by Tom Ashbrook.
Before there was Pedro and Mani and Big Papi in American baseball, before the most common surnames in the major leagues were Hernandez, Gonzales, Ramirez, Rodgriquez, there was one Hispanic name above all: Roberto Clemente, the powerful, graceful Puerto Rican right-fielder on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The first Latino superstar in America’s big leagues.
Biographer David Maraniss has written bestsellers on Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi. Now, he’s taken on the life and untimely death of Clemente. He calls him baseball’s last true hero.
This hour On Point: David Maraniss on the grand-daddy of the Latino Wave in American baseball, Roberto Clemente.
Guests:
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero ”
Jose Luis Villegas, photographer for The Sacramento Bee and author of “Home is Everything: The Latino Baseball Story”
Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.
