I believe I saw the other day that Sept 30 was also the last at bat for The Great Ted Williams
A home run. Not surprising
What was surprising was it was 1960 I thought he played awhile after that
Thanks for posting. Great memories of Roberto (I can still picture his unique swing). That guy could hit anything. The best bad ball hitter the game has ever seen. A simpler time.
I remember where I was and what I was doing when the news came on the radio about Roberto Clemente’s death.
What gets lost in the fog of time is that prior to Ruth, the home run wasn’t considered an offensive weapon. They believed it tactically superior to keep the ball in play (to keep men on base and pressure on the pitcher) and nobody swung for the fence. When Ruth hit 29 dingers in 1919, he was breaking a record that had stood since 1884!!!
Two years later he hit 59.
It doesn’t matter how many homers players who came after Ruth might hit, it still doesn’t compare to his accomplishments being the first player to use the long ball as a tactical weapon, MORE THAN doubling the home run record in the process.
Records come and go but it’s unlikely anyone will ever have as great an impact on the way baseball is played, and George Herman Ruth will always be the Sultan of Swat.
Clemente was the best I ever saw. Others have better stats, but Clemente was hurt by playing much of his career in cavernous Forbes Field (456 ft to straightaway CF IIRC). He would be top 10 all time had he played in a normal park.
I can still picture him, dragging his butt to the plate like every bone in his body hurt, twitching his neck and setting up in the very back of the batter’s box, and ripping a low and away pitch into the right center gap.....or sliding into a catch in RF, popping up and throwing a strike to home plate to throw out some fool that tried to run on him.