Roberto Clemente Junior is a baseball broadcaster, professional baseball player and public speaker who hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Clemente is inspired by his father, who played for the PIttsburgh Pirates but tragically died in a plane crash when Clemente was very small. Clemente, after his fathers death, became the spokesperson for the family when his mother Vera was not around and this was where he acquired his public speaker skill. Clemente became one of the youngest ever speakers in the history of Congress when he spoke about his father’s dream of a Sports City, where both young and old could be instructed in sports but also where quality time with family was involved in the process of sports.
Clemente did excel in sports himself from a very young age, being spotted by the Philadelphia Phillies when at community college, having a long history of being captain of the volleyball team, as well as participating in track, field and basketball. Unfortunately, however, a knee injury prevented Clemente from playing professionally, however he turned this into a success and decided to become a sports advocate instead. Clemente, along with his mother, helped make his fathers dream a reality; he brought Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities programme to his birthplace of Puerto Rico, which has since won 10 RBI World Series Championships.
Recently, Clemente has recreated his father’s fatal plane trip with supplies, however a tsunami made Clemente device to send the aid to where it was needed instead, hosted a Saturday Afternoon show on WFAN in New York City called The Latin Beast – becoming the first Latino host in the history of the station – and is a member of the board for The National Hispanic Health Foundation, due to his work at the forefront of new Brain Technology. Clemente has also been selected to serve as Commissioner of President George W. Bush’s South Lawn tee-Ball League, as well as co-hosting the T-Ball tournament at Gracie Mansion with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Clemente always keeps his dad in mind when creating his next project, and the Robert Clemente award is a prestigious award coveted by many.
