 'only' 10 feet above the ground. Most right fielders would have positioned themselves to play off the wall a ball hit that high, that far, and that fast. Clemente, who was 36 at the time, wasn’t having any of that. He galloped at full stride into the corner, leaped, and caught the drive while crashing into the fence..."

Since Morgan, running on contact on the play, had to be at least halfway between second and third by the time the catch was made and, thus, almost certainly could not – and, indeed, should not – have seen the catch itself, the remainder of this narrative will be pieced together from the various beat writers' accounts:

"Clemente absorbed the full impact of the crash against the boards with his left shoulder, rebounded and crumpled to the ground." [13] "He suffered a bruised left ankle and his left elbow was also swollen. Blood spilled from a gash on the left knee. Clemente slumped on both knees, back to the infield..." [14]

"Bob Watson stood frozen at first base… staring into the corner with an expression that suggested that he was having trouble accepting what he’d just witnessed. He was still standing there, motionless, when applause rolled from the crowd in waves, breaking on the distant fences.." [15]

"Stunned for a moment, Clemente nevertheless regained his feet without assistance. The crowd stood and cheered, and his teammates arose from the dugout to rush out and congratulate him. When he stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth, he received another standing ovation." [16]

The hapless victim himself, Bob Watson, was philosophical about the whole thing:

“At least, I got robbed by one of the best in the business. It’s like if you were a trainman in the old days and Jesse James held you up. You know you’ve been robbed by the best highwayman in the business.” [17]

For Houston manager Harry Walker (who'd managed Pittsburgh for two and a half seasons starting in 1965), Clemente's catch was one of a kind. Speaking with Phil Musick after Clemente's death, he remained adament:

“It was the best I’d ever seen. He took it full flight."

This basically reiterates Walker's initial reaction, recorded by UPI's Darrell Mack:

"Houston manager Harry Walker, who has been in baseball 54 years, and coach Buddy Hancken, who has been in baseball 36 years, both said it was the greatest catch they had ever seen. 'I never saw one like that off the wall,' Walker said. 'He hit it wide open. He never slowed up. I don’t see how he could keep the ball in his glove. The thing that makes him so great is that he does it all in a jam,” Walker said. “He’s one of the best clutch players in the game.””

Pirate broadcaster (and Clemente's ex-teammate) Nellie King caught up with Clemente after the game and here offers his slightly sanitized account:

I’m sitting with him on the bus going back to the hotel, and I said, ‘Roberto, I’ve seen you make a lot of good catches, but that’s the greatest I’ve seen you make.' And he said, 'Nellie, I want to tell you something. If the ball is in the park and the game is on the line, I will catch the bleeping ball.'" [18]

For teammate Bill Mazeroski and manager Danny Murtaugh, who'd been with Clemente far too long to so easily assign victory to any one of his large and ever-expanding pool of worthy 'greatest catch' candidates, the current contender for that title harkened back to a similarly pivotal – and painful – play executed almost 11 years earlier, likewise in the midst of a successful Pirate pennant drive.

__ RC's Earlier "Greatest Catch" Candidate, made against Willie Mays on August 5, 1960, recalled by Murray Chass, Vinegar Bend Mizell and Bob Stevens _
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The victim of this earlier bit of grand larceny was none other than Roberto's old friend and mentor – and rival – Willie Mays, whose bid for a seventh-inning, leadoff extra-base hit was grabbed over-the-shoulder by RC just before crashing into the fence in right center, thus preserving a scoreless tie in a game Pittsburgh would go on to win, 1-0. This was hardly the first nor, obviously, would it be the last such close encounter between Clemente and an unforgiving outfield barrier. It also could not help but conjure up memories of an even more celebrated crime perpetrated by Mays on the unsuspecting Clemente in the second inning of a 6/3/57 6-5 Pirates win, although a more useful frame of reference for a later generation of baseball students might be Aaron Rowand, circa Thursday, May 11, 2006.

One can look to AP [19] and UPI [20] for a couple of contemporary accounts of the 1960 play.

Reporting for the visiting Giants, Bob_Stevens, beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, said simply:

"The catch had to rank with the greatest of all time, as well as one of the most frightening to watch and painful to make." [21]

More than thirty years later (and more than two decades after Clemente's death), the man with arguably the best view of this catch, Pirate centerfielder Bill Virdon, gives a somewhat more detailed account:

"In a game at Forbes Field, he caught the ball over his shoulder and ran into the concrete wall in right field where the fence angled out. There were some ornaments on the fence that jutted out, and he was going headfirst into it. Somehow he threw his head back and he got cut under the chin instead of getting hit in the throat. It probably saved his life. He caught the ball and hung onto it. When I got there and turned him over, all I could see was the gash under his chin. But other than that, he didn’t hurt himself.."[22]

_______ Notes _______
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  1. O’Brien, Remember Roberto, p. 133
  2. Markusen, Roberto Clemente, p. 117
  3. Markusen, Roberto Clemente, pp. 75-76
  4. Wagenheim, Clemente, pp. 210-211
  5. O’Brien, Remember Roberto, p. 133
  6. O'Brien, p. 223
  7. Steve Blass as told to Phil Musick, “A Teammate Remembers Roberto Clemente,” Sport {April 1973}, p. 90
  8. Victor Debs, Jr., That Was Part of Baseball Then: Interviews With 24 Former Major League Baseball Players, Coaches & Managers, p.158
  9. O'Brien, Remember Roberto, p. 151
  10. Phil Pepe, Talkin’ Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s (New York, Ballantine Books, 1998), p. 48
  11. Blass as told to Phil Musick, “A Teammate Remembers Roberto Clemente,” Sport, p. 92
  12. Darrell Mack, "Clemente Makes Greatest Catch in Astrodome History," The Raleigh Register (Wednesday, June 16, 1971), p. 22
  13. Jack Gallagher, “No Rightfielder Like Roberto,” The Houston Post (Thursday, June 17, 1971), p. 1/D
  14. Charley Feeney, “Greatest Catch? This One by Roberto Will Do,” The Sporting News (July 3, 1971), p.7
  15. Musick, Reflections on Roberto (Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Associates DBA, 1994), p. 78
  16. Jack Gallagher, “No Rightfielder Like Roberto,” The Houston Post (Thursday, June 17, 1971), p. 1/D
  17. Joe Heiling, “Astrolog,” The Houston Post (Thursday, May 4, 1972), p. 10/D
  18. Markusen, Roberto Clemente: The Great One (Champaign, Sports Publishing, Inc. 1998), p.76
  19. Murray Chass (AP): "MIZELL LAUDS BUCS DEFENSE FOR HIS WINS," The Gettysburg Times (Saturday, August 6, 1960), p. 5
  20. (UPI), "Mizell Notches 2nd Straight Shutout; Faltering Giants Beaten By 1 To 0," The Beaver County Times (Saturday, August 6, 1960), p. 10
  21. Stevens, “Spectacular Game: Virdon Circles Bases on Error,” The San Francisco Chronicle (August 6, 1960), p. 27
  22. Jim O'Brien, Remember Roberto (1994), p. 430


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