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Angel In The Outfield

Tribune photo by MARK HOLAN

A photo of Roberto Clemente towers over Duane Rieder at his soon-to-open museum, which will feature his collection of the baseball legend’s pictures and other memorabilia.

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By MARK HOLAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 21, 2007

Updated: 12/22/2007 04:57 pm

PITTSBURGH - PITTSBURGH - Baseball star Roberto Clemente was bringing relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua when he died 35 years ago in a New Year's Eve plane crash.

He was 38, with perhaps a season or two left in his Hall of Fame career. The heroic humanitarianism surrounding his death elevated Clemente to sainthood among baseball fans and others in the United States and his native Puerto Rico.

Now, a soon-to-open museum dedicated to Clemente appears to have photographic proof of his otherworldliness.

A rare 1960 photo of the Pittsburgh Pirates' outfielder at spring training in Fort Myers shows Clemente leaping to catch a ball. The puffy cumulous clouds behind his shoulders form nearly perfect angel wings.

"I noticed the wings as soon as I looked at the negative," said Duane Rieder, a professional photographer and driving force behind the museum.

He found the image among a dusty box of photo negatives rescued from the sports department of a defunct Pittsburgh daily.

Clemente was known for his slashing hitting style, aggressive base-running and rifle arm in right field. From 1955 to 1972, he won four National League batting titles and 12 Gold Glove awards as the best fielder at his position, made regular All-Star Game appearances and helped the Pirates win the World Series in 1960 and 1971.

He reached his milestone 3,000th career hit, his last of the 1972 regular season, three months before the plane crash.

Clemente also was known for his quiet charity work, such as regular visits to a Pittsburgh school for the blind and work with poor children in Puerto Rico. Since his death, Major League Baseball has given an annual Roberto Clemente Award to the player who best demonstrates community commitment and the value of helping others.

Clemente also spoke passionately against racism and prejudice.

The angel image is one of hundreds of photos hanging on the walls of a former city fire station that Rieder plans to open as a museum by March. The collection is available until then by appointment. Rieder said he is negotiating naming rights and licensing agreements with the Clemente family, which wants to open a similar museum in Puerto Rico.

The images range from action shots and publicity photos to candid pictures of Clemente and his teammates around the dugout and inside the locker room. There are some Polaroid snaps from Clemente's 1964 wedding and pictures with his three sons.

Other memorabilia includes a complete collection of Topps baseball cards spanning Clemente's career, plus several of his bats and uniforms and a pair of worn spikes.

Rieder claims to have the largest collection of Clemente signatures, including contracts and personal letters. There's a signed photo, "To mother with love, Roberto," and a $975 furniture store receipt Clemente signed upon delivery of a sofa and two chairs in 1965.

One set of correspondence reveals the 1956 contract negotiations between Clemente and legendary baseball executive Branch Rickey Jr., then the Pirates' general manager. A decade earlier, Rickey had signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color barrier. Clemente wasn't the first Latin player in the majors, but he was the first Latin superstar.

Rieder said he is trying to obtain other memorabilia from collectors, such as Clemente's Gold Glove awards. He said Clemente's widow, Vera, 66, has promised to loan the special edition Dodge Charger her husband won as most valuable player of the 1971 World Series.

The car would show nicely inside the former Engine House No. 25, with the original yellow division line on the polished concrete floor and restored tongue-and-groove wood ceilings 16 feet overhead.

And the building has ties to another baseball great that died young: Lou Gehrig. The New York Yankees' star visited the fire house while in Pittsburgh for the 1927 World Series, according to a newspaper account of the day. Gehrig died 14 years later, at age 37, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that now bears his name.

Rieder said he may devote a small corner of the museum to Gehrig. Some other baseball images and memorabilia already are interspersed in the Clemente collection.

The fire house had been slated for demolition but now is a gem in the city's gritty Lawrenceville section, where artists and entrepreneurs are turning rundown warehouses and row houses into galleries, restaurants and shops. The museum is about 10 minutes from PNC Park, the Pirates' home stadium, where a 12-foot-tall bronze statue of Clemente stands outside the gates.

Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 835-2102 or mholan@tampatrib.com.

IF YOU GO

The Roberto Clemente photo and memorabilia collection, at 3339 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, can be seen by appointment until a planned museum opens to the public next year. Call (412) 621-1268 or e-mail info@clementemuseum.com.

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