Plate Quotes - page 13
He made the greatest throws I ever saw in my life. He would go into that bullpen (along the right field line in Forbes Field) where you couldn't see home plate. One time, he went for a ball that spun into the bullpen. A guy was tagging up from third base with one out. He knew he had it made, he didn't run hard. All of a sudden this rocket came from nowhere. It was like a strike, right across the plate. He (Clemente) couldn't even see home plate!
Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente was such an awesome hitter. I never knew how to pitch him. You could throw the ball a foot inside and he'd hit a line drive down the left field line. Throw it a foot outside and he'd hit a home run over the right field fence. Dick Selma was pitching in Forbes Field one time and it was a tight spot late in the game. Roberto was up with a chance to beat us, and Westrum came out to the mound. He knew that if you threw the ball inside or outside, Roberto could still hurt you. So he said, "Throw one right down the middle of the plate, letter high. He won't be looking for it there.” Sure enough, Roberto hit it 400 feet, but he hit to dead center field for an out.
Roberto Clemente
When you come down to it, all depends on the final score whether you're a hero or a bum. Roberto Clemente, the toast of the town, disobeyed his manager's frantic signals Wednesday night to stop at third base. Instead, he kept on rock and rolling homeward for an inside-the-park grand-slam home run to beat the Chicago Cubs. Had he been cut down at the plate, the Puerto Rican flash would have been the roast of the town. Unquestionably, Bobby Bragan would have slapped him with one of his patented $25 fines. But Roberto got away with it. He scored the winning run in the face of an obvious skull. Fine him? Heck, no! You don't reprimand or fine a man who wins a ball game for you. No, sir. That's what Bragan said after the victory. We wonder what will happen to the next fellow who pulls the same stunt and costs the Pirates a ball game. Fine him? Heck, yes!
Roberto Clemente
Although the pair by the Phils did the most damage, the inside-the-park job by Roberto Clemente in the first inning was the most thrilling. [...] Clemente greeted Haddix with a line drive that gathered momentum as it approached Ashburn and took off over his head and ricocheted off the wall toward the batting cage. By the time Ashburn picked up the ball, Clemente was at third base and he made it to the plate without trouble. The hit provoked an argument between the Phillies and the umpires because the ball rolled under the batting cage but the Phils were told there was no ground rule to cover the situation.
Roberto Clemente
Clemente made an almost unheard-of assist in this game. With runners on first and second and Pirates charging for the plate, Bob Lillis pushed a bunt into the vacated shortstop position for one run. [w:Walt Bond|Walter Bond]] tried to go from first to third but Clemente, sizing up the situation quickly, came in from right field to short and threw out Bond at third.
Roberto Clemente
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, Señor 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.
Roberto Clemente
Ironically, the Pirates' only run was driven in by Clemente when Marichal tried to quick-pitch him with the bases loaded in the fifth. With the count three and two, Clemente was standing in the box, but not looking at Marichal, who threw swiftly. "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."
Roberto Clemente
McGraw was an improviser, a teacher. He brought much to the game that keeps baseball fresh and suspenseful today-the hit-and-run play, the steal, the squeeze play, the uses of the bunt and the defenses against it. He helped turn the game into a thing of fluid beauty, infielders charging the plate or roaming far from their bases, outfielders moving with each pitch, racing in for base hits before them, backing each other in the outfield, entering the infield itself on rundown plays. Yet when the game changed radically, with the introduction of the livelier baseball, McGraw naturally shifted to a power emphasis, founding his team about such men as George Kelly, Bill Terry, Mel Ott. He knew, too, that the old pitching style of permitting a man to hit a deadened ball because it would then be caught in the big fields had to be changed, and his staffs led the league year after year in strikeouts, in earned-runs.
John McGraw
