Roberto Clemente quotes - page 17
He was such a down-to-earth human being. Those of us in the minors would come in for dinner at 5:30 PM and leave an hour later when the big leaguers would have their meal. Roberto would stay outside the dining hall, chatting with us and sharing advice and crack a few jokes. Then we would tell Roberto the last call was made for the big leaguers to eat, but he would tell us: "The heck with the meal. I'll eat somewhere else later in the evening. Let's keep talking."
Roberto Clemente
When he was approaching his 3,000th hit, I asked him if that would be the most important thing in his life. ‘No, Danny,' he said. "I have a project going in Puerto Rico for the underprivileged and I have made so much progress with the political men in our country that I'm beginning to think my dream will come true." That's the Roberto Clemente I know, who constantly thought of others instead of himself.
Roberto Clemente
Whenever Román Mejías runs into trouble with the English lingo, teammate Roberto Clemente serves as interpreter. Roberto digs real well. On the other hand, René Valdés, Brooklyn hurler, has a good reason for not speaking English. "When North American players come to my country, they don't speak Spanish. Why should I speak English?"
Roberto Clemente
The man was a man in every true sense. He was proud, dedicated. He wouldn't want anyone to give him anything. Yet he never had a national commercial, was on only one talk show, The Mike Douglas Show, and he never made any appearances in the Pittsburgh area. Blacks get the trophies . . . whites get the money.
Roberto Clemente
He was so intense in terms of doing something to make me feel better. I felt great, and the next night I played. He didn't have to do that, but he did it. And he wanted to do it in such a way that very few people, if any, knew about it other than the two of us. That was just one of the many things he did. And it's those kinds of things that separate him from most people.
Roberto Clemente
I knew Roberto was a man – perhaps the only man – who could give enough of himself to make this work. The city agreed to give us Sixto Escobar Stadium as a staging area. I put Roberto on my show and he told them: "Bring what you can. Bring medicine ... clothes ... food ... shoes ... bring yourself to help us load ... trust me – whatever you bring we will use."
Roberto Clemente
He was over all the time, all the time! He would stand outside and playfully throw rocks at the house. Roberto would always tease me. He liked to tell me that I couldn't cook. I couldn't cook. He and Curtis would sit there and eat half-cooked food, playing cards and drinking beer, pop, lemonade, whatever. Roberto loved to joke, he was really just a big kid. [...] Roberto and Curt were very close. Roberto would stay at the house all day long until it was time to go to the ballpark. Roberto and Curt would sit around and talk and joke in Spanish. Robert [sic] would look at me with that boyish smile ... he liked to make me think they were joking about me, or talking about some other girl. But he would always break down laughing, and tell me what he and Curtis had been saying. Roberto naturally gravitated to someone who could understand him. Even though we were all kids back then, I think Roberto looked at Curtis as something of a mentor.
Roberto Clemente
He always liked kids. I had one long conversation with him, and he told me what he wanted to do in Puerto Rico. He had this dream to build a special Sports City for the kids, especially the poor kids. I always talked to kids, and he was that type of person, too, so we had something in common in that respect. Maybe he recognized that, and maybe that's why he talked to me at length about what he wanted to do in his home country.
He was a moody guy. He was very quiet. He had two strikes against him when he first came up. He didn't speak or understand English very well, and he was a loner. That guy from the Post office – the one who got into trouble a few years ago for stealing and selling stamps – he was always with him.
I think he was genuine in his thinking. He cared for people. But like I said, I only spent four years with him, when he wasn't really into his own yet.
Roberto Clemente
