Roberto Clemente 1970 Timeline

This is the 1970 installment in a chronology of memorable moments in the professional career of Roberto Clemente.

__ Mar 28 __ RC Participates in Unique MLK Tribute

First [and last?] Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial All-Star Baseball Classic, with teams aligned by region rather than league, thus giving Clemente not only unique setting in which to pay tribute to fallen civil rights leader [whom Roberto had not merely admired from afar but, in fact, befriended as well] but likewise unprecedented – and never repeated – opportunity to play alongside fellow future HOF right-fielder Al Kaline. Both Kaline and Clemente do their part here, providing key hits helping to insure victory for this ad hoc aggregation.

"The east added three runs in the eighth off Jim "Mudcat" Grant on Al Kaline’s single to center, Lou Brock’s double to left, Roberto Clemente’s double to center and Ken McMullen’s single to center."

__ Apr 21 __ Clemente Finds Range, Pirates Outlast Astros

"Roberto Clemente’s first home run of the season topped off a five-run outburst in the sixth inning." "Clemente climaxed the big sixth with a two-run circuit over the left field wall. It brought an end to Dierker's stay on the mound. [...] Clemente banged a Dierker slow curve for his homer."

What first seems like overkill will soon prove essential in 9-8 nailbiter.

__ Apr 22 __ Clemente's Club Not Entirely Squandered

Stranded following 1st-inning double, stranded following 3rd-inning double, RC's 5th-inning RBI triple puts Pittsburgh ahead to stay.

"Richie Hebner, getting a chance to start against a left-hander, opened against a left-hander, opened the fifth with a two-bagger to right. He scored on Clemente's triple up the alley in right center."

__ May 20 __ Two Big Hits: King Size and Economy

One big hit, one big drop, two wild pitches and one bad hop are what it takes for Pittsburgh to prevail, 3 - 2, in fourteen over Philly. The big blow is Roberto Clemente's 440-plus-foot game-tying triple in the third.

"He crashed a triple off the light stanchion in center field to score Freddie Patek, who had doubled."

Coming scarcely one month prior to Pittsburgh's final game in its historic venue, this tape-measure tower-masher can't help but conjure up two much earlier RC assaults on the distant Forbes Field fixture (one featuring Willie Mays on June 3, 1957, the other, Sandy Koufax on May 31, 1964). In the eighth, with the Bucs again down by one, no less crucial a hit is Clemente's single, moving the tying run to third with none out, but the actual run producer is left fielder John Briggs' big drop of a little fly hit by Al Oliver, which allows Matty Alou to score the tying run. Alou will also score the game-winner six innings later, albeit in exceedingly anticlimactic fashion, courtesy of two consecutive wild pitches by Dick Selma, the latter featuring the aforementioned bad hop, off the cement beneath the backstop screen, which allows Alou to score the walk-off tally from second.

__ May 27 __ "Clutch Clemente Clout Contains Cubs"

Wow, that B a lot of C's.

"Roberto Clemente's bases-loaded, two-run single in the fifth inning and Bob Moose's four-hit pitching led the Pirates to a 4-0 victory Wednesday... The decisive Pittsburgh fifth developed after Jenkins apparently had worked his way out of a jam following a leadoff double by Bill Mazeroski and Gene Alley's single. Mazeroski was nailed at the plate on Moose's grounder to short and Matty Alou flied out for the second out. But Richie Hebner walked, filling the bases, and Clemente singled to center, scoring Alley and Moose for a 3-0 Pittsburgh lead." "Not until the home half of the same inning did the Cubs get their first hit, a double to left by Jim Hickman. He did not advance, however, and, in fact, only one other Cub got as far as second base all day. Santo, who singled in the seventh, was wiped out on a double play when Clemente made a superb catch of a drive by Hickman at the wall."

__ July 03 __ Two Bombs Buried in 16-14 Slugfest

RC homers twice early in this 30-run, 40-hit travesty, then singles and scores go-ahead run in 9th.

"Clemente hit a homer in the first and the Cubs matched the run. He hit a three-run homer in the second moments after Hands could have escaped trouble by retiring [pitcher] Jim Nelson instead of walking him with two out... The wind made it tough for the [pitchers]. It blew fourteen miles per hour toward center, prompting Clemente to all but apologize for his first homer. ‘I just tapped it,’ he declared."

__ July 04 __ Two More HRs by Robby at Wrigley

Two more taters help Pirates prevail before dropping nightcap.

"Clemente continued his slugging vendetta against the Cubs [with] four in two days here." "Clemente smashed two right-field home runs and two singles in the first game..."

_ July 3, 4 or 5 _ BP Bomb: A Tale of Two 'Roberts'

In between clobbering Cubbies in regulation, Robby relaxes with a nice, friendly competition opposite Pittsburgh's other Robby, a scene recalled some thirty-odd years later by writer Phil Musick, then of the Pittsburgh Press:

"One by one, young Bob Robertson drives batting practice fastballs over the left field fence. Four… five… six… Even the older players stop what they’re doing to watch. Seven...eight. 'How you do it, old man,' the brash Robertson snickers at a quiet Pirate next to the cage. Soft laughter rises from a nearby gaggle of players, writers and front-office types. Roberto Clemente replies with a stony look. Robertson hits a ninth consecutive BP home run, then skies the next pitch into a low-hanging cloud over the infield and gives way to the next hitter, his grin a challenge of sorts. Clemente replaces Robertson in the cage.

"Old Frank Oceak, the third-base coach, short-arms a 60 m.p.h. pitch tight on the hands. Clemente turns on it like a snake, catching it fatly and just so on the barrel of the thick-handled bat. It leaves Wrigley on a rising trajectory, as though it had come from the end of a .12 gauge. The ball clears the fence, the high brick wall behind it, and the width of Waveland Avenue, before striking sharply next to a tenement building window. Clemente flips the bat toward the mound, heel over barrel, purposely ignoring Robertson, and strides briskly off to the dugout. Excited babble trails in his wake. The young Robertson just shakes his head."

__ July 07 __ Robby's Roof-Top Blast Beats Philly

Big hits help Bucs overtake fast-starting Phils.

"Left-handers Chris Short and Bob Veale were locked in a 2-2 duel when Clemente began the eighth with a roof-top homer to left, his fifth in July." "Clemente said of his rooftop homer, ‘I went up there swinging, but I don’t try to hit home runs. I just want to get a good cut.’" "Clemente’s double and Sanguillen’s single [had] tied it in the sixth."

_ July 14 __ Robby Strikes Blow for NL Supremacy

Ailing Roberto strikes key blow, helping to maintain senior circuit sixties supremacy.

"Roberto Clemente, castigated for suggesting he might pass up the game because of a pain in the neck, played and capped the Nationals' tying rally in the ninth with a sacrifice fly... Trailing in the 9th, the favored Nationals finally exploded. SF catcher Dick Dietz provided the spark with a leadoff homer. Singles by Bud Harrelson, Joe Morgan and Willie McCovey brought home another run and Clemente tied it with a long fly to center."

_ July 17 __ Game-Winning HR, Game-Saving OF Assist

And that's just the last inning – in the 6th, career triple No. 150 sets up tying run.

"Roberto Clemente broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning by slamming a 400-foot homer as the Pirates edged the Reds, 4-3." "He got three hits, a single, triple and home run, scored two runs and cut down the tying run in the ninth inning with a rifle throw to home plate... His triple, the 150th of his career, set up the tying run in the sixth; he scored on Al Oliver’s sacrifice fly. In the ninth, he hit the first pitch off rookie Wayne Simpson over the right-centerfield fence."

_ July 20 __ Close but No Cigar: Reds Won't Let Robby Beat Them

Much like his effort three days earlier, RC gives clinic, but Bucs come up short.

"Pittsburgh had moved to a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth when Clemente, who homered in the first, doubled and scored on Willie Stargell’s pinch single."

In ninth, with RC at bat, winning run at second and first base open, Reds reasonably opt to face Sanguillen. Clemente has kept the game close in the third by throwing out opposing starter Denny Lemaster, of all people, at home plate.

_ July 24 __ Roberto Clemente Night: Typical Raking and Robbery

Honored by fans from Pittsburgh to Puerto Rico in the barely-week-old Three Rivers Stadium, Clemente doesn't disappoint – at least not the fans; disappointed and disgusted are Houston's Joe Morgan and Denis Menke.

"Clemente had two singles and made two spectacular catches before injuring his knee in a diving catch in the seventh inning."

_ Aug 22, 23 _ Twenty Hours, Two Games, Ten Hits

Saturday Night:

"He led off the 16th inning with his 5th hit of the game, a ground ball which shortstop Maury Wills fielded but [on which he] could make no play. Clemente remained on first [as John Jeter and Bob Robertson were retired], but he stole second on the first pitch to May and came home a moment later when Sudakis could not come up with a ground ball to his left... The man who celebrated his 36th birthday four days ago beat out a bunt in the first inning, drove in a run in the third with a base hit to left and singled again in the sixth. Sutton finally retired Clemente in the ninth, but it took a superb running catch by right fielder Bill Russell to do it. Russell caught the ball a foot off the ground after a long run to his right. It was the first time in eight chances this year that Sutton had retired Clemente. Earlier, Roberto had four singles, one home run, a walk and was hit by a pitch."

Sunday Afternoon:

"In the Saturday marathon – the 16 inning struggle that lasted nearly 4 1/2 hours – Clemente singled in his first three at-bats (driving in the Pirates’ first run), lined out in his next two chances, then finished with two more singles (scoring the second and winning run). Sunday afternoon, the 36-year-old native of Puerto Rico had three singles, a double and a home run. He scored four runs and drove in three. Danny Murtaugh, the manager of the Pirates, whistled and said: ‘Ten hits in two games! When I was playing, that was my quota for a month.’ It was, sadly, close to the Dodger quota too, and the team that hit .360 in the 11 games before the return to Dodger Stadium Friday night has 11 hits in two games."

_ Sep 19 __ Back Not Bad Enough to Save Mets

Ailing RC drives in go-ahead run with long double, then scores clincher.

"Roberto was playing for the first time since Sept. 4. He had missed 14 games with a strained back, which still bothered him. Clemente forgot the bad back long enough to drive a Gary Gentry pitch off the wall in deepest center, three feet short of going out."

_ Sep 27 __ Key Hit for Clemente in Division Clincher

Pittsburgh clinches by beating New York, 2 - 1. It's New York who draws first blood, capitalizing on Pirate starter Dock Ellis' 1st-inning wildness. Clemente, whose sprained back has limited him to seven games in September and four in the last 23 days, helps erase the early 1 - 0 deficit.

"The two-bagger Clemente rapped to the center-field wall in the third was a key blow." ""Agee, who had a bad defensive series, turned the wrong way on the ball. When he eyed the ball at the last second, he dropped it."

Dave Cash moves to third on the play and scores on Bob Robertson's sac fly. Cash's own sac fly in the following frame will push across the deciding run. BTW, this will be the ailing Clemente's final regular season game for 1970; though he'll strap it up for the division series vs. Cincinnati, he's clearly just a shell of his normal self.