Displayed is a rare 1973 Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates memorial patch that was used on the sleeve of a Pirates jersey in 1973, the year following the tragic death of Hall of Fame right fielder. Clemente played his entire MLB career (1955-72) with the Pirates, and the .317 lifetime hitter, who won 12 Gold Gloves, achieved his 3,000th and final Major League hit on September 30, 1972, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, against Jon Matlack of the New York Mets. Clemente was the manager of the Puerto Rican National Team in the 1972 Amateur World Series, which was held in early December in '72 in Managua, Nicaragua. When a devastating earthquake hit the Managua area on December 23, '72, Clemente was involved in chartering planes to send emergency relief supplies to Nicaragua. When the first three planes whose flights Clemente had arranged had supplies diverted by corrupt officials before the aid could reach hurricane victims, Clemente himself, in order to ensure the aid reached the intended recipients, accompanied the fourth flight. The plane was overloaded, had mechanical problems and no engineer nor co-pilot, and the flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean soon after takeoff from takeoff from Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. Clemente lost his life, his body never recovered. Major League Baseball waived its normal five-year waiting period for the Hall of Fame, and Clemente was posthumously inducted into the HOF in the summer of '73. The cloth patch measures approx. 2.8" across. An oblong, the patch has Clemente's number "21" on a white oblong background, trimmed in black. We are not sure on whose jersey the patch was affixed, but it does show good use. Note that there were reproductions of these patches that were made, but this offered patch is original to 1973 and shows the age. These patches were hand-made for only the team to wear on the sleeves of Pirates jerseys.

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