false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174489853m/406425.jpg 406425 3 On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in <I>Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero,</i> a book destined to become a modern classic. Much like his acclaimed biography of Vince Lombardi, <I>When Pride Still Mattered,</i> Maraniss uses his narrative sweep and meticulous detail to capture the myth and a real man.<P><P>Anyone who saw Clemente, as he played with a beautiful fury, will never forget him. He was a work of art in a game too often defined by statistics. During his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won four batting titles and led his team to championships in 1960 and 1971, getting a hit in all fourteen World Series games in which he played. His career ended with three-thousand hits, the magical three-thousandth coming in his final at-bat, and he and the immortal Lou Gehrig are the only players to have the five-year waiting period waived so they could be enshrined in the Hall of Fame immediately after their deaths.<P><P>There is delightful baseball here, including thrilling accounts of the two World Series victories of Clemente's underdog Pittsburgh Pirates, but this is far more than just another baseball book. Roberto Clemente was that rare athlete who rose above sports to become a symbol of larger themes. Born near the canebrakes of rural Carolina, Puerto Rico, on August 18, 1934, at a time when there were no blacks or Puerto Ricans playing organized ball in the United States, Clemente went on to become the greatest Latino player in the major leagues. He was, in a sense, the Jackie Robinson of the Spanish-speaking world, a ballplayer of determination, grace, and dignity who paved the way and set the highest standard for waves of Latino players who followed in later generations and who now dominate the game.<P><P>The Clemente that Maraniss evokes was an <P>idiosyncratic character who, unlike so many modern athletes, insisted that his responsibilities extended beyond the playing field. In his final years, his motto was that if you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth. Here, in the final chapters, after capturing Clemente's life and times, Maraniss retraces his final days, from the earthquake to the accident, using newly uncovered documents to reveal the corruption and negligence that led the unwitting hero on a mission of mercy toward his untimely death as an uninspected, overloaded plane plunged into the sea.<P><P> 395759 25 4 2006 Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero total:258|5:68|4:128|3:49|2:11|1:2| 258 1023 391 69 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 19 17:07:43 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 17:06:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:47:36 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:47:36 -0800 2009 It's hard not to feel that Clemente, for all its virtues, is a bit of a letdown. With a Pulitzer Prize and notable biographies of Bill Clinton (First in His Class) and Vince Lombardi (When Pride Still Mattered) under his belt, David Maraniss sets high expectations. He mostly satisfies by revealing d...

more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Sep 29 19:00:27 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 19:05:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 12:51:47 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 12:51:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 15:33:18 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 08:55:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri Sep 05 14:49:27 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 15:06:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Apr 05 09:27:07 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 05 09:30:00 -0700 2008
I was interested in this as a Pirates fan and from my little knowledge of Clemente as a player and humanitarian who lost his life tragically.

What I learned was much on many...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 06 09:11:23 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 21:44:33 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 06 09:11:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Mar 19 19:10:40 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 26 21:01:57 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 21:01:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 29 11:10:59 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 29 07:31:02 -0700 2008
The writin...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 19 17:10:23 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 21 13:38:46 -0700 2007
First off, biographies, in my opinion, should be easy, quick reads and provide the reader with more or less a det...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 05:47:26 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 04:54:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 11:50:26 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 11:59:58 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 06 09:39:02 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 09:43:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 08:33:29 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 18:24:01 -0700 2008 slow burn in that by the end of the book, the loss of his life felt like a tragic loss for all of us. It's an interesting gift, discovering...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Aug 15 18:29:45 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 15 18:38:40 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 07 18:25:30 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 18:25:30 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Aug 15 13:08:27 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 13:08:27 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 05:43:33 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 07:42:17 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Wed Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 24 14:40:33 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 14:32:22 -0800 2008 Just once http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=406425