El dieciocho de agosto/August 18th

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Photo from baseballhall.org. Click HERE. 
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Roberto Clemente! (1934-1972)

A Puerto Rican professional baseball player (18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates) and humanitarian, Clemente died at the age of 38 in a plane crash while en route to Nicaragua to deliver relief to earth quake victims. An All Star for 12 seasons who played in 15 All Star games, winner of the Golden Glove Award for twelve consecutive years from 1961 to 1972, National League batting leader in 1961, 64, 65, and 67, and the World Series MVP in 1971, Clemente was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Clemente was the youngest of seven siblings. His father was the foreman of sugar crops located there, and he often took his son with him to work to help load and unload the trucks. Clemente always loved playing baseball and joined Puerto Rico's amateur league when he was 16. When he was 18 he signed a contract with the Cangrejeros of Santurce in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. From there he moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers Triple-A team, which is where the Pirates found him. Clemente joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1958 and was a member through 1964. He credits the intense training with helping his baseball career as well as alleviating back pain he had suffered due to a car crash in Puerto Rico. He marrried Vera Zabala in 1964, with whom he had three children, Roberto Jr. (1965), Luis Roberto (1966), and Roberto Enrique (1969). Known for his charity work, Clemente was presented posthumously with three civilian awards from the United States Government: a Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Nixon (1973) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush (2003). He is the subject of numerous biographies and documentaries and has been discussed as a potential saint (there is a letter showing support in starting the process of canonization from Pope Francis). Click HERE for a mini-biography (3 minutes, in English) on YouTube.

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

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