Hall of Fame Major League baseball player who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973. He played right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is considered among the greatest baseball players of all time.

Born Roberto Clemente Walker in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he was the youngest of seven children of Melchor and Luisa Walker Clemente. His father was the foreman of a sugarcane plantation. Young Roberto showed a strong interest in baseball at an early age, and, during high school, joined the softball teams of two barrios, part of the amateur league in Puerto Rico, playing shortstop.

In 1952, he began his professional career playing for the Santurce (Puerto Rico) Crabbers, part of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. After one year, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract, but he moved to Canada to play for the Montreal Royals.

He was unhappy with the Royals and was recruited to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1954 as a rookie draft. Suffering an injured back from an automobile accident that sidelined him in the middle of his first season with Pittsburgh, he nonetheless gave a fair performance for his first professional year, demonstrating good defensive skills. On July 25, 1956, he became the first (and to date, the only) player to hit a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam, at the bottom of the ninth inning, to give the Pirates a 9 to 8 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

During the off-season, Roberto served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, performing military duties so he could have the spring-to-fall seasons for baseball. He would remain in the USMC Reserve until September 1964, when he completed his military obligation.

In 1960, he batted .353 and had 25 of 27 runs-batted-in. The Pirates won the National League pennant and defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series on Bill Mazeroski's unforgettable walk-off home run in Game 7. Clemente's .314 overall batting average, combined with 16 home runs, earned him a place in the All-Star Game. His second season was equally superior, and, at the end of that season, he returned home to his native Puerto Rico, where over 18,000 people greeted him.

On November 14, 1964, Roberto married Vera Zabala, in the Catholic Church of San Fernando. They would have three children: Roberto Jr., Luis Roberto, and Enrique Roberto.

In the remainder of the 1960s, Roberto would lead the National League in batting averages for four years, in hits for two years, and would win the Most Valuable Player award in 1966. He registered a career-high batting average of .357 in 1967 when he hit 23 home runs and 110 RBIs. He would continue his outstanding play to the 1970s. In 1971, Pittsburgh won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles, and Clemente batted .414 during the series, for which he received the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.

During the off seasons, Clemente spent much of his time doing charity work. When Managua, Nicaragua, was hit with a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente set about organizing relief flights of aid supplies to the city. He decided to accompany one of the flights on December 31, 1972, and boarded an overloaded DC-7 cargo plane bound for Managua. The plane crashed into the ocean minutes after takeoff from San Juan. Despite an extensive search, Clemente's body was never recovered.

At the time of his death, Clemente had set several records, including hitting the most triples in a single game (three), most hits in two consecutive games (10), and tying for the record of most Gold Glove Awards (12, tied with Willie Mays). In 1973, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and received a Congressional Gold Medal. In 1984, the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his honor. In 2002, President George W. Bush awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is considered among the top 100 Greatest Baseball Players of all time, according to "The Sporting News," which ranked him #20 in 1999.