Don't forget, Clemente died while taking part in a charitable endeavor for Nicaragua, which was hit with an earthquake. From Wiki....
Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work. When
Managua, the capital city of
Nicaragua, was affected by a
massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who visited Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights.
[72] He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the
Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake.
[73] H
e decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to the survivors.[74] The airplane which he chartered for the New Year's Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane, had a history of mechanical problems and it also had an insufficient number of flight personnel (a flight engineer and a copilot were both missing), and it was also overloaded by 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg).[75] It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972, due to engine failure.[76]
A search and rescue effort was immediately launched, led by the
USCGC Sagebrush.
[77] A few days after the crash, the body of the pilot and part of the fuselage of the plane were found. An empty flight case which apparently belonged to Clemente was the only personal item of his which was recovered from the plane. Clemente's teammate and close friend
Manny Sanguillén was the only member of the Pirates who did not attend Roberto's memorial service. Instead, the Pirates catcher chose to dive into the waters where Clemente's plane had crashed in an effort to find his teammate. The bodies of Clemente and three others who were also on the four-engine plane were never recovered.
[76]
Montreal Expos pitcher
Tom Walker, then playing
winter league ball in Puerto Rico (in a league later named after Clemente), helped him load the plane. Because Clemente wanted Walker, who was single, to go and enjoy New Year's,
[78] Clemente told him not to join him on the flight.
In an interview for the
ESPN documentary series
SportsCentury in 2002, Clemente's widow Vera mentioned that Clemente had told her that he thought he was going to die young several times.
[36] Indeed, while he was being asked when he would get his 3,000th career hit by broadcaster and future fellow Hall of Famer
Richie Ashburn in July 1971 during the All-Star Game activities, Clemente's response was "Well, uh, you never know. I, I, uh, if I'm alive, like I said before, you never know because God tells you how long you're going to be here. So you never know what can happen tomorrow."
[79] Clemente's older stepbrother, Luis, died on December 31, 1954, exactly 18 years before Clemente himself, and his stepsister died a few years later.
