October 17, 1971: Game 7 of the World Series is played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles were set to play the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Orioles were the defending World Champions. The Pirates last won in 1960, and 2 players from that team were left: 2nd baseman Bill Mazeroski, whose home run won that Series; and right fielder Roberto Clemente. Danny Murtaugh managed them in both, and 1960 player Bill Virdon was one of Murtaugh's 1971 coaches.
Earlier in the season, the Pirates had become the 1st team ever to field an all-black-and/or-Hispanic starting lineup, leading author Bruce Markusen to title his book about the '71 Bucs The Team That Changed Baseball.
Clemente was 37, the most popular Hispanic player in baseball, and the Pirates' greatest player since Honus Wagner. But English-speaking baseball fans -- especially white ones -- weren't as interested in him as they were in some others. To a racist, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson might be black, but at least they spoke English.
Of course, Clemente spoke English, too, even though it was his 2nd language. And he dared to insist upon being called "Roberto." His Topps baseball cards usually listed him as "Bob Clemente." And Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince, a.k.a. "The Gunner," called him "Bobby."
What's more, he played in Pittsburgh. He had never played in New York, like Mays and Mickey Mantle. He wasn't playing in Los Angeles, like Sandy Koufax and Maury Wills had. He wasn't playing in Chicago, like the newly-retired Ernie Banks. He wasn't playing in San Francisco, like Mays. He wasn't playing in the nation's capital, Washington, like Frank Howard. He wasn't playing in the strong-media city of Boston, like Carl Yastrzemski. And he wasn't playing in the baseball-beloved city of St. Louis, like Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. So he had to deal with both the ignorance of racism and simply being ignored.
But the World Series is a national showcase. Every baseball fans watches. It helped launch Koufax to superstardom in 1963, Gibson and Brock in 1964, Frank Robinson in 1966, Al Kaline in 1968, and Brooks Robinson in 1970. In 1971, Roberto Clemente, already with 14 All-Star Game berths, 10 Gold Gloves, 4 National League batting titles, and a regular-season Most Valuable Player award, but without stardom outside Western Pennsylvania, wanted to show the country that he was as good as any of them.
But to do it, he and the Pirates would have to go through the Orioles, the defending World Champions, with Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, John "Boog" Powell, and pitchers Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally. And, being an odd-numbered year, the O's, as AL Champions, would have the home-field advantage for Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Games 6 and 7.
The Orioles won Game 1, 5-3, McNally outpitching Dock Ellis. They also won Game 2, 11-3, Palmer outpitching Bob Johnson. But when the Series went to Pittsburgh, the Pirates won Game 3, 5-4, with Steve Blass outpitching Cuellar; and Game 4, 4-3, Bruce Kison outpitching Eddie Watt. And in Game 5, Nelson Briles pitched a 2-hit shutout, beating McNally, and the Pirates won, 4-0. But, back at Memorial Stadium, the Orioles won Game 6, 3-2. Clemente hit a home run, but Brooks Robinson hit a sacrifice fly to score Frank Robinson with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Hank Bauer of the Yankees still holds the record for the longest hitting streak in World Series play, 17 games. Clemente had gotten a hit in all 7 games in 1960, and had now gotten hits in all 6 games in 1971, for 13, the 2nd-longest such streak. But the Pirates had to win Game 7 on the road.
Blass started against Cuellar, the lefthanded screwball specialist from Cuba. The game was scoreless until the top of the 4th, when Clemente hit a home run off Cuellar. The teams exchanged runs in the 8th, but Blass went the distance. The outcome was still in doubt on the final play: Merv Rettenmund hit a bouncer that ricocheted off the pitcher's mound. Pirate shortstop Jacinto "Jackie" Hernández handled it, and threw Rettenmund out.
The Pirates had become World Champions for the 4th time, previously doing so in 1909, 1925 and 1960. In 1901 and 1902, they won the NL Pennant, and had a better record than the AL Champions both times, but there was no World Series until 1903, which they reached, losing to the team soon to be known as the Boston Red Sox.
Clemente played in all 7 games in '60 and in all 7 games in '71, and got hits in all 14 World Series games in which he played. In fact, all 5 of the Pirates' World Series wins, including the 1979 win that was yet to come, have been in 7 games.
Interviewed for Sports Illustrated, Pirate general manager Joe Brown said, "People said to me, 'My God, does he always play like that?' And I said, 'Yes. Always. You're not seeing anything that we don't see day in and day out.'" Clemente had shown the world what he not only could do, but had always done.
After the game‚ 40‚000 people rioted in celebration in downtown Pittsburgh. At least 100 people wre injured‚ some seriously, although no deaths were reported.
Immediately after the Game 7 victory, rookie hurler Bruce Kison and his champagne-soaked best man Bob Moose were whisked away from Memorial Stadium by helicopter to a waiting Lear Jet, to attend the 21 year-old Kison's 6:30 PM wedding in Pittsburgh, for which the groom arrived 33 minutes late.
Also after the game, NBC did what it usually did when covering the World Series, and not only hired the leading announcer for each participating team -- in this case, Prince for the Pirates and Chuck Thompson for the Orioles -- but sent the announcer for the winning team into the locker room to interview the victorious.
Clemente had become the 1st Spanish-speaking player to be named the World Series MVP. Prince called him over to the TV camera, and called him "Bobby." Roberto was 37 years old. He told Prince that he had something he wanted to say, in Spanish. He said: << En el día más orgulloso de mi vida, a mis hijos, les doy mi bendición. Y a mis padres pido su bendición desde Puerto Rico. >>
They were the first words ever spoken in Spanish live on national television in America. In English, "In the proudest day in my life, to my children, I give my blessing. And from my parents, I ask their blessing from Puerto Rico."
At that point, with Honus Wagner dead, the Steelers yet to rise to dynasty status, and Mario Lemieux having just turned 6, Bob Prince might have been the one living person connected with Pittsburgh sports more popular than Roberto Clemente. But in that moment, Clemente transcended not just Pittsburgh, but his entire sport. He had shown the world how he always played. And he had shown Prince, and the world, that he was a human being, an adult, an American, a Puerto Rican, and a Spanish speaker, as well as a great baseball player, and that each status deserved respect.
He had made his point -- Había dejado claro su punto.
The following year, he collected his 3,000th career hit. Two months later, trying to fly relief supplies to earthquake-devastated Nicaragua, he was killed in a plane crash. In a span of 14 months, he had gone from local star to baseball icon to secular saint.
UPDATE: The Pirates have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1971 World Champions, they have inducted right fielder Roberto Clemente, 2nd baseman Bill Mazeroski, center fielder Al Oliver, catcher Manuel "Manny" Sanguillén, pitcher Steve Blass, and manager Danny Murtaugh.
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October 17, 1971 was a Sunday. Byron Chamberlain, a Super Bowl-winning linebacker with the Denver Broncos and a Pro Bowl selection with the Minnesota Vikings, was born on this day. And this was the day what's now named the Azadi Stadium opened in Tehran, Iran. I have a separate entry for that event.
These NFL games were played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts, 31-7 at Yankee Stadium.
* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 28-17 at Shea Stadium. Both New York teams being at home on the same day could have been due to the baseball teams having scheduling priority at the stadiums, thus compressing each football team's home schedule to being from mid-October to late December.
* The Washington Redskins beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 24-16 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).
* The Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots, 41-3 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the Dallas Cowboys, 24-14 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. This was an outlier: The Saints, as they usually did in their early days, finished below .500; while the Cowboys went on to win their 1st Super Bowl.
* The Detroit Lions beat the Houston Oilers, 31-7 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Minnesota Vikings beat their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 24-13 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Of course, the Packers consider their arch-rivals to be the Chicago Bears, not the Vikings.
* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-16 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 13-0 in San Francisco. It turns out to be the last game for inured Bears star Gale Sayers. So, like the Beatles, Sayers' last paid performance was at Candlestick Park. Injuries limited Sayers to only enough games that it amounted to 4 full seasons. But he was still great enough to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* And the following day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 38-16 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
There were no games in the American Basketball Association that day, but there were 3 in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 121-120 in overtime at the Cleveland Arena.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 112-99 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 127-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
There were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 8-4 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 2-2 at the Boston Garden.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the California Golden Seals, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.
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