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Roberto Clemente
1934–1972
Baseball legend with 3,000 hits, humanitarian who died in a relief mission to Nicaragua (1972), Puerto Rico's greatest athlete
Roberto Clemente was a professional baseball player, humanitarian, and cultural icon who spent his entire 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He amassed 3,000 hits, was the first Latin American player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. He was killed on December 31, 1972, when the plane carrying earthquake relief supplies he had organized for Nicaragua crashed after takeoff from San Juan.