|
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero | 
 enlarge | Author: David Maraniss
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $4.25
You Save: $10.75 (72%)
New (40) Used (27) Collectible (1) from $2.37
Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 57432
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 074329999X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN: 9780743299992
ASIN: 074329999X
Publication Date: April 3, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ***BRAND NEW***100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEED / BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, CONFIRMATION E-MAIL WITH ALL ORDERS, SHIPS DAILY....
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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 Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, a book destined to become a modern classic. Much like his acclaimed biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered, Maraniss uses his narrative sweep and meticulous detail to capture the myth and a real man.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. 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. The Clemente that Maraniss evokes was an 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.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 His passion and pride make him more human; his priorities make him a saint October 7, 2008
Biography of Clemente that spends most of its time off the field revealing the unique and sometimes odd character of the first great Latin American player, certainly the best fielding right fielder of all time, and one of baseballs all time greats.
Most impressive of his on-field stats are his 14-game World Series hitting streak (every World Series game he played in) and his 166 career triples that leave him 27th on the all time list that is dominated by players from 100 years ago when gloves and outfield fences were non-existent.
Off the field, his quirks, his passion, and his pride make him more human and even heroic in an age of self-centered steroid freaks. His sudden death in a plane (most tragically) that should have never tried to leave the ground but was bound to Nicaragua with earthquake relief supplies he had gathered moved him toward sainthood.
Excellent Biography: 4.5 Stars August 20, 2008
A lot of baseball biographies start off with a lot of solid information and stories, but then taper off as the subject's life goes on and they move out of the spotlight. With Roberto Clemente there is no tapering as his life was tragically cut short. This is a biography that soars above most similar kinds of books, and reveals a baseball player who wasn't all about himself, but who cared about other people with a depth of passion that isn't usually seen among today's entitled athletes.
My one complaint is that I would have liked more baseball stories and stats! There are enough to keep the baseball fan inside me at bay, but not enough to leave me fully satisfied.
 Awful August 7, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the worst book i have ever read, right behind A Concise History of China. There is no plot and the book sucks.
 baseball fanatic May 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
i have been a roberto clemente fan since before his heroic efforts in the 1971 world series. the book clearly highlighted his humanitarian efforts, and his love and devotion to his family and his homeland. i guess i was looking for more "pure baseball" info on this. such as what he did to improve in the years from his youth to hall of fame player. any particular advice, exercises, strategy , etc. there just wasn't any of that in here. this is my personal disappointment with the book.
the book dwelt on, and repeatedly emphasized the racism of the time, and the double racism against clemente, being black and hispanic. while i admired his struggle, and the struggle of minorities , and the brave help they received from open-minded/thoughtful white people ( who also risked retribution from the racist/closed-minded establishment), i personally was looking for more baseball.
 More than a hero-worshipping fan-book April 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
David Maraniss' work "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero" is a book worthy of its subject. He explains that he means "Hero" in the best and most noble of definitions, and not at all the "hero" that is tossed around so casually about the next twenty-year old wide receiver with a 4.3 second forty.
As a lifelong baseball fan and amateur historian I note two "golden ages" of baseball. One began when George Herman Ruth was traded to the Yankees and gave up pitching, and the next was ushered in when Jack Roosevelt Robinson came into major league baseball like a comet. Ruth and Robinson are baseball icons, and Robinson definitely meets even the most restrictive definition of "Hero", but Maraniss makes a case that Clemente may have been as heroic as any.
I have been on a tear the last few years reading baseball biographies: Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Aaron, Williams, Berra, Walter Johnson, Koufax and I'm glad I had the other books to compare. Most biographies spend considerable detail on the baseball career of their subject. "Clemente" has an almost superficial description of "Momen's" career, except for his MVP year of 1966 and the Pirates World Series Championships of 1960 and 1971. There is due credit given to Clemente's spectacular right field play - he was arguably the greatest right-fielder in history. His throwing arm was so legendary that the book opens with a description of a game in modern-day San Juan. When a young player releases a laser-beam throw from the right-field corner the old men in the stands, previously barely paying attention to the game, immediately begin comparing the throw to those made by Clemente over three decades ago. Ted Williams said of Willie Mays that the All-Star game was made for him. The same could be said of Clemente and Gold Gloves. Although Clemente was killed tragically at age 38, he was one of the first dozen players to collect 3,000 hits. His .317 lifetime batting average was only exceeded by his All-Star average of .324 and his World Series average of .362. Clemente defined "clutch".
Maraniss makes the point that great as Roberto was as a player, it was as a man and role model and leader, especially for latino players, that "The Great Clemente" excelled. Clemente's disdain for baseball writers (who can blame him when they routinely did things such as spell his responses phonetically to emphasize his hispanic-ness) was a contrast to the great love and time and devotion he lavished on the smallest fellow human who crossed his path.
The final fifth of the book would make a superb movie - Maraniss meticulously chronicles the "perfect storm" that convened to rob the world and his family of Roberto Clemente: the earthquake in Nicaragua, a country with a particular bond to Clemente (although he remains the consummate baseball hero to all latin fans). The world-wide relief effort with a particularly passionate interest in San Juan, led by Clemente. The corruption of the Somoza family ruling Nicarague, which was corrupt all the time, but made all the worst in the aftermath of the earthquake disaster as Somoza officers diverted planeloads of relief into private Somoza warehouses. The FAA nightmare that was the pitiful little man who tried to run an air freight business while skirting regulations left and right. The last-minute pilot replacement who probably was unsafe to walk, much less fly an unbalanced, overloaded plane of relief goods to Nicaragua.
Clemente was already a baseball hero at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death elevated him to a pantheon of Heroes with few equals in world history.
Well done, Mr. Maraniss. You have chosen a noble, Heroic subject, and you have done justice to the Man and brought us, Momen's fans, a glimpse into his passion and grace.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
