Editing Roberto Clemente (section)

====Early years====

The Pirates struggled through several difficult seasons through the 1950s. They did have a winning season in 1958, their first since 1948.

Clemente debuted with the Pirates on April 17, 1955, wearing uniform number 13, in the first game of a doubleheader against the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]]. Early in his career with the Pirates, he was frustrated by racial and ethnic tensions, with sniping by the local media and some teammates. Clemente responded to this by saying "I don't believe in color." He said that, during his upbringing, he was taught never to discriminate against someone based on ethnicity.

Clemente was at a double disadvantage, as he was a Latin American and Caribbean player whose first language was Spanish and was of African descent. Clemente's hometown newspaper, the ''San Juan Star'' wrote that, "Clemente is a black Puerto Rican. That makes him doubly dubious. His native tongue is foreign to button-down America, and so is his color."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Briley |first=Ron |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2tvcq4?turn_away=true |title=Sports and the Racial Divide: African American and Latino Experience in an Era of Change |last2=Ezra |first2=Michael |last3=Fields |first3=Sarah K. |last4=Hawkins |first4=Billy |last5=Iber |first5=Jorge |last6=Kemper |first6=Kurt Edward |last7=Regalado |first7=Samuel O. |last8=Santillan |first8=Richard |last9=Smith |first9=Maureen |date=2008 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-60473-014-2}}</ref> The year before, the Pirates had hired [[Curt Roberts]], their first African-American player. They were the fifth team in the NL and ninth in the major leagues to do so, seven years after [[Jackie Robinson]] broke baseball's color line by joining the Dodgers.<ref name="SportsCentury">''[[SportsCentury]]'': Roberto Clemente</ref> When Clemente arrived in Pittsburgh, Roberts befriended him and helped him adjust to life in the major league, as well as in the Pittsburgh area.<ref name="Bouchette">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tMtRAAAAIBAJ&pg=4054,5029992&dq=curt+roberts|title=Roberts Bucs' forgotten pioneer|last=Bouchette|first=Ed|date=May 15, 1987|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|pages=19, 22|access-date=March 10, 2012}}</ref>

During his rookie season, Clemente had to sit out several games, as he had suffered a lower back injury in Puerto Rico the previous winter. A speeding, drunk driver rammed into his car at an intersection. He finished his rookie season with a .255 batting average, despite trouble hitting certain types of pitches. His defensive skills were highlighted during this season.

[[File:Roberto Clemente - Pittsburgh Pirates - 1957.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Clemente in 1957]]
The following season, on July 25, 1956, at [[Forbes Field]], Clemente erased a three-run, ninth-inning deficit against the Chicago Cubs with a bases-clearing [[inside-the-park home run]]<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hernon|first1=Jack|title=Bucs Bounce Back After Losing Lead|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4pVRAAAAIBAJ&pg=6290%2C1323281|access-date=September 26, 2016|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|date=July 26, 1956}}</ref> off pitcher [[Jim Brosnan]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Espada |first=Martín |date=2015 |title=Clemente's Overzealous Romp: Roberto Clemente and Baseball as Theater |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24494489 |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=249–255 |jstor=24494489 |issn=0025-4878}}</ref> thus becoming the first—and, as yet, only—player in modern Major League history (since 1900) to hit a documented walk-off, inside-the-park [[grand slam (baseball)|grand slam]].<ref>McEntire, Madison (2006). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCnZVMfGuTsC&pg=PA52&dq=%22clemente+rallied+the+pirates+past+the+cubs%22 Big League Trivia: Facts, Figures, Oddities, and Coincidences from Our National Pastime]''. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. p.&nbsp;52–53. {{ISBN|1-4259-1292-3}}. See also:
* McEntire, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=qCnZVMfGuTsC&pg=PP11&dq=%22Unless+stated+otherwise%22 p. ix].</ref> While rounding third, Clemente ran through a stop sign from Pirates manager [[Bobby Bragan]], a decision which infuriated Brosnan. In the October 24, 1960, edition of ''Life'' magazine, Brosnan wrote that Clemente's heroics, "excited the fans, startled the manager, shocked me and disgusted my club."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Espada |first=Martín |date=2015 |title=Clemente's Overzealous Romp: Roberto Clemente and Baseball as Theater |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24494489 |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=249–255 |jstor=24494489 |issn=0025-4878}}</ref> After the game, Bragan announced that Clemente would not be fined the $25 that was the standard punishment for a player who missed a sign.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Espada |first=Martín |date=2015 |title=Clemente's Overzealous Romp: Roberto Clemente and Baseball as Theater |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24494489 |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=249–255 |jstor=24494489 |issn=0025-4878}}</ref> Pittsburgh-based sportswriter [[John Steigerwald]] said that a walk-off, inside-the-park grand slam, "''may'' have been done only once in the history of baseball."<ref name=RCUHRbyJS>{{cite news |author=Steigerwald, John |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/33551801/ |title=This Was Clemente's Grandest Slam |newspaper=[[Indiana Gazette]] |date=July 23, 2006 |access-date=September 4, 2015 |quote=On July 25, 1956, Roberto Clemente did something that may have been done only once in the history of baseball. And I was there to see it}}</ref>

Clemente was still fulfilling his Marine Corps Reserve duty during spring of 1959 and set to be released from [[Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune|Camp Lejeune]] until April 4. A Pennsylvania state senator, [[John M. Walker (Pennsylvania politician)|John M. Walker]], wrote to US Senator [[Hugh Scott]] requesting an early release on March 4 so Clemente could join the team for spring training.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2014/07/17/roberto-clemente-a-legacy-beyond-baseball/|title=Roberto Clemente, A Legacy Beyond Baseball|date=July 17, 2014|work=Pieces of History|access-date=October 11, 2017|language=en-US}}</ref>