Roberto Clemente Quotes

84 Sourced Quotes

I give you bastards four minutes to get outside. They are honoring the greatest second baseman the game has ever known and anyone not out there in four minutes will have to fight me.

Roberto Clemente
Clendenon isn't like he was last year. If he comes back again, I'll start punching the ball again. But I've been taking a good cut and swinging hard.

Roberto Clemente
No one knows what eet is. They can't find anything. I run, I throw, I move eet hurts. Eet goes away and come back. Someday eet hurt... someday no. If eet doesn't cure, I quit baseball... No fool around.

Roberto Clemente
I was so anxious for this season to start when I was at home last winter. I was thinking in terms of a big year for myself—moneywise. I had batted.357 last year and I thought that if I had another big year I might get paid more money than anybody ever did in baseball. Then I fell and then I wonder if I will be able to play at all.

Roberto Clemente
I sent eleven people there. All of them have families in Puerto Rico. The least I can do is be with them tonight.

Roberto Clemente
These were great fans when I first play here, and they are still great. These fans never boo. They become frustrated because the Dodgers used to bring up some of the better minor-league players from here, but they never boo. Now, they are happy to have a big league team, and they are willing to wait five years, like the Mets' fans did, for the team to begin winning. But the thing that amazes me more than the players not being booed is the umpires. They never hear it from the fans, either, no matter if it does seem to be a bad call.

Roberto Clemente
I want to thank my teammates for being a bunch of swell guys. I want to thank Branch Rickey for giving me the opportunity of playing baseball. Most of all I want to thank the people of Pittsburgh whose encouragement helped me win this award. They deserve the best.

Roberto Clemente
I have friend in Puerto Rico who studied to be a doctor but did not finish. He has lots of money now and just likes to work as doctor sometimes. He has helped lots of fellows playing winter ball in my home. He fixed me up and I know chiropractor in St. Louis who is good for me. I think my friend in Puerto Rico can help Vernon. He can tell when it hurts without touching the spot. He do that with me just in exercise he asked me to do. I make face once and he said you have bad disc. And he right.

Roberto Clemente
How do you measure a man? How can you compare one man with another unless you've seen them both? I cannot tell about other men who played long ago. I saw Mays. To me, Willie Mays is the greatest who ever played. But he is forty and has had his days – he is tired. San Francisco is all tired. For them it was not easy. For twenty days, they were in a tight pennant race and don't know where they are. Mentally, they were going to be tight. You could see Mays is tired.

Roberto Clemente
The American League must be that fountain of youth they talk about. A lot of National League pitchers did pretty good in the American League this year.

Roberto Clemente
I think he had the best eye, best stance and sharpest cut of all the big leaguers playing in Puerto Rico. He also field real good and throw like a bullet.

Roberto Clemente
Bobby, it don't matter how you stand; it matter where you end up!

Roberto Clemente
Everything is so new in Puerto Rico. I wanted to build something the way Puerto Rico started, something from the old land.

Roberto Clemente
First base is not for me. I think a man shortens his career there instead of prolonging it. I keep my legs in good shape by running back and forth from the outfield to the dugout.

Roberto Clemente
Listen, I shouldn't even be playing. I showed up at spring training and I told the ball club about my accident. I said my shoulder had been damaged and the ballclub said "Sh-h-h, don't talk, so loud. Somebody might hear you; Now, don't tell anybody about this." They said, "I don't want to know about it." Well, I tell you, it hurts me to swing a bat and, when I know it is going to hurt, it bothers me mentally and I do not swing the same and I wince when I think of hitting the ball. I should be home, not here in the dugout, because [sic] I would rather play even if I am crippled than to sit and watch a game.

Roberto Clemente
It's a shame he couldn't play in the majors due to the color barrier. I've always insisted Pancho would have been one of the best ever.

Roberto Clemente
Everybody, they say Roberto just swings the bat and hits the ball. I work hard. No one works harder than I do. People think things come easy to me. They don't.

Roberto Clemente
They think it is an act. When I said I had back trouble, they call me Mama's Boy. Goldbrick. When my elbow was swollen as big as a softball, they say it was in my head. If I am sick, I do not deny. If my back is hurting me and I am forced to punch at the ball with no power, I tell the truth. I tell them I am hurting.

Roberto Clemente
A lot of my countrymen are here tonight, and I don't really know whether I love you more or them more, but I do know this: you people in Pittsburgh are the greatest fans in the world!

Roberto Clemente
The first thing the average white Latin American player does when he comes to the States is associate with other whites. He doesn't want to be seen with Latin Negroes, even from his own country, because he's afraid people might think he's colored.

Roberto Clemente
I don't know. I don't know. I want to be happy because I have never hit three home runs in one game. But how can I be happy when we lose?

Roberto Clemente
We play too many games with too much traveling. We should stay in one city longer and have a day off now and then. It would be beneficial for the teams, keep them in top physical shape more.

Roberto Clemente
That's what I like about the World Series. It gives me a chance to talk with lots of writers, a chance for them to understand me better than in the past. When Roberto Clemente is mentioned, he is always mentioned with injuries. They say I'm moody, selfish, temperamental. That's not the real me. I was born with a serious face. If you know my life, if you know me well by taking the time to learn to know me, then you'll understand me. Most places I go, people say "smile." I don't like that. I don't believe in being a hypocrite. If the occasion is for smiling, I will be smiling. I'm a very happy person.

Roberto Clemente
For years, I have been pleading with somebody in charge at Forbes Field to put clay instead of sand in the batter's box. Sand causes your feet to slip. Clay gives you a chance to keep your feet solid. So all I got for years was sand and more sand. Batters would dig holes. I come to bat and scrape dirt to cover up the holes. Suddenly this year, they put clay in the batter's box. Now I have firm footing. Now I can get a toe-hold.

Roberto Clemente