Bobby Bragan on Roberto Clemente

“Bragan smiled about it yesterday afternoon. He was asked if Clemente had been thrown out at the plate and had the Pirates lost in extra innings, would he have fined Clemente? "How could you fine a player for driving in three runs we needed to tie?" That seemed like a rather good explanation.”

“He's worth every penny of a half-million dollars to me. That's what the other clubs would have to give in cash or equivalent player material to get him.”

“The best way to describe Roberto Clemente is to say that if he were playing in New York, they’d be comparing him to DiMaggio. I would say his greatness is limited only by the fact that he does not hit the long ball as consistently and by the fact that he is not playing in New York – or even in Chicago or Los Angeles.”

“Dear Sirs: I feel compelled to write you concerning your article, "The World's Toughest Batting Orders—As Selected by Ten Star Major League Pitchers," which appeared in the March 31 Family Weekly. I think it is a shame that such unproven players such as Dave Concepcion are placed in a lineup of "toughest outs." I agree that Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Rod Carew and Willie Stargell are among the greatest hitters the game has ever known, but it certainly did not take your panel long to forget Roberto Clemente.”

“Clemente was just a kid then, his second year up. He was a real introvert – very quiet, morose almost. But he performed – man, did he perform! And he had tremendous pride. But I learned one thing about him early on – if he didn't feel like playing, you'd better let him sit. Wherever I managed, two hours before the game started, that lineup was posted on the board. I always wanted a man to know if he was starting. Now and then Clemente would come to me and say, ‘I don't feel like playing.’ If it had been somebody else, I would have asked him what the hell he was talking about. But not Clemente. When he didn’t want to play, he wouldn’t play – and that’s all there was to it. It didn’t happen very often, but it happened. It was usually a backache that he complained about. How serious it was, I don’t know – but I do know that he believed it was serious and that he was sincere about it. Remember – this was before he was a great star, so you had to believe he was sincere about his aches and pains and not trying to take advantage of his status.”

“Roberto Clemente was the best right fielder I saw play in the majors. Not the best hitter, but the best right fielder!”