42 years ago today - Roberto Clemente's plane went down
 

A massive earthquake hit Nicaragua on Dec 23, 1972. It was a magnitude 6.2 and an hour after the initial quake there were two aftershocks of 5.2 and 5.0. The result was 6,000 killed, 20,000 injured and over 250,000 left homeless.

Clemente went to work arranging emergency relief flights. He found out that the aid packages from the first 3 flights had been diverted by corrupt officials so on Dec 31, 1972 he decided to accompany the fourth flight to ensure that the aid packages were received by the people needing them. The plane he was on had a history of mechanical problems and was overloaded. It went down shortly after takeoff.

12 x All Star
4 x batting champion
12 x Gold Glove

He got his 3,000th hit in his very last plate appearance in 1972.

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I remember it well. Sad day indeed.

I remember reading about it in the papers at the time. I could not believe it, especially since he had just won the series in 1971.

Clemente was one of my childhood favorites. Age 10 , it really stunned me.

Truly a great hero both on and off the field...

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