The History Behind How the Pittsburgh Pirates Acquired Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente is the best outfielder in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But he didn’t arrive in Pittsburgh in a typical fashion.

Many fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates know who the Great One, number 21, Roberto Clemente is. He’s the greatest outfielder in Pirate history. He’s a 15-time Natioanl League All-Star, a 12-time Gold Glove winner, an MVP, part of the 3000 hit club, and 2-time World Series Champion. With 80.6 fWAR, the legendary outfielder has the second highest mark in Pirate franchise history, only trailing shortstop Houns Wagner at 127.2.

But the story many Pirate fans do not know is how he got here. No franchise probably has a story they can tell like this of how they got one of their all time icons. This is the fascinating story of how the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired the all-time great Clemente.

Clemente was born August 18th, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. By the time he was just 18, he was already playing Dominican baseball, and when he was 19-years-old, Clemente was already signed by a MLB team in the United States. That team was not the Pittsburgh Pirates, but actually the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was signed by Brooklyn as an international free agent in February 1954.

Clemente played just one professional season in the Dodgers organization. In 1954, he played 87 games, and received just 155 plate appearances. Clemente hit just .257/.286/.372 line with two home runs. This was at Triple-A, and Brooklyn’s Triple-A affiliate was the Montreal Royals at the time. Not only did this Royals team house Clemente, but also legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.

But this was the lone season Clemente would be with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the following off-season, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Clemente in the Rule 5 Draft. This draft prevents teams from hoarding prospects. To protect players, they had to be on the 40-man roster.

Today, however, a player who was signed at 18-years-old or younger must spend at least five professional seasons with a team, or a player who was signed at 19-years-old must spend at least four professional seasons with a team. However, if a team does select a player in the Rule 5 Draft, they must stay on your active roster the entire season, or you must return them from the team you drafted the player from. Today, most of the time, players picked through this process have barely made it to Double-A, making it pretty much trying to find a diamond in the rough. Something we covered on the site over the weekend.

The Dodgers didn’t really need to protect Clemente at the time given they had  Duke Snider whose career was on a Hall of Fame trajectory, and two time all-star Carl Furillo, along with veterans Jackie Robinson, PeeWee Reese, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella. Plus they also wanted to protect a young lefty by the name of Sandy Koufax. However, could you imagine a team with all those guys on it, and Clemente? Anyways, the Dodgers apparently didn’t see the need to protect a light hitting, glove first outfielder, and let him go in the Rule 5 Draft.

But who was the Pirate general manager who selected Roberto out of the draft? None other than legendary Dodger general manager Branch Rickey. Rickey, like Clemente, needs no introduction. Rickey might have been the one who helped break baseball’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, but he was also the one that got Clemente to Pittsburgh.

Clemente made his MLB debut on April 17th, 1955, ironically against the Dodgers. The Bucs lost a blowout, 10-3, but Clemente went 1-for-4. Another noteworthy fact is the PNC Park’s Clemente Wall could have been 13 feet high rather than 21 feet high. For a very short amount of time, Clemente was number 13 because number 21 was taken by Earl Smith, an outfielder who has just, wait for it, 21 plate appearances to his entire MLB career. When Smith was optioned to the minors sometime in May 1955, Clemente took number 21 as it was the amount of letters in his full name, Roberto Clemente Walker.

The rest is history.

We all know about number 21’s legendary career, reaching the 3000 hit club, and his tragic death at just 38-years-old caused by his airplane malfunctioning while delivering supplies to Nicagura that was recently struck by an earthquake. But while his career delivers many stories, I think how the Pittsburgh Pirates got Clemente is one of the most interesting ones out there.

#Retire21