Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, tit for tat. Having had his birthday thunder stolen by Clemente earlier this year, Mays returns the favor, or tries to. The game actually comes one day after Clemente’s birthday. the Giants’Mays hits a solo homer in the 3rd to put Pittsburgh in a 2 – 0 hole, but Clemente then contributes a big blow to a decisive three-run rally that puts Pittsburgh ahead to stay. This time, while not a 430-foot triple over Mays’s head, it’s a similarly-sized blast – “a tremendous wallop,” to quote the Pittsburgh Press, “over the left-center wall.”

On August 19, 1955 — Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, tit for tat. Having had his birthday thunder stolen by Clemente earlier this year, Mays returns the favor, or tries to. The game actually comes one day after Clemente’s birthday. the Giants’Mays hits a solo homer in the 3rd to put Pittsburgh in a 2 – 0 hole, but Clemente then contributes a big blow to a decisive three-run rally that puts Pittsburgh ahead to stay. This time, while not a 430-foot triple over Mays’s head, it’s a similarly-sized blast – “a tremendous wallop,” to quote the Pittsburgh Press, “over the left-center wall.”


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Sources:
Baseball Reference August 19
National Pastime August 19
Retro Sheet
Hall of Fame
SABR Games Project
Replay The Game