Roberto Clemente, RIP

A day late to mark the anniversary, but an anniversary worth commending to your notice a day late: the death of Roberto Clemente, the great Pirates outfielder who was, from all accounts (and I mean all accounts), a very admirable man as well, who did many of his good works in secret. Here’s  a survey of his continuing impact  from a Pittsburgh newspaper, and here  a personal memoir from ESPN, a report on Red Sox hitter David Ortiz’ tribute to Clemente , and David Morranis’ essay on Clemente (and his helmet)  from the  Smithsonian magazine.

Update: A friend writes to tell me that Clemente grew up as a Baptist but became a Catholic as a teenager, influenced by a priest he knew. A very quick google search did not turn up anything on this, though it did turn up Robert Lockwood’s Major League Catholics , which includes his all time Catholic all star team (with Clemente in the outfield).