April 8th, Opening Day for Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park.
There is no doubt that truly spectacular individuals have walked this planet, achieved their seemingly impossible dreams and then utterly disappeared into the dust of the past.
The heaviness of that reality exists all around us. Stories go untold. Songs go unheard. Words go unspoken. However, the astounding thing about being a human is that we are infinitely curious. We are natural seekers! So when we find a crumb of a story from the past, we want to know more. I fell in love with a house that had fallen completely into disrepair and had been essentially forgotten. The walls began to ache with stories about the people that lived and created within the walls one of the voices was baseball legend Roberto Clemente!
Roberto Clemente
When he wasn’t playing baseball, Clemente did something so impressive: he would spend much of his off-season engaged in charity work. So he was acting entirely in character when he organized a relief air-lift to aid victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Managua, Nicaragua on Dec. 23, 1972. Clemente arranged for three flights to deliver emergency supplies, only to discover that corrupt Nicaraguan officials had stolen their contents.
Clemente decided to personally accompany a fourth flight from Puerto Rico to Nicaragua to ensure the aid reached those in need.
Manny Sanguillen, the catcher for Clemente’s championship 1971 Pirates, was in Puerto Rico at the time playing winter ball. Clemente had taken him under his wing when the Panamanian Sanguillen first arrived in Pittsburgh in 1967 and the two had become close friends. Sanguillen had spent the week helping Clemente raise money for the relief effort. Now Clemente wanted him to fly to Nicaragua with him. Sanguillen agreed but fate intervened. Sanguillen lost his car keys and missed the flight. He was asleep that night when a friend awakened him with the news that Clemente’s plane had fallen into the Atlantic off the coast of Puerto Rico shortly after takeoff. His body was never found.
As we celebrate the 2024 Baseball season I wanted to share this story because Roberto’s legacy can mentor us all.
I hope you enjoy the song I wrote with Jon Butcher about Roberto called CRACK THE BAT. It is on our Songs For Mary Soundtrack about saving the Mystery Manor house in Pittsburgh which will be released on April 12.
Here is the full Larry Katz interview https://songsformary.com/crack-the-bat-the-ballad-of-roberto-and-manny
Look out Pittsburgh! Boston is coming to the rescue and together we can Design the Next Generation!
