My thoughts on Clemente

Well, it took entirely longer than I expected, but I've finished David Maraniss' Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last True Hero and can finally give you guys a bit of a review.

I should start by saying that I hope you don't view the length of time that it took me to actually read the book as any kind of indictment of it on my part. On the contrary, I flew through the first 4/5ths of it in a couple weeks, and simply kind of stopped reading right as I got to the December 31st, 1972 part. This happened for a couple reasons, it was right around when I started work, because that part was prominently featured in the SI exerpt, and because, to put it bluntly, I knew how it was going to end.

Beyond that, the book was a great read, and something that I would recommend to any Pirate fan who hasn't read it yet. Beyond the usual discussions of Clemente as a baseball player, it goes into his life in Puerto Rico and the hardships faced by a black Latino athlete in the late 50s and early 60s (especially during spring training in segregated Florida). It does a good job of painting a picture of what shaped Roberto into the man that got on the plane on that fateful New Year's Eve. As anyone that read that SI exerpt already knows, the book also gives a painstakingly researched account of the circumstances surrounding his death and the way he was basically conned into flying on an unsafe plane.

So there you go, I'm not much of one for book reports, but if you've thought about reading this book and haven't yet, I'd strongly recommend you do, especially if you were a big Clemente fan.