Roberto Clemente

Shortly after his death, Clemente became the first Hispanic person ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the usual rules, which stipulated that a player had to wait five years after ending his career before being inducted, were waived.

After Clemente's death, the Pirates honored him for the next several seasons by wearing patches on their sleeves. The patches had Clemente's uniform number, 21, circled in black. The team also played a series of exhibition games in San Juan in order to make Clemente's dream of a "sports city" in Puerto Rico come true.

Clemente's wife Vera remembered that for years he had talked about creating a "sports city" for the young people of Puerto Rico, and she spearheaded the effort to build one. Today the Ciudad Deportiva Roberto Clemente, located in Carolina, Puerto Rico, continues to encourage young people to play sports and to succeed at them. Since its beginnings, it has fostered many players who later came to the major U.S. leagues.

In addition to being depicted on almost 100 baseball cards, Clemente was honored in 1982 with a 20-cent stamp issued by Puerto Rico. At the 1994 All-Star game in Pittsburgh, a bronze statue of Clemente was unveiled. Pirates outfielder Orlando Merced told Wulf, "Roberto Clemente means a dream to me, and to a lot of kids and people…. He has pushed me to be a betterplayer and a better person. When they unveiled the statue, I was crying. It made me proud to be who I am and to be a Puerto Rican."

When Clemente entered major league baseball, he contended with widespread racism among players, fans, and sports reporters. Partly because of his presence and his talent, baseball teams today spend millions of dollars to recruit and keep talented Hispanic players; by 1998, almost nineteen percent of major-league players were Hispanic. According to Bill Plaschke in The Sporting News, Dodger scout Mike Brito said, "Today, the Latin player coming in is treated like a king. If he is any good, he gets everything." Despite this, Latin players still face stereotypes, according to Plaschke, "that they are hotheaded, or that they don't have inner drive." In addition, although Hispanic players are now relatively common, only one of 120 personnel executives is Hispanic. In The Sporting News, Richard Lapchick quoted former player agent Joe Masso, who said that Hispanic players need a transition program to help them understand the language and culture of the United States, and that "The U.S.-born players need a deeper understanding of Latino culture so they can play better as teammates on and off the field."

In Stamps, John D. Babbitt quoted Clemente's summation of his life philosophy: "Accomplishment is something you cannot buy. If you have a chance to do something for somebody and you do not make the most of it, you are wasting your time on this earth."