Roberto Clemente celebrates opening day with a 410-footer followed by a 445-footer. Unfortunately, this is Forbes Field, so neither of the long drives leaves the park. According to the Uniontown Evening Standard: “Clemente starched the ball all four times he was at the plate… In the 2nd inning Clemente lined a shot off the wall at the 406 mark. In the 5th he lashed a drive to the deepest part of centerfield …” The latter shot is characterized by Pirates beat writer Les Biederman as “one of the longest outs possible at Forbes Field. He chased Vada Pinson to the batting cage in deep center with three on for his 445-foot fly ball that turned into a sacrifice fly.”

ByThis Day in Baseball

Roberto Clemente celebrates opening day with a 410-footer followed by a 445-footer. Unfortunately, this is Forbes Field, so neither of the long drives leaves the park. According to the Uniontown Evening Standard: “Clemente starched the ball all four times he was at the plate… In the 2nd inning Clemente lined a shot off the wall at the 406 mark. In the 5th he lashed a drive to the deepest part of centerfield …” The latter shot is characterized by Pirates beat writer Les Biederman as “one of the longest outs possible at Forbes Field. He chased Vada Pinson to the batting cage in deep center with three on for his 445-foot fly ball that turned into a sacrifice fly.”

1960 – Pittsburgh’s defensive wizards Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, future Hall of Famers both, strut their stuff in a spring scrimmage with Milwaukee. Red Thisted of the Milwaukee Sentinel reports: “Mazeroski, a slim-jim in comparison with the weight he was carrying around a year ago, made Danny Murtaugh look good in the 2nd inning when he skipped far out on the right field grass for a back-handed stab of Eddie Haas’ hopper and got his man… Roberto Clemente robbed Bill Bruton of a triple with a startling grab in right center in the 4th.”

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1960 – Pittsburgh’s defensive wizards Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, future Hall of Famers both, strut their stuff in a spring scrimmage with Milwaukee. Red Thisted of the Milwaukee Sentinel reports: “Mazeroski, a slim-jim in comparison with the weight he was carrying around a year ago, made Danny Murtaugh look good in the 2nd inning when he skipped far out on the right field grass for a back-handed stab of Eddie Haas’ hopper and got his man… Roberto Clemente robbed Bill Bruton of a triple with a startling grab in right center in the 4th.”

Roberto Clemente

Clemente homerun contained by Forbes Flag Pole

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Another Forbes Field Four-Bagger – Clemente contained yet again: Roberto Clemente’s 4th-inning, 450-foot drive is good for four bases but, as UPI informs us, he’ll have to run this one out: “Clemente’s clout hit the dead centerfield wall on one bounce.” Its destination is more precisely pegged as “the flagpole in center field” by Post-Gazette writer Jack Hernon. In other words, to the deepest part of Forbes Field, i.e. the 457-foot mark at least 40 feet to the left of the Barney Dreyfuss Memorial in dead center. Clemente’s two-out, bases-empty blast ignites a 5-run rally which turns the game into a very relaxed outing for starting pitcher Vern Law, as the Piratesadminister a 9 – 0 whitewashing to Philadelphia.

Clemente hurts throwing arm and will miss almost 2 months amid raciest comments

Clemente hurts throwing arm and will miss almost 2 months amid raciest comments

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In a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente injures his right elbow. Pittsburgh Press reporter Les Biederman writes: “The Puerto Rican lasted three innings last night as the Cardinals beat the Pirates, 8 – 2, retiring in favor of Roman Mejias after making an underhanded throw while pitcher Larry Jackson waltzed from first to third on an ordinary single in the 3rd inning. Clemente complained of pains in the right elbow in Chicago but X-rays taken there failed to reveal anything wrong. Clemente says he injured the arm making a sliding catch in Los Angeles and simply aggravated an old ailment.” Pittsburgh’s banged-up ball hawk will not return to the starting lineup until July 9th.

Roberto Clemente barely misses becoming the only batted ball ever to strike Wrigley Field’s distant right centerfield scoreboard

Roberto Clemente barely misses becoming the only batted ball ever to strike Wrigley Field’s distant right centerfield scoreboard

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Loudly echoing teammate Dick Stuart’s May 1st moon shot, Roberto Clemente likewise sets off a two-out, 9th-inning bomb, which, like its predecessor, leaves Pittsburgh one run short while winning admirers in the opposing clubhouse. Unaided by wind, it performs the rare, perhaps unprecedented feat of clearing the diagonal fence behind the centerfield bleachers; in so doing, it barely misses becoming the only batted ball ever to strike Wrigley Field’s distant right centerfield scoreboard, and will long be remembered in that light (along with HRs hit to the right field side by the Braves’ Eddie Mathews and Chicago’s Bill Nicholson.) What it does become is the longest Wrigley Field HR ever witnessed by several of those present: notably, future HOFer Ernie Banks — citing the consensus amongst Cubs players and coaches that the ball “must have traveled more than 500 feet on its trip into Waveland Avenue” — and longtime Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, who rates this well above Dave Kingman’s contrastingly wind-boosted rocket launched exactly 20 years later (see 1979 below). Moreover, Cubs skipper Bob Scheffing and batting coach Rogers Hornsby take it farther still, telling TSN that Clemente’s is the longest they’ve ever seen, period. (For the record, Hornsby was present at Sportsman’s Park on October 6, 1926 to witness two Babe Ruth blasts, estimated, respectively, at 515 and 530 feet by researcher Bill Jenkinson.) All this notwithstanding, there is one crucial caveat: not one of these witnesses can offer more than an educated guess as to this ball’s distance. It is only by virtue of George Castle’s 1998 Sammy Sosa biography, stating that Clemente’s “missile left the ballpark to the left of the Wrigley Field scoreboard, landing in a gas station across the street”, and of a December 2015 interview with the source of that assertion, Wrigley ballhawk Rich Buhrke (revealing that the ball did at least end up in that seemingly scoreboard-sheltered gas station via one quirky carom and two huge hops), that we will finally arrive at a reasonably accurate estimate: roughly 520-525 feet, making this one of the three or four longest home runs in Wrigley Field history (alongside both the aforementioned 1979 Kingman blast and one from April 14, 1976, as well as Sammy Sosa’s GPS-measured 536-footer of June 26, 2003).

During batting practice, a little boy in the right-field stands was hit in the arm by a line drive. He then hid among the seats to have his little cry. Clemente retrieved the ball and gave it away, his thanks coming in a puddle of tears.”

During batting practice, a little boy in the right-field stands was hit in the arm by a line drive. He then hid among the seats to have his little cry. Clemente retrieved the ball and gave it away, his thanks coming in a puddle of tears.”

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Bob Stevens of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about an incident before today’s game between the Pirates and Giants: “The shivering fans in the stands took their hands out of their pockets to applaud Roberto Clemente for a small, but at the same time very large, sympathetic act. During batting practice, a little boy in the right-field stands was hit in the arm by a line drive. He then hid among the seats to have his little cry. Clemente retrieved the ball and gave it away, his thanks coming in a puddle of tears.”

Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates ties a modern day record by collecting three triples in a game

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On September 8, 1958, Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates ties a modern day record by collecting three triples in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. Clemente’s outburst helps the Pirates to a 4-1 win. Rookie pitcher Curt Raydon (8-4) collects his only major league hit in the 5th to ignite a 3-run rally. This is also…

Dick Stuart’s two-run, tie-breaking 450-foot unmanned expedition to Waveland Avenue puts Pittsburgh in the winner’s circle, 4 – 2, over the Chicago Cubs.

Dick Stuart’s two-run, tie-breaking 450-foot unmanned expedition to Waveland Avenue puts Pittsburgh in the winner’s circle, 4 – 2, over the Chicago Cubs.

ByThis Day in Baseball

Dick Stuart’s two-run, tie-breaking 450-foot unmanned expedition to Waveland Avenue puts Pittsburgh in the winner’s circle, 4 – 2, over the Chicago Cubs. Stuart’s clout, in conjunction with an earlier two-run blast by Bill Mazeroski, helps boost the surging Bucs to their 20th win in 28 tries, moving them from last place on July 22nd to third place today, making up eight games on the floundering Giants in the process. Roberto Clemente’s stellar defense keeps the Cubs’ bats at bay. Cubs’ beat writer Richard Dozer writes: “The Cubs couldn’t get an offensive menace started, due largely to the Pirates’ right fielder, Roberto Clemente. He made two sensational catches: one acrobatic catch of Bobby Thomson’s liner in the 4th inning and one in the 8th inning to rob Walt Moryn of a single that would have sent Ernie Banks to third with no one out. Clemente also threw out Dale Long, who was attempting to move from first to third on Sam Taylor’s single in the 2nd inning and it was speedy Roberto’s single in the 6th that preceded Stuart’s 450-foot home run.”

Roberto Clemente’s guns down Willie Mays

Roberto Clemente’s guns down Willie Mays

ByThis Day in Baseball

1958 – When is scoring position not scoring position? When Roberto Clemente’s in right field, of course – as his tutor, Willie Mays, is reminded, to his great embarrassment. “The Giants only had one shot at Pirates’ starter Curt Raydon,” writes Bob Stevens in the San Francisco Chronicle. “In the 7th, Willie Mays, after walking in the 1st and 4th innings, led off with a line-drive single to right. Leon Wagner walked and Orlando Cepeda belted one safely to the same field. Even though the Giants were trailing 8 – 0 and had none away, Mays tried to score and was thrown out – Roberto Clemente to Bill Hall. Willie was out by so far he didn’t even try to slide. After the game Herman Franks, the traffic cop at third base, said, ‘I sent him in. It wasn’t Willie’s fault.'”