Pictured is my very first Roberto Clemente card. My mother gave this to me as Christmas gift in the mid-80's. Who would've thought that 30 years later I would have continued collecting cards of this highly venerated baseball legend. It probably started as an investment strategy, as he had passed away, was inducted into the hall of fame, and prices of his cards seemed to only be able to go up. That was part of the motivation. I was too young to have ever watched him play with my own eyes, yet watching videos of him in action makes me wish I had been able to witness his skills in person. Most everyone knowledgeable about sports has heard of the stories of his tragic death and the reason why he went on that mission. He is a Latino hero for sure, but he touched me as well. I'm as white as you can get. I took Spanish in high school and won a contest by choosing Clemente and writing about how he was the most significant Latino historical figure. And he was by far. The card itself is a very good representation of Clemente. The portrait takes up nearly the whole card. It is posed, yet he seems not focused on the camera and is not smiling. There are a few imperfections on the card, yet I doubt I would ever trade for a better one. It is still in decent condition as I was old enough to understand that the condition was imperative to get any kind of investment value. My mother helped me understand that, after going through my earlier years not caring and strapping them up with rubber bands and basically abusing my cards. This card was special though. Older than I was. At the time the card picture was taken, Clemente was just coming into his own as a superstar in the league. The Pirates were on the way to becoming unlikely world champions and Clemente would find motivation in being snubbed on a higher vote tally for MVP that year. The following year he was the batting leader for the league. He never looked back and others could not ignore his talent. You can tell even by the card number that Clemente had still not quite reached the upper echelon. Superstars get the card numbers that end with a zero. It wasn't until 1962 that his card number did that (with #10 no less). I didn't have a lot of opportunities to increase my collection back then. My mother went to the local card shop in town and picked from their meager offerings. Believe it or not there used to not be the internet and you had to go to a store (and potentially long distances) to pick from what seemed like very limited quantities of vintage cards and not necessarily the best quality. This card defied all of that logic. Thanks Mom.
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