Roberto Clemente 1964 Timeline

This is the 1964 installment in a chronology of memorable moments in the professional career of Roberto Clemente.

__ Apr 21 __ Cubs Can Run But Can't Hide... At Least Not Forever

After RC’s disputed 4th-inning solo shot which "hit the left field foul pole" brings Bucs to within one at 2-1, he proceeds to receive three consecutive intentional walks as Cubs desperately attempt to outpace Pittsburgh’s comeback attempt. Following final free pass, however, Bucs finally make them pay, as Gene Freese’s 9th-inning pinch-hit three-run homer puts Pittsburgh ahead for good, 8-5.

__ May 17 __ Robby's Revenge: One-Man Army vs. Erstwhile Employer

"Clemente waged a one-man war against Los Angeles with a spectacular display of throwing and batting. The fiery Puerto Rican smacked a triple, double and single to keep Koufax in hot water, but it was his arm that captured the fans’ fancy and left two baserunners for dead.

• Dick Tracewski ended a promising scoring spree in the second inning when Clemente’s strike to Ducky Schofield nailed him as he tried to scramble back to second base.
• When Ron Fairly’s triple eluded Clemente in the seventh, he retrieved the ball and threw it on the fly from the warning track to home plate.
• And then Roberto took John Roseboro’s game-winning sacrifice fly and pegged another shot to the plate that nearly nipped Fairly.
• The next batter, Willie Davis, challenged Clemente’s arm by trying to stretch a single. He was out at second by a couple of lengths.

Not since their own Carl Furillo was in his prime have the Dodgers seen such a display of throwing as Clemente’s."

__ May 27 __ RC's Longest Clout? No Way / Longest Out? Could Be

In the eighth inning, with a runner on second, two men out, Bucs down by two, RC tees off and delivers what is probably the longest out of his career:

“ Schofield had just doubled for the second time in the 8th when Clemente teed off. Gonzalez got a good jump and collared the ball 450 feet from the plate.”

Clemente calls this 450-foot out one of the hardest balls he'd ever hit. Four days later, he would have reason to revise that ranking.

__ May 31 __ The Koufax Light Tower Shot: 440-Plus and "Still Rising"

Following up on his prodigious putout made just four days ago while simultaneously conjuring up his previous assault on the distant left-center light tower, made almost seven years ago (itself thwarted by Mays' ridiculous and legendary 1957 circus catch), RC aims a little higher this time and his aim is true; the only thing thwarted today is our desire to see how far this ball would've gone if unobstructed; on that matter, Dodgers' beat writer Frank Finch ventures his own educated guess:

"Koufax also was bombed for one of the longest home runs in Forbes Field annals, which hark back to 1909. In the third inning, with a 1-and-2 count on him, Senor Clemente touched off a moon shot that struck high on a light tower in center field, some 450 ft. from the plate. Had it missed the tower, it certainly would have sailed at least 500 ft."

Koufax, for his part, offers no such guesstimate, but does make the following admission to Pirates' beat writer Les Biederman:

I can't recall anybody hitting a longer homer off me than Clemente did Sunday on the ball that reached the center field light tower.

Three eyewitness reports as to the trajectory of this shot (including those of its two authors) lend support to Finch's 500-plus-foot estimate.

• Koufax, in his self-titled autobiography, written about one and a half years after the fact:

"Roberto Clemente hit an outside fastball that was still rising when it hit against the light tower in left center field, 450 feet away from home plate."

• Clemente, interviewed by Les Biederman approximately two years after the fact:

"This one hit a transformer on the left field light tower [sic ] on the way up and it stopped. No telling how far it might have gone."

• Gregory M. Gyauch, his memorable visit to Forbes Field recalled more than 40 years later:

"Roberto Clemente hit a home run off Sandy Koufax. The ball was still rising as it hit the light tower in left center field."

In an interview conducted some 35 years after the fact (published in 2008 on pages 224 through 225 of Tim McCarver's Diamond Gems), Koufax himself would independently – if inadvertently – confirm Clemente's 'transformer' recollection (which, BTW, would place the point of impact at somewhere between 55 and 65 feet above the ground), though, in a poignant illustration of the vagaries of human memory, he would mistakenly link the right destination with the wrong HR, i.e. another of RC's six career clouts off Koufax, namely his relatively modest 420-foot foray into Schenley Park, hit on 9/10/63 off Sandy's not-ready-for-prime-time slider.

BTW, not only has the May 27 shot provided a fitting prelude to this month-ending blast, the four-day cycle they form nicely foreshadows the pair of historic space probes that will be launched by 'Cape' Clemente two years later June 5 and June 9, 1966.

__ Jun 02 __ Mays vs. Momen: Robber-to Strikes Again, But Where's Willie?

One day shy of the seventh anniversary of one of the finest catches contained in Willie Mays’ voluminous portfolio [and one which came at RC’s expense], Clemente must content himself with victimizing one of Willie’s less-than-legendary teammates:

“In the fifth, the Giants broke through, and might have beaten Veale had not Roberto Clemente made a fine catch of Gil Garrido’s low slice after an inning-opening single by Del Crandall. Roberto went to his knees after a long run to the foul line to rob the astonished Garrido of at least a double, to say nothing of a run-batted-in.”

__ Jun 27 __ 420-to-440-Foot Game-Tying Ground-Rule Double

Two-run, 8th-inning double ties score at 2, en route to 4-2 win:

“Dick Schofield singled, Bill Virdon doubled and both tallied on Clemente’s ground-rule double that bounced over the center-field wall.”

This big hit off ex-Pirate Bob Purkey must have been doubly gratifying to RC given Purkey’s prolonged mastery over his ex-teammate.

__ July 01 __ Mays – and Marichal – vs. Momen

"While Marichal was reducing his ERA from 2.54 to 2.44, Mays and Roberto Clemente resumed their personal war for National League hitting honors. The abundantly talented Clemente singled twice, drove in the Pirates’ only run, and left the arena hitting .349. Mays didn’t have much of a chance to close ground because after he hit his first-inning home run, the Bucs’ moundsmen walked him the next three times up. However, the one hit jumped him from .344 to .347.

"Ironically, the Pirates’ only run was driven in by Clemente when Marichal tried to quick-pitch him with the bases loaded in the fifth. 'I was trying to smooth out the dirt around the plate,' Clemente said, 'not looking, when I hear someone on the bench yell at me. I look up and see the ball, and I try to just punch at it with one hand.' He got just enough of it to drive it into the ground in front of the plate and bounce it so high that Orlando Cepeda had to wait helplessly for it to come down as the run scored and Clemente fled across the base. Clemente laughed in reminiscence. 'I don’t remember anybody try to quick-pitch me since Don Bessent do it with Brooklyn. "'I punch it for double.'"

__ July 02 __ Mays vs. Momen: One Formidable Finger In Dyke Can't Fend Off Flood

"Pittsburgh's outfielder Roberto Clemente demonstrates one of his specialties as he dances against fence to haul down apparent home run ball hit by Duke Snider of Giants in game Thursday. However, two batters later he couldn't get Orlando Cepeda's drive which sailed far over the fence as Giants won, 6-5.

As it turns out, Mays misses most of this one, following first-inning injury incurred scoring game's first run. Said injury is, in fact, how RC's 6th-inning circus catch comes to be, being as how its victim is none other than Willie's sub, Snider. Incidentally, Clemente's clutch catch will preserve Pirates' newly acquired one-run lead, albeit all too temporarily. Prior to Pirates pulling ahead, RC has doubled in 4th and scored Bucs' first tally, tying score at one all.

__ Aug 05 __ RC Scores 2 KO's: Drysdale in 8, Dodgers in 9

“The crowd of 11,071 figured L.A. had won another one when the Californians reeled off six straight hits with two out in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead, but starter Don Drysdale and [reliever Ron] Perranoski failed to contain the battling Buccos down the stretch… After pitching his way out of several earlier jams, Drysdale was yanked in the eighth when Bill Virdon singled and reached third on Clemente’s double. Perranoski (4-6) came in to whiff the dangerous Jerry Lynch, then wild-pitched Virdon across the plate… Perranoski gave up a score-tying home run to Jim Pagliaroni in the last of the ninth and a single to Ducky Schofield to set the stage for Roberto Clemente’s game-winning single. Perranoski wasn’t around when Clemente scored pinch-runner Gene Alley with a line drive off Bob Miller, but Ron was the loser of a 4-3 decision to the Pirates. Clemente’s third hit of the game broke two Dodger winning streaks against the Pirates, for prior to the senor’s swat, Los Angeles had beaten the Pirates six straight times this year and 10 in a row at Forbes Field. ”

_ Aug 22 __ Robby's 'Triple Double' Does Yeoman Work In Intra-State Scrap

“Roberto Clemente cracked three doubles today as the Pirates downed the NL-leading Phillies, 9-4. His double drove in the first run in the first inning and he scored [a run to tie the game at 2] in the two-run third after doubling [to center]. Clemente’s third two-bagger didn’t figure in the scoring. He was doubled off second when Bob Bailey lined to Tony Taylor, who stepped on the base.”

_ Aug 23 __ 'Deja Vu All Over Again' Again?

“ Bunning was shaky at the start, walking Bill Virdon before Roberto Clemente slammed a home run off the light tower in right.”

Not only is this not RC’s first close encounter with aforementioned light tower, it occurs less than 24 hours prior to exact one-year anniversary of said encounter.

_ Sep 18 __ Robby Sparks Late-Inning Rally

“With two away in the sixth, Estelle got one where the great Roberto Clemente was swinging and the National League’s leading batter belted it over the right field screen and off the court. [In the eighth, Shaw] got one high and in on Clemente and Roberto smashed a double off left fielder Jim Ray Hart, who fell on the warning track in his attempt to catch it.”

6th-inning poke puts Pitt on the board, while 8th-inning 2-bagger brings Bucs to within one and sets up tying and winning runs. By the way, if by "off the court", Stevens means out of the stadium altogether, then this ball would be on the order of Clemente's Coliseum clout off Koufax, circa August 30, 1960.

_ Sep 29 __ Robby Sparks Late-Inning Rally REDUX

Robby Robs 'Robby'

“Friend was locked in a scoreless duel with Reds' rookie Billy McCool, making only his third major league start, when the Pirates finally broke through in the ninth. Bob Bailey started things with a single. Bill Virdon struck out, but Roberto Clemente rifled a double off the center field wall as Bailey raced around to third... Chico Ruiz and Pinson singled in the third but Clemente pulled Friend out of trouble by making a sliding, backhanded catch of Robinson's fly.”

_ Oct 02 __ Two-Run Blast Bestows Bucs' Last Win

En route to his second batting crown in four years, RC's next-to-last hit of 1964 - all 400-plus feet of it - gives Pittsburgh just enough breathing room to outlast the Braves, and end the season just under .500:

“Clemente, who is about to be crowned the best hitter in either major league, slammed a two-run homer off Dan Schneider to decide the nightcap ... Clemente lifted a pitch into the centerfield bleachers with a friend on base in the third.”