Roberto Clemente wasn’t always a baseball icon. He fought hard to become the Pittsburgh Pirates star player.
Born August 14, 1934 in Puerto Rico, the youngest of five children, he was American and Puerto Rican. Those were the days of the Great Depression. Life was not easy during the depression, but thankfully, both of Roberto’s parents were bringing in money, so the family of seven always had food.
Getting from Puerto Rico to Pittsburgh where he played baseball for the Pirates did not happen overnight. You can follow his journey in All About Roberto Clemente. 
Here are some Clemente Fun Facts
- As a youngster, Roberto played baseball with items such as rag balls, stick bats, and burlap sack gloves.
- He and his friends would take water to the field workers to earn money for baseball tickets.
- His baseball hero was Monte Irvin.
- He played softball with an amateur Puerto Rican team called Sello Rojo.
He was later recruited to a professional team in Puerto Rico called Cangrejeros de Santurce.- US scouts were impressed with his skill and he was selected by the Pirates.
- He practiced English by listening to movies and repeating what the actors said.
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All About Roberto Clemente was written by Andrew Conte who is the founding director of the Center for Media Innovation at Park University. He has worked as an investigative reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and has won multiple national and statewide awards for his work. The Pennsylvania Society of Professional Journalists has recognized Andrew three times with the Spotlight Award, its annual prize for investigative reporting, and the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania has given him its annual top reporting prize four times. He is the author of the best-selling book Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Rebirth and the Silver Benjamin Franklin Award-winning book, The Color of Sundays. Andrew is a graduate of Dickinson College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives near Pittsburgh.
Bryan Janky is the illustrator for All About Roberto Clemente. He attended college at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he obtained a degree in illustration. Bryan has always focused his skills and efforts towards becoming a children’s book illustrator. Aside from illustrating, Bryan draws caricature portraits and designs customized resumes.
Information in this article was taken from All About Roberto Clemente by Andrew Conte published by Blue River Press December 2016.