September 13, 1967: Roberto Clemente gets 5 straight hits, 4 RBIs against Reds

Roberto Clemente made five hits and drove home four runs on the same day that he criticized “a few” Pittsburgh Pirates for not hustling on the field. “They know who they are,” Clemente said.1

The Pirates were muddling along with a 72-74 won-lost mark, stuck in seventh place. During an interview with a San Juan, Puerto Rico, radio station, on September 13, 1967, Clemente said, “You don’t play for one manager and not for another. You play to win.”2

Hours later, Pittsburgh’s All-Star right fielder helped his club beat the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field, 11-3. The Associated Press’s Ron Rapoport wrote that “Roberto Clemente conducted a short lesson on show and tell Wednesday.”3 Just 4,996 watched the action on a Wednesday night.

The Pirates had high hopes going into the season. In 1966 the team won 92 games. After a solid start (a 12-6 mark after beating the San Francisco Giants, 6-5, on May 6), the ‘67 club swooned and dropped to .500 on June 29. Just a few weeks later, general manager Joe L. Brown fired manager Harry Walker and replaced him with Danny Murtaugh, the former infielder who had served as the team’s manager from midway into the 1957 season through 1964 and led Pittsburgh to a World Series championship in 1960. Walker told reporters, “Maybe a change of managers will help the team, it often does.”4

The “grumbling” about Walker had started early in the season, Clemente said. “It began to grow and grow. I said when Danny Murtaugh took over, not to blame him for anything. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew that anything that would happen would be the players’ fault, not the manager’s. It was the same way when Harry Walker was here. He shouldn’t be blamed.”5

Pittsburgh Press sports editor Al Abrams, in his “Sidelights on Sports” column, took no issue with Clemente’s assertions. The ballplayer was “telling the truth about a sad situation.… He knows the players who are responsible for not meshing as a team and for the cliques and troublemakers who helped grease the chute for Harry Walker’s dismissal.”6

Clemente, though, had butted heads with Murtaugh during the skipper’s first term in Pittsburgh. Murtaugh often needled Clemente for not playing through aches and pains. Once the manager said, “You’re making too much money to sit on the bench.” The ballplayer countered, “You act like I don’t want to play baseball.” Bill Mazeroski, the Pirates’ slick-fielding second baseman, said Murtaugh handled Clemente the wrong way. “Roberto just wasn’t the type of guy you took off and embarrassed in front of the team. He’d crawl into a shell.”7

Earlier in 1967, Clemente spoke to a sports magazine and put “the zing” on Murtaugh. According to Clemente, “I told (Murtaugh) I made the statements, but I’m also a professional player and I play my best all the time for any manager. Whatever happened in the past is past. We have only one purpose and that is to win.”8

Clemente, a three-time batting champ, was enjoying another big year after his 1966 MVP effort when he set career highs with 29 home runs and 119 RBIs. His batting average stood at .349 on the morning of September 13.

It was the finale of a three-game series. Cincinnati won the opener, 4-3, after scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth, and took the second game, 15-7. Pete Rose and Tony Perez each had four RBIs. Cincinnati banged out 23 hits.

Murtaugh asked Tommie Sisk to start on the mound and help avoid a sweep. Reds manager Dave Bristol countered with Mel Queen. Both pitchers were right-handers. Sisk had a record of 11-12, while Queen was 13-6.

Pittsburgh broke out on top with two runs in the third. Sisk led off with a “check-swing”9 single to right field. Maury Wills, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 1966 campaign, also singled to right. Tommy Harper misplayed the ball for an error, allowing Sisk to score and Wills to scoot into third. Matty Alou followed by lofting a sacrifice fly to center field. Clemente, who flied out in his first at-bat, singled but was left stranded at third.

Cincinnati scored its first run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Vada Pinson doubled to right field and advanced to third base on Lee May’s fly ball. Pinson crossed home plate on Perez’s groundout.

Clemente hit a home run to deep right field in the fifth inning that put the Pirates ahead 3-1. It was his 21st homer of the season, and it gave him at least 100 RBIs for the second straight season.

Neither team scored again until the Pirates put across five runs in the seventh. Wills began the rally by bunting up the third-base line. Perez fielded the ball and “made a two-base wild heave of his playground hopper.”10 The ball landed in the stands and Wills continued to second base. The National League MVP from 1962 advanced to third on a wild pitch. After Alou flied out, Clemente knocked an RBI double. Queen ended his day by walking Willie Stargell. Bristol sent in Don Nottebart to provide some relief.

The Reds’ sloppy fielding continued. Nottebart bobbled a ball hit by the first batter he faced, Donn Clendenon. It was Cincinnati’s third error of the night. Clemente scored, Stargell advanced to third, and Clendenon made it safely to second. Gene Alley’s base hit brought home both baserunners. Manny Sanguillen doubled home Mazeroski. Pittsburgh now led 8-1, with five of the runs unearned.

Pittsburgh added two more runs in the eighth, this time with Sammy Ellis on the mound. Clemente singled Wills home with nobody out. Later, with two outs, Clendenon raced home after Ellis uncorked a wild pitch. The Pirates added a final run in the ninth inning on Clemente’s two-out single, his fifth straight hit. Sanguillen scored from third.

Sisk gave up two runs in the ninth inning. Pinson and May singled with one out. Perez hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Pinson. Tommy Helms, the next batter, singled May to third base. Art Shamsky followed with an RBI base hit. Leo Cardenas grounded out to end the game.

Bristol, whose team fell to 80-67, said afterward, “(The Pirates) kind of turned it around on us tonight, didn’t they? Boy, what a hitting team that is over there.” Bristol called the Pirates’ struggles “one of the biggest mysteries ever. It seems like every time you pick up a paper, they’re in double figures in hitting. And that Clemente. When he makes up his mind, he can do anything he wants with that bat.”11

More than anything, Clemente hoped for his team to go on a winning streak. He sounded indifferent about winning a fourth batting title. “This is the first year I’ve felt this way,” he said. “The title doesn’t bother me anymore. Before, I wanted to win it so bad I would check the papers every day to see how each player was doing. Why the difference? I think because I had something to prove before. I didn’t get the recognition. Now, I don’t have to prove anything. My attitude is different. Now, I just want to help this team win.”12

The Pirates ended with a mark of 81-81, in sixth place. Clemente batted a career-high .357, the best figure in the National League. He also led the circuit with 209 hits and hit 23 homers with 110 RBIs. He won the seventh of his 12 Gold Gloves and finished third in the MVP race.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted b​aseba​ll-re​feren​ce.​com.

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NOTES

1 Charles Feeney, Clemente Raps ‘Few Slacking Players,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 14, 1967: 38.

2 Feeney.

3 Ron Rapoport, “Pirates Rip Reds 11-3, Clemente Leads Assault,” Marion (Ohio) Star, September 14, 1967: 27.

4 “Walker Says It’s All Part of the Game,” Pittsburgh Press, July 19, 1967: 59.

5 Feeney.

6 Al Abrams, “Sidelights on Sports,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 14, 1967: 36.

7 David Maraniss, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 175.

8 “Walker Says It’s All Part of the Game.”

9 Lou Smith, “Bucs Get Revenge, Lambaste Reds, 11-3,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 14, 1967: 55.

10 Smith.

11 Jim Ferguson, “Clemente, Pirates Turn Things Around,” Dayton Daily News, September 14, 1967: 21.

12 Ferguson.