Should Roberto Clemente's number be retired?
I'm hard-pressed to think of any good reasons why not, but Afro-Netizen will assuredly be open to hearing a range of counter-arguments.
In the meantime, read this piece by writer Willie Perdomo brought to our attention by fellow digital ethnoratista Donna Hernandez of ARC. Thanx, Donna!
RETIRING ROBERTO CLEMENTE'S NUMBER? IT'S A NO-BRAINER
By Willie Perdomo
The New York PostMLB icon Clemente deserves his props.
Should MLB retire Roberto Clemente's 21 like it did with Jackie Robinson's 42? Vote Now!
June 6, 2007 -- In A RECENT profile of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, one of his closest advisors commented on the in-fighting amongst Latino politicians and said, "We have a propensity, like other minorities, to screw one another."
I've erased the word "minorities" from my vocabulary a long time ago, but the comment made me think about Sharon Robinson (the daughter of the great African American baseball player Jackie Robinson) and her reluctance to endorse the retirement of Roberto Clemente's jersey, No. 21.
Ms. Robinson was quoted in a January 2006 Associated Press article as saying that her father's situation was "very unique and historical. (Roberto) Clemente did an awful lot of good things and was a terrific ballplayer, but I don't think it's the same type of situation as Jackie Robinson."
Ms. Robinson's type of thinking is endemic to the racial divisions that currently plague our major cities. For her to imply that "the situation" was different for the Puerto Rican ball player is to negate the struggle that Clemente endured as a dark-skinned, Spanish-speaking man in this country.
Did he not encounter the same Jim Crow injustices that were experienced by Robinson, Willie Mays and Don Newcombe? Did he not, unlike the aforementioned players, have the courage to speak up about these injustices? Must an argument really be made to retire the number of a baseball player who was called a prince?
A player who consistently got the good wood on a bad pitch and a consummate All-Star who made playing baseball look like modern ballet.
A ball player who hit a cool 3,000 hits, won 12 Gold Gloves in twelve consecutive seasons, four batting titles and virtually ensured the Pittsburgh Pirates a victory in the 1971 World Series by hitting safely in every post-season game for a .421 average.
Sure, Jackie Robinson was the first African-American man to wear a Major League Baseball uniform, but ask the million-plus Puerto Ricans who will be parading up Fifth Avenue on Sunday if Clemente's number should be retired. I guarantee that you will hear a resounding "Claro, que si" and "Hell, yeah!" followed by a "Wepa!" and then a symphonic clanging of cowbells to rally the issue.
If the problem, as W.E.B. Dubois reflected, within our Latino and African-American communities (and I include myself as a member of both) is that we fall prey to the "crabs in the barrel phenomenon" then Sharon Robinson is acting like a queen crab to a man, Roberto Walker Clemente, who died en route to a humanitarian mission to feed the poor in Nicaragua.
A man who, after having reached the top of the barrel, would undoubtedly grab a rope and throw it back down to help lift up some of his fellow crustaceans.
Willie Perdomo is the author of the upcoming children's book "Why They Call Me Clemente" (Henry Holt/BYR). He's also the husband of Tempo Editor Sandra Guzmán.
As an African living in the US, I find the discussion on Senator Obama's race pretty ridiculous and if I should say infantile.
As I understand it, Senator Obama has bi-racial parentage and I think, pretty much every person who dares to comment on his parentage is at pains to point this out.
My question to all of you out there is who determines which race he is? Or put another way why should his blackness play any more a significant role in his evaluation and getting elected than his whiteness?
If what we are told in the press is true, a person with Senator Obama's unique characteristics can only be a blessing to a nation which is torn by its own identity crisis.
It is only in the US that a person who goes out to look for a job or some government assistance has to fill out an application identifying his race (as if the actual sight of him is not enough).
America, you need to wake up! America is the most unique of all nations in this world. America is blessed with the best from practically every country in this world and at the same time cursed because the different nationalities cannot seem to cohabit and cohere and also because it is hamstrung by the residual superiority complex of the dominant race.
More than half a century after the civil rights matches, it is pretty astonishing that diversity which should be harnessed as a strength and point of unity of this great country is rather the discordant note.
Obama's identity is indisputable. He is half white and half black. That does not make him anything less than any full- blooded individual member of any of the two races.
America has to allow him to define himself rather than foister stereotypes on him which seek to restrict him to one or other of his parentage. He wouldn't be who he is if he did not have the parentage and perspectives he has.
And while white America has its ways of always reminding those of us from other places that we do not belong by pointing out our race, accent or garb, America really needs to wake up to the fact that the remarkable individual Senator Obama has turned out to be has everything to do with his unique heritage and perhaps America (as a whole) will have to embrace its own "not so different heritage" in order to once again become the remarkable nation it was created to be.
There is strenghth in diversity and America needs to find this strength in order to teach it to the rest of the world.
Posted by: Francis Djamson | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 11:54 PM
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Posted by: seo | Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 05:03 AM
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Posted by: seo | Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 05:02 AM
it should be retired. he was not just a ballplayer but an activist.
Posted by: Brother Omi | Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 10:25 PM
I don't think that Clemente's number should be retired among all of MLB - while he might have been one of the best latin players, he by no means was the first. To single him out takes away from Luis Aparicio, Al Lopez and countless others who played before and with Roberto. Jackie was special - he allowed America to see what it was doing was wrong and helped spawn a movement. Roberto was a great ballplayer and a great humanitarian who was cut down early, but he's no Jackie Robinson
Posted by: Marc D | Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 01:21 PM
I was thinking today that the NAACP would be so much more powerful if it actually was an association of all colored people. This is truly a bad joke. Clemente was a giver. What a great role model he is...
Posted by: maxjulian | Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 11:25 PM
I'm surprised that it wasn't already retired. It's a no-brainer for me. This shouldn't be controversial. He IS the Jackie Robinson of Latino Players, and was an excellent citizen, both ON and OFF the field.
This is a gimme.
What's the controversy?
Posted by: rikyrah | Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 02:47 PM
I am stunned this is even an issue. Clemente was the man. He was not only a gifted baseball player, he was an incredible human.
What Jackie Robinson did was historic. However, Clemente's roll in the MLB was no less worthy of recognition.
Sally
Baseball/History Fan
Posted by: Sally Hemings | Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 07:53 AM