Roberto Clemente 1969 Timeline

This is the 1969 installment in a chronology of memorable moments in the professional career of Roberto Clemente.

__ Mar 05 __ Promising Prodigious Pre-Preseason Poke

"Clemente, who didn’t put on a uniform until last Monday, hit a 400-foot home run on his second plate appearance in the final intrasquad game.” “Clemente drove a 3-and-2 pitch over the left field wall to lead his team to a 2-1 victory. ‘I’m glad to see his shoulder isn’t bothering him this spring,’ said manager Larry Shepard of Clemente’s 400-foot drive.”

Shepard spoke too soon. Scarcely one week after this display of right shoulder recuperation, shoulder number two will fall prey to Robby's relentless pursuit of Boston batter's foul pop in meaningless mid-March contest.

__ Apr 15 __ First-Frame Bomb Yields Short-Lived Lead

"Clemente, who had been 0-for-12, attempted to add some adrenalin to the Pirate attack in the first inning when he blasted a Joe Niekro fastball.” "The ball sailed clear out of the park, over the bleachers in left-center." "Billy Williams, showing off his recently acquired ability to go with the pitch, slammed one into the left field bleachers in the first and rookie Don Young performed the same feat good for two runs in the second to more than counteract Roberto Clemente’s tremendous shot over the left-field stands ."

Additional adrenalin – i.e. Pittsburgh's remaining three runs – is supplied by Clemente's 5th-inning bases-loaded single:

"Niekro gave up two walks and a single to load the bases before Beckert made the trip to the mound for some encouraging words. Beckert’s counsel and patience suffered a severe blow when Clemente fired a shot through the middle that knocked Niekro down and raced to second base when Young tried for a one-handed scoop and the ball got through for a two-base error with three runs counting. Aguirre knocked off five Pirates before pinch-hitter Jose Pagan lashed a single through short to lead off the seventh and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Clemente was given an intentional walk after he refused to bite at three Aguirre wide ones. But the crafty veteran fanned Willie Stargell to escape."

__ Apr 26 __ 'Big and Tall' Home Run Ball

For 'Bobby's 'Alma Mater'

RC commemorates first reunion with his Montreal alma mater – with newborn Expos standing in for '54 Royals – on the 15th anniversary of his first North American hit in dramatic if ruthless fashion:

"Clemente’s two-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 2-2 tie and netted the Pirates a 4-3 victory over the Expos before a paying crowd of 8,372 at Forbes Field... Clemente took a 1-1 pitch and hammered it into Schenley Plaza. He said it was a curve ball, inside and about waist-high. Clemente still says he is uppercutting the ball and is not swinging properly because of his sore left shoulder. He was asked if he swung correctly on the home run. 'It went 500 feet. What do you think?' It didn’t go 500 feet, but it wasn’t a bad swing, either.”

Montreal Gazette writer Ted Blackman:

"Bill Stoneman, who earlier gave up a homer to Willie Stargell in the fourth to snap his shutout string as 21⅓ innings, was the victim of Clemente's 400-footer that barely cleared the left field foul pole.”

__ Jun 03 __ 3-Run HR / RC No. 3 on Pitt Hit List

RC Passes PT and MC On Pitt Hit List With Game-Tying Three-Run HR

" Merritt yielded all the Pirates’ runs in the sixth when Pittsburgh tied the game, 3 to 3, on Clemente’s homer following singles by Matty Alou and Willie Stargell.” "Merritt, who went all the way to pick up the victory, scattered six hits to the Pirates, all singles except for the Clemente homer." “‘I gambled with a little dew-drop on the first pitch to Clemente,’ he said. ‘But I got it too high.’ Clemente’s shot cleared the wall between the scoreboard and the foul pole.” “It was hit no. 2417 of his career, moving Clemente into third place on the all-time Pirate list ahead of Max Carey and Pie Traynor.”

__ Jun 07 __ RC's Littlest Hit Proves the Biggest

“In the eighth, Clemente tripled to center and scored on Al Oliver’s slicing double to left... Clemente drove a 400-foot shot to dead center for the final three runs.”

Formidable they may be, but these blows are more or less icing. More central is third-inning single in midst of decisive 4-run rally.

__ Jun 11 __ Robby's Grand Slam Game Winner

"Clemente’s [two-out] grand-slam homer capped a six-run sixth-inning wingding by the Bucs that helped lay the Astros to rest, 13-8. Clemente hit it into the red mezzanine seats in left, just above the auxiliary scoreboard.”

__ Jun 12 __ 430-Foot, Game-Tying Two-Run Tater

“Clemente’s homer – his second in two nights – was a prodigious wallop of some 430 feet that landed about 12 rows up in the steps to the right of the service ramp in center field.”

__ Jun 16 __ Two Clutch Hits Help Bucs Come Back Twice

1st-frame single brings Bucs' first tally. 8th-inning triple brings game-winning rally.

“Clemente began the Pirate comeback when he led off the eighth against Phil Regan with a triple. It was only the second Pirate hit since the first inning. The weary Regan was working his fifth inning when Clemente hit his line drive to left center.”

__ Jun 18 __ Two Clutch Hits Help Bucs Catch Cubs Again

“Clemente stepped in to spoil things just when it appeared the Cubs had found the solution to their woes in the brilliant 12-strikeout pitching of Ken Holtzman and Ron Santo’s eighth-inning two-run triple off Dock Ellis which broke open the scoreless battle. It took the Pirates, who have not lost in Forbes Field in six games with the Cubs this season, just two batters to tie the score in the bottom half of the same inning. Carl Taylor, a rookie, drew the second walk from Holtzman and Clemente picked on a 3-2 changeup from the Cub lefty and drove it over the left-field wall for his ninth home run.

"Phil Regan took over in the 10th and the irrepressible Clemente slammed a double inches fair into the right field corner. Regan looked as if he was going to pitch out of the situation when he retired Pagan on a bouncer back to the mound and struck out Manny Sanguillen. Martinez, however, rolled his weak single just beyond the reach of both Santo at third and Kessinger at shortstop and the Cubs were saddled with the loss.”

_ Jun 25 __ Fergie Frazzled – Momen Mind Control?

Despite doing next to nothing – i.e. 0-for-3, 1 put-out, no assists – in this game, Momen manages to totally discombobulate this future HOF hurler:

“In the sixth inning Jenkins struck out the first two Pirates. Then Matty Alou bounced a high chop over the head of Ron Santo at third base and hustled it into a double. Jenkins seemed upset. Hebner followed with a grounder to first base. Ernie Banks scooped it easily and threw to Jenkins covering. Fergie dropped the ball for an error. The lanky Canadian next walked Roberto Clemente on four pitches. The last one popped out of catcher Randy Hundley’s glove and rolled to the screen for a wild pitch, enabling Alou to score and trimming the Cubs’ lead to 3 to 2. Leo Durocher walked to the mound. 'You couldn’t print what I told him,' Durocher said, 'except that I said he had gotten lazy.'

"The Cub infielders gathered around the mound and there were some other words exchanged. Later, standing in earshot of the Cub clubhouse, Santo, with characteristic exuberance, pounded his fist into his hand and said: 'Fergie doesn’t realize what a great pitcher he is. He has a fantastic arm and ability. We need him to win this pennant and if I’m a batter and I’m facing a 20-game winner, believe me I’m thinking how tough it’s going to be to get a hit. Just the fact that he’s Fergie Jenkins gives him an edge. But if I ever see a 20-game winner with his chin down and his head drooping like he was after he walked Clemente, then I’m going to say to myself: Boy, we got this guy now, gimme a bat.’

"Jenkins, proud athlete that he is, graciously accepted the praise and some of the criticism, but also had his own explanations for his performance. 'I don’t think I was lazy. I just didn’t want to give Clemente anything good to hit. He’s always given me trouble. I’ve always had good success against Stargell, who was up next. I wasn’t going to give Clemente a slider over the plate.'"

In fact, from Clemente's standpoint, this contest's 'most memorable moment' award should probably go to this second-inning mishap:

"Clemente grimaced after hitting the vine-covered wall in Chicago's Wrigley Field while attempting to catch Jim Hickman's triple. Roberto was shaken up but continued to play."

_ Jun 26 __ Clemente's Clutch Clout Squandered

“When Jeter began the Pirate eighth with a single, Selma was lifted in favor of Ted Abernathy, who spoiled the strategy by getting nicked for a home run by Clemente, putting the Cubs behind once more, 5-3." "Clemente switched bats just before he homered in the eighth... He wanted a stick which would enable him to use a shorter swing... His back was sore from the collision he took leaping for a ball against the right-field wall Wednesday.”

_ July 08 __ RC's Trilogy Complete: Forbes Field's 436

Roberto revisits the scene of the crime, as it were: recalling his overwhelming 6/66 onslaught on the once-seemingly-impregnable 436-foot Forbes Field barricade.

“Clemente’s third hit of the game will provide conversation for at least the rest of the week. It went over the gate in right-center field, just to the right of the light standard and the 436-foot mark.”

As usual, if you're looking for even a wild guess as to the dimensions of this particular poke, you have come to the wrong place (an assessment which, it must be said, applies not just to Bill Christine but to the entire crop of post-Biederman Pittsburgh Press beat writers as a rule). Charley Feeney of the Post-Gazette, while he doesn't exactly get out the tape measure, does at least let us know that RC's ball cleared the wall with plenty to spare:

"Clemente's drive, off Bill 'No-Hit' Stoneman, carried well over the wall in centerfield. Few righthanded hitters have hit a ball out of the park in this sector, which is to the right of dead center between the exit gate and the light stanchion."

Ironically, it falls to one of the visitors' beat writers, Ted Blackman of the Montreal Gazette, on only his second trip to Pittsburgh's vast and storied arena, to spell out the historically prodigious nature of this blast:

"Stoney was strong for two innings, but then Roberto Clemente fattened Pittsburgh's lead with one of the longest homers ever hit by a right-hand batter in Forbes Field. Unfortunately only 4,950 diehard fans of the dying contenders were witnesses."

"After Carl Taylor singled and the dangerous Willie Stargell popped up, Clemente hit Stoneman's 17th gopher ball this season more than 450 feet to right center. Local veterans said it was only the third or fourth hit there in 60 years, bettered only by Mickey Mantle's 1960 World Series shot."

With all due respect, this was actually the fifth such home run in Forbes Field annals, Mantle's famous blast being followed in 1963 by Pirate Donn Clendenon's. And the rest? It is an unfortunate irony, all too typical of those confronting Clemente throughout his career, that neither Blackman nor any of his local sources seem even remotely aware of the fact that the remaining half of this tiny historical precedent was, in fact, provided by none other than Clemente himself, in the space of five days, no less – that being the aforementioned 6/66 onslaught, most notably the June 5th 500-footer which, BTW, would outdistance Mantle's blow by a good 20 feet.

_ July 13 __ RC Beats BG With Long Ball in Eleven

“Jim Bunning beat Bob Gibson on Roberto Clemente’s three-run homer in the eleventh inning... Alou and Stargell came home ahead of Clemente’s homer to the corner of the mezzanine seats in right.”

_ July 18 __ RC Beats BG With Long Ball Redux

“Clemente’s latest homer came with a man on base and it gave the Pirates the breathing room they needed to stop Gibson’s surging St. Louis Cardinals... The shot, Clemente’s 14th of the year, struck high on the right-field foul pole screen, 300 feet from home plate.”

_ July 23 __ "Longest I've Seen One Hit," Says Larry

To the opposite field, that is. Dierker's most vivid memory from the 1969 All-Star Game is one long strike:

“Clemente hit it all the way into the upper deck, but it was foul. I’d never seen a ball hit that far to the opposite field.”

Perhaps Larry should get together with Sandy and compare notes – see June 30, 1960.

_ Aug 03 __ Wrong-Field Upper-Decker Off HOF Spitballer

But Bucs Fall Short

“With two away in the eighth, Roberto Clemente slammed a towering home run into the upper deck, his 15th.”

_ Aug 13 __ RC's 2nd 3-HR Game: This One Not In Vain

In this mature opus, Clemente provides power-hitting of both long-range and up-close-and-personal variety, terrorizing bleacher creatures and opposing pitchers alike.

"Clemente revealed that he had used four different bats to pound out three home runs and a single that nearly defrocked Giant reliever Frank Linzy. After Clemente got “someone to crack my neck and put the vertebrae back in place,” he ripped four vicious shots to take command of the league batting race with a .357 mark. The home runs – two to right, one 415 feet to dead center – pushed Clemente’s RBI total to a club-leading 74."

"A resume of the way he hit the homers proves how difficult it is to pitch to this man. He hit one high and away off McCormick over the right field screen in the first, he hit one low and inside over the right field screen in the third, also off McCormick, and then when Bolin challenged him with a high hard pitch down the middle, Roberto crashed it off the flagpole beyond the center field screen to come within one of tying the all-time record of home runs in a single game."

_ Aug 20 __ Final Score: Clemente One, Houston None

"Now to that Buc run in the eighth. It began when Denis Menke fumbled Alou's lead-off grounder. Curt Blefary's throw on Carl Taylor's bunt hit Taylor and skidded past Joe Morgan covering first. Alou raced to third and Roberto Clemente delivered him with a fly ball to deep right."

_ Sep 05 __ Robby's Spectacular Spangler Strangler

"Clemente makes specatular one-handed catch in deep right field at Wrigley Field Friday, robbing Al Spangler of possible extra-base hit in Chicago's fifth inning."

_ Sep 11 __ Robby's Spectacular Stab Saves Veale

"Veale never would have made it except for a tremendous catch by Roberto Clemente that robbed the Cards' Byron Browne of an extra-base hit and [deprived his team of] the tying run. Browne drove the ball deep toward the right field exit gate. Clemente, running with his back to the ball, caught it over his head at the base of the wall."

_ Sep 21 __ A Game of Inches... Or Fractions Thereof

"In the sixth, Cash walked and Roberto Clemente hit the top of the right-field fence with a 370-foot drive. If it had bounced over for a home run, the game would have been tied. But it bounced back into Tommie Agee’s hands for a double, and Koosman was still ahead, 4-3."