Roberto Clemente Jr.
- Producer
Roberto Clemente, Jr. (born August 17, 1965) is a baseball broadcaster
and former professional baseball player from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He
was born in the Santurce barrio. His father, Roberto Clemente, was the
first Latin American player to connect 3,000 hits in Major League
Baseball history. His mother, Vera Clemente, is a celebrity as well,
having for many years hosted a telethon in Puerto Rico in order to
raise funds for the Ciudad Roberto Clemente, a sporting complex located
in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Despite playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates
and being established for a number of years in Pittsburgh, Roberto
Clemente insisted that Vera Clemente return to Puerto Rico so Roberto
Jr. could be born there. The first seven years of Roberto Jr.'s life
were spent between Puerto Rico and Pittsburgh. Tragedy struck in the
young Roberto Jr.'s life when his father died in an plane crash on
December 31, 1972, while taking relief items to Nicaragua earthquake
victims. The fact that his father passed away as Roberto Jr. was a
youngster, inspired him to follow in his father's footsteps and try to
become a Major League Baseball player. Roberto Jr. excelled in sports
at the Jr. high school and high school levels, being captain of a
volleyball team and participating in track and field and basketball as
well as baseball, while his mother obtained her own share of fame in
his native Puerto Rico. Clemente Jr. moved to Bradenton, Florida after
graduating high school, to attend a community college. In 1984, he was
spotted by a Philadelphia Phillies scout, and signed by the
organization, joining their division-A team in 1985, the same year in
which he made his debut in the Puerto Rican winter baseball league,
with the Arecibo Wolves team. A series of injuries prevented Clemente
Jr. from making it to the major leagues: after being traded to the San
Diego Padres organization in 1986, Clemente Jr. had a knee injury
during spring training and was not able to make the team. Clemente Jr.
insisted on making the major leagues and he traveled to Venezuela,
where he became a well known player, but, during tryouts with the
Baltimore Orioles before the 1989 season, he suffered a career ending
injury to his back and had to retire from professional baseball.
Clemente Jr. returned to Puerto Rico to help his mother in her quest to
open the Roberto Clemente Sports City, and, in 1992, he created the RBI
Baseball program, aimed at bringing children to his sport. Clemente Jr.
went to Pittsburgh to establish the Roberto Clemente Foundation in
1993, which made him president of two baseball oriented organizations
at the same time. When Kevin McClatchy became the Pirates' new owner in
1995, the major league team embraced both of Clemente Jr.'s
organization, promoting them in different ways. In 1996, Roberto
Clemente Jr. accepted an offer to broadcast New York Yankees games,
both on television and radio, becoming the Yankees' MSG Network,
Telemundo and WADO. WADO inaugurated a weekly talk show with Clemente
Jr. as show host in 1997. In 2001, Clemente Jr. and former San
Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays player Candy Maldonado, a fellow
Puerto Rican, teamed up to host the MLB's Spanish version of MLB's
network television show, Baseball Max. By 2002, Clemente Jr. was
conducting game interviews for ESPN Deportes Radio. He gradually worked
his way into becoming a game announcer on ESPN's Spanish television
network. Also in 2002, Clemente Jr. was named honorary chairman for the
baseball assonance team annual fund-raising dinner. He is also known
for his work with the American Diabetes Association. In 2005, Clemente
Jr. hosted a Saturday afternoon show on WFAN in New York City called
The Latin Beat. This was his first English-language radio job, as he
also became the first Latino host in the history of the station.