A 45-year-old legacy inspires at PNC Park
Scene outside park stirs emotions for Tom Walker
As the Pirates made plans to bring 460,000 pounds of diapers, baby formula, food, water, batteries and other supplies to Puerto Rico, they couldn’t help but think of No. 21.
“That’s where I learned it from because that guy, he would’ve done it,” Joey Cora, the Pirates’ third base coach, said of Roberto Clemente, without ever saying Clemente’s name. “He probably would’ve, in the middle of the season, he would’ve said, ‘Hey, I can’t play. I’ve got to go there and help.’ ”
The two planes’ worth of goods going to the hurricane-ravaged island this week echo Clemente’s charitable streak. Clemente died Dec. 31, 1972, in a plane crash while trying to deliver supplies from Puerto Rico to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
For Tom Walker, the father of former Pirate Neil Walker, watching Pittsburghers contribute to the collection brought back memories of a scene that played out in almost the same way in 1972.
Walker, a former major league pitcher who lives in Gibsonia, was playing winter ball in Puerto Rico in 1972 when Clemente made his fateful flight to Nicaragua.
Walker had once played on Clemente’s winter ball team, and he helped Clemente load materials onto the airplane.
He asked to go along, but the plane was full and Clemente told Walker to stay home and party — after all, it was New Year’s Eve.
Walker, 23 at the time, left the airport, got something to eat, went to his apartment and heard a knock on his door. His friend asked if he’d heard about Clemente. No, he replied, but he had just seen him.
Then, his friend told him about the crash.
“The world stopped for me right there,” Walker said.
“I was very young, but it still stopped for me, because you still had to process this, you know, ‘What if?’ And today, at 68, I still process it differently because it means so much more to me.”
Walker, who remains close to the Pirates organization nearly two years after his son was traded to the New York Mets, drove his SUV to PNC Park on Tuesday. He couldn’t move the donations he brought because of a broken foot, but watched with admiration as car after car was unloaded.
“I was having a real hard time emotionally with processing all of what was going on, because in my mind, I had seen this before, but in a different way,” Walker said.
When he saw his wife, Carolyn, at home, he told her that he was emotionally drained from reliving that day in 1972. “It’s just one of those moments that got to my soul,” he said. “It really did. But I’m happy about it. … I’m happy that his legacy and spirit still lives on.”
The Pirates plan to pay Clemente’s generosity forward: While in Puerto Rico, the team plans to deliver a pallet of emergency goods to his widow, Vera, who lives on the island.
The team will bring items such as generators, food and fans to Vera Clemente, said Mike Gonzalez, the Pirates’ special assistant to the general manager for cultural initiatives.
“She’s getting older, and it’s harder for her to move around,” said Gonzalez, a native of Cayey, Puerto Rico. “And us being able to provide her a generator and stuff like that is going to help her make sure that she’s got food and everything else, because these generators are going to help maintain her refrigerator going.”
Forty-five years after Clemente’s death, the Pirates are quick to credit him as an inspiration for this week’s trip. On Monday, as the team described the mission to Puerto Rico, Franciso Cervelli, Gonzalez and Sean Rodriguez wore shirts with Clemente’s No. 21.