I am a very proud person. Baseball has helped send my brothers and nephews to school. But more than that, baseball has become my whole life. Accompli… - Roberto Clemente

I sick, I have nervous stomach. I can hardly eat. I'm taking lot of vitamins and I'm getting stronger. But I still sick. [...] Clemente said he's been bothered by stomach trouble since last August. During the winter I feel real bad. I lost 18 pounds but I've picked my weight back up a little since then. I don't feel too strong and sometimes when I run I get short of breath. Sometime I feel good and sometime I don't feel like playing ball at all. [...] If I get a little stronger, I hit with more power and I help the club more.

I hit many what you call the "bad bol" pitches, and get good wood. The bol' travel like bullet. That remind me, I hit 565 foote hum-rum in Chicaga last year; the bol' disappear from centerfield, and Raj Hornsby tell me it longest drive he ever saw hit out of Wrigley Field. The bol' feel good on the bat but I feel bad at heart, when no writer with our team play up the big drive. I feel effort not appreciated.

I listened to the San Juan games on the radio and my idol was Monte Irvin, because he not only was a good hitter but had a very good arm. Even my friends called me Monte Irvin as a nickname. I never thought I’d be good enough to play pro ball. I always felt you had to be like Superman to play professionally. But in 1952, at age 17, I signed a contract with Santurce. My bonus? It was $500 and one glove. They also paid me $30 a week. Two years later – when I was 19 – there were eight or nine big league teams after me and I signed with the Dodgers for a $10,000 bonus. This was a big day in my life.