Roberto Clemente was one of my favorite baseball players, and it was a sad day in sports when his plane went down all those years ago.
It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
Nicaragua had just suffered an earthquake and was in need of foodstuffs and medicines. Clemente was on an overloaded airplane bound for that state when it crashed into the Caribbean Sea. One of my Mother's best friends was in a San Juan hotel and saw the crash from her window. She, like the rest of the people in PR, was in deep shock thereafter.
ReplyDeletePitcher Steve Blass was one of Clemente's best friends. Up to this time he was considered among the best pitchers in the National League. After the tragedy, he lost all drive and intensity so that his career went downhill. Despite their great lineup it took years for the Pirates to go back to the top in the Major Leagues.
In his honor, many Puerto Rican baseball players used number 21 when they play in the ML.
They don't make sports heroes like that anymore. Happy New Year everyone!
ReplyDeleteAnd a wonderful New Year to you!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI received Zeitoun (Eggers) and J.K. Galbraith's The Great Crash of 1929 for Christmas.
Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteBaseball is filled with much interesting lore, but the curse of the Bambino and the Sox finally winning the World Series in 2004 has to be one of the greatest stories in the sport.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the history note on Jackie Robinson brought to mind a book I read on Satchel Paige and the Negro leagues not so long ago, "Don't Look Book," which has him sitting in a rocking chair on the cover. Great book.
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