Roberto Clemente's Final Interview, October 1972

[Music] [Applause] [Music] warmest holiday greetings everybody I'm John fedko tonight as we approach the final hours of 1997 baseball fans in Pittsburgh and across the nation look back we look back across two and a half decades with a note of sadness tomorrow night New Year's Eve marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of a legend it was New Year's Eve 1972 when the world lost one of its true sports heroes Roberto Clemente the 38 year old pirates outfielder was on a relief mission to earthquake tore Nicaragua flying out of his homeland of Puerto Rico Roberto went against warnings his old dc-7 was seriously overloaded just minutes after takeoff the plane carrying food clothing and medical supplies went down off the coast of San Juan that plane has never been found less than three months before his untimely death Roberto Clemente sat down with my colleague Sam Dover Sam talked with Roberto at length about baseball life and even death tonight 25 years later the Pittsburgh cable news channel is proud to present in its entirety Sam no burrs interview with Roberto Clemente after 25 years the quality of the recording of course is a little compromised but the content it's well worth our attention here now is Sam Dover and Roberto Clemente people like Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali for example who could easily be categorized with you Roberto and the greatness as an athlete have no inhibitions at all about allowing the the public to come into their private life maybe they do secretly but certainly they don't disguise it how do you feel about athletes like Namath an ally for example who whose exploits the whole world knows about or I would say that it's a little different matter with early because I really admire this man because I don't my might not go with all the idea that he has I think that everybody think different I don't I don't know for all the idea that he had as it was a profession or after I admire him a lot with because he's a very intelligent person most of the scene that he go in public and the act that he put in public he drew himself a promotion for his tribe which is his job and I admire him for that name as a the nation make him an i lo and is they trying to they make him a playboy and lover boy which this is something that had to grow in the in the personal also and i don't say one thing of the other because as know what they do their job does their business but to me i cannot be like that III got a rest i had to rest on much as i can and i think that that to me there are a little different story because I think that I belong to the minority group I am Puerto Rican I'm black and I have behind between the wall so anything that I do first diver would be reflected on me because I'm black and second one would be reflected on me because I am Puerto Rican but we didn't when I tell you that to me I always respect everybody and thanks to God when I grew up I was raised I was I was raised and when I have my mother and father never told me to hate anyone or they never told me to dislike anybody because that race or call we never talked about that at the matter of parks I I started listening to this talk when I came to this pain so to me I would say that this is something that I love everybody and and I had to be very careful what I do because who I am so I'll give you a sample I was in you go one time buying presents on furniture and the people up there my wife was welcome to have a baby and when we used to go around on the people they they meet us at the door and they said what do you want is that we would like to see the showroom and see some furniture and this the world has to wiper a little we're gonna send somebody to the last floor to see what we have so they said that they have one floor of furniture and so they took us to a real real place where they they they showed the furniture that wasn't the showroom wasn't the furnish you know they were showing up upstairs and I said we would like to see the furniture downstairs that was in the showroom and they said well you don't have enough money to buy that I say how do you know that I don't have enough money he say well but that's very expensive as I would like to see it because I have the right to see as a human being as a probably that buy from you so finally they show it to us and I remember I used has some money area we would went to Europe I had some money on my a my my wallet I have $5,000 in my wallet we said to the the whole amount of money I said using this one combined so they want to know who I was and all these tarpon the right when they found who I was so they said we have seventh told 7th 3rd 7th power 7 floors for furnishing are we going to show it to you and don't worry about it and you know you won't refer that you would like a more pure Rican and right away I just got mad I said look your business to serve to anybody I don't care if I'm Puerto Rican when you is or I'm whatever you want to call me but you see this is what is really get me man because I am per week and you treat me different from the other people I have the same American money that you asked me for but I have a different treatment with right you've given my wife a different treatment I myself and my friend or their Puerto Rican I don't want to do anything I what I don't wanna buy your furniture if I walk out it's okey that's a terribly interesting fascinating story we were talking just a moment ago about Namath I believe this week the week that Roberto Clemente got his 3,000th it and joined perhaps the most elite circle of baseball players in history Joe Namath appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated the article on Roberto Clemente amounted to one line or I think two sentences on page forty five or fifty or something like that in the magazine and it really graphically portrays which you have talked about for eighteen years that if you don't live in New York or Los Angeles no matter how great you are you don't get the kind of exposure that the other athletes do well some with my problem with mazed is that she wants to play 1955 the players they can open their mouths because I remember that class of players they when they said they were sent to the minor because they opened their mouths and the organization they didn't like the way he spoke or something I always chipping down so when I came I remembered that every time that I used to read a paper or a lot in player or a black player they all have to say something sarcastic about it for example the first day that I get to tattoo for Meyer that was a newspaper on there well the newspaper said Porto Rican hotdog arrived in town so now these people never knew not about me but they know it was a Pro Rican as soon as I got to camp they tell me of a Puerto Rican hot dog now this is something that I refuse to admit and I talked to Tony Latin players which and that particular time they wasn't Amanda my and Emmanuel League and they told me Roberto you better kill you mouth shut because not they will ship you back as I don't care one way or the other if I good enough to play here I had to be good not to be treated like the roto depraved so I don't want to be put in the bathroom because I came here I'm from Puerto Rico I won't be right there in front of everybody and this is something that doctor on the first day I said to myself I have poor people I have represent the the common people of America so I going to be treated like a Puerto Rican or nothing right I want to trim like any person that come for a job and every person that come for a job no matter who is or what kind of a race of colonies he to the job he should be three right like way when we return Roberto talks about the discrimination that existed during his years in baseball we used to travel in a station wagon because we could know is where the white player used to eat [Music] you have admired for great many years the late Martin Luther King you knew him and you knew him quite well is it not true that you believe that in many ways he kind of changed the entire lifestyle for the American black I believe that this manually change the style of the American black and he changed the life of everybody when Martin Luther King's start doing the his his work and campaigning and you know we used to go to his house you know we used to traveling in a station wagon because we could know if were the white player used to it now we are in Florida not too far from Puerto Rico and you see the white player go to a restaurant and and they said fellows do you one is thin to eat now we are sitting in the back of the we're steering and the boss didn't even question in the back of the boat for Worcester inside the boss and I remember I to a fellow one depressor look if you ever said anything from anybody from that restaurant you are me we going hard we won't have a 5-bit collecting isn't fair if this is the way gonna be this is the way we're gonna suffer so now I don't want you to know you pal to eat anything so with para don't I talk to your ground and said this is said along I don't travel no more with the boss if we can know it were the white player if I don't go and work with the boss so your grand said well we want a station wagon for you first to travel and we was traveling a station wagon and when Martin Luther King start doing what he did the whole system of the American style he pulled the people the pair of people the people that don't have nothing did not have no sane in those days dispersed rain what they would like to save for many years that nobody listened to now this method people come down to two places what is supposed to be nowhere and they don't want them and sit down there and peaceful wise they make they call the attention of the whole world now that dog was only the black people but the minority people the people that also help anything and they had nothing to say in those day because they don't have any power they start saying things and they start picketing and they start doing what they thought for a long time that is you have a common and that I think that that that the reason Dicer he chained the whole world because even in Russia you saw after what happened in Russia that he killed what picketing in school and this is something that never happened before and and in this state I want for Europe after this break Roberto what is child growing up working with people that really have to stow it leave [Music] perhaps the biggest Achilles heel the biggest thorn in your side so to speak has been some members of the press some of them come away from from seeing you for the first time in a locker room and say yeah Clemente's a mean man he frowns a man never smiles is that true what is it really the the makeup of your personality it's perhaps the shape of your face such that you don't smile too often well nothing wrong with my teeth I got this I sounds too good so this is something that I tell you when I was a little kid I want to to be a boy a baseball player this is something that III think about the more I think about I convinced that God want me to play baseball and more and that I think I came to the world for some reason why was the little kid I the only thing I used to do was playing ball all the time with a paper ball with a roller ball with a tennis ball we used to make our own balls and stuff like that and my mother was really work my mother used to worry about 1 o'clock in the morning I have to work am a loyalty for these people I used to work in the sugarcane plantation where my father work now my morale never went to a show my mother went Chile not to them till today accessary years old but even even that the the way that we used to live I was so happy because my brother and my father and my mother we used to get together at night and we sit down and make jokes and we used to eat whatever we have to eat and this is not that I was wonderful to me so I grew up with people that really have to Stover to live you don't remind how these people I used to work with my father when I was 8 years old and the vacation time I want to buy a bicycle it took me three years to collect $27 to buy a bicycle so I bought a secondhand a hand bicycle in three years I used to make a penny a day going from one place to the other to get a big kind of milk for these people they give me thirty or thirty once and a month to get up at six o clock in the morning to do this for these people but I say okay my father used to say I want you to be a good man I want you to learn how to work and I want you to be a serial person which I grew up with that in my mind are more than that I love my heart to love it my face is that kind of person that I cannot be like money sang Guinean for example his shape of the oddity is that they are in a kind of a different share of mine so normally his mother not you might hinder his laughing which is not laughing now you might think that I'm serious which I'm not serious this is the way that I am and I'd like to be that way because sometime you are smiling and then the next thing you know see me smiling when you say hey what wrong with you so now I'm not sure this is the way I am nobody can say a word about to is mean I might look mean but I really respect people do you think that the fact that you are like you are in facial expression makes you sometimes unapproachable reporter comes in and sees Clemente perhaps talking around the clubhouse with that that that particular expression on his face and say oh my goodness how can I go near the great Roberto Clemente when he doesn't look happy well I tell you one thing I tell you the truth I I don't like lots of writers this is this is something that I don't want the night and I know I tell you I don't like lots of writers you write the live of what we do they might write I was poor the football whatever the woman I got fine I think if I was a writer the first thing I would try to do we have a good relation with the players I never criticize writer the right thing that he's sincere what he's writing but lots of these writers they go to you and they they put the interview in a way that they sound like you must say that what you don't say suddenly that see now why why well commonly called misquoting we do that lie right so now this is something that to me in the years I have here in Pittsburgh I tell you 1960 for example I got dressing a hurry I was made because there was one director wasn't giving me any credit for the most valuable player now I'm also man because of the album and I was mad because the approach that this writers have toward this this one valuable player stuff this is something that all my life I still don't worry because in that this is the wrong approach but I know it's read politics you take the scenes sometimes led politics so I went to Lausanne here and this writer said to me good the more valuable player in the team and said we have a few that would cook big more valuable player said you see this letter this letter is that you never gonna be because literally making propaganda police power to the more valuable player so death danger in the World Series which I always love defense I went to to the dressing room I got dressed in a hurry I took one bill Mazeroski go off and I put in my back to attract new entities to remember we Marcus white took it and like when I got dressed in a hurry when outside of pork bill so we're happy with the fans I was cheering I was crying with the fans right away I was real bad they said that Roberto opted to touristy main something that that can you can have we can hardly say when he wasn't his aptitude avoid his teammate when they were celebrating he went outside which he wanted to be with the people you might be with the people of pay my salary the God was with my players I shake home with them and everything like I talk to them about how happy I was now everything I have but to me I fell out my behalf I will defend so I was criticized for that in our last segment Roberto talks about his plans for his life after baseball why don't worry one word the other I was worried that I'll be healthy I believe it long enough to do to educate my son and made him respect people I respect them [Music] Bobby at 38 years old and 18 years in the major leagues and having accomplished just about everything there is to accomplish in baseball I guess the thought enters your mind that one of these days it's gonna be all over do you have any idea now when it will be over and when it comes what are you gonna do with your life what would you like to do [Applause] what I would be I tell you the truth I never think about that people would ask me how much money do you have what won't happen to you or you secure I don't know the only thing I worry about being healthy if I can live if I can for example have my health I could work I don't care if I'm a janitor I don't care if I Drive a cab as long as I have a decent job I will work I know let's not the family they've been rich and they lost everything that they have and they can kill them so because of the money so to me I can be a person like me too that I'm making pretty good money but at the same time I live a life of a common follows I know the Big Shot if you go sorry papa you never going to see me are trying to put a show try to call the attention for anybody because I do where I am I like quiet fellow and you see me with the same people all the time if you want to be my friend where I prove to me that you want to be my friend and you want to be aware that I need lots of time when I play baseball now in the wintertime we can be as as long as you want to be with me in the wintertime we can spend as much time as you want to be able in the summertime then we have to call it short so I would say that I don't about what I'm going to do after I stop playing baseball player I will stay some capacity in baseball and well I said to you I don't worry one way or the other I just worry that I'll be healthy I believe it long enough to to to educate my sons and make them respect people I respect them and this is something that to me this is my biggest worries to live to my kid to be a person or everybody when they look at them respect them and they vice versa I respected people Bobby what do you want for your two sons three sons really what do you want for them out of life I wonder them to enjoy life the way I enjoy life I love people and I love the minority people I love people that they are not bigshot I like common people I like workers I like people that's awful because these people they have a different approach of life of the people that I really have everything in life that sometimes they get bored because they have everything and they don't know what suffering is in life so I want my people might get to suffer I want them to have what they supposed to have but I don't want them to be rich I want them to be people like the normal people in America and normal people all in the whole world Bobby I can only say 30 minutes is gone like five minutes and thank you for making it perhaps the most memorable 30 minutes of my life in this business I greatly admire you and I know I speak for everybody watching this program and everybody who has ever known a thing about Roberto Clemente not only as a baseball player but as a man you are a great tribute to society to America to Pittsburgh and obviously to Puerto Rico and I wish you good health and good luck and thanks for all the great members were some I used to say that the the trivia the biggest trivial pain to me have been paid by the Puerto Rican people on the Pittsburgh fans I said before and I'm not trying to make a big user of this but these people have been wonderful to me and I think they have pushed me to accomplish what I have accomplished because by the way they treat me I said that the only thing I had to do it to try to sacrifice my store more and try to pay them with the same trivial that they pay me thank you very much Roberto Clemente [Music] 12 all-star games four separate National League batting titles Gold Glove winner for 12 consecutive years hall-of-famer Legend humanitarian had he lived Roberto and now up in 63 years young although the man himself is no longer with us a part of his spirit what he stood for will always for the Pittsburgh cable news channel I'm Joe [Music]

Channel: bumfromph

Views: 105,096

Keywords: Clemente, baseball, WIIC, WPXI, Pittsburgh, Pirates, 1972, Roberto, Roberto Clemente, Sam Nover, interview, 1971, 1960, World Series, Major League, Puerto Rico

Id: RFEH5nxSoKc

Length: 23min 33sec (1413 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 05 2018