How the Dodgers signed, then lost, Roberto Clemente
A model of this story was initially printed on Feb. 19, 2022.
Imagine Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in the identical outfield for the Giants.
Now think about you’re the 1954 Dodgers imagining Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in the identical outfield for the Giants.
The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is legendary for its lengthy and wealthy lore, however a little-known chapter in that story provides us one of many extra intriguing “what if” eventualities in baseball historical past.
Clemente is thought to be one of many biggest proper fielders of all time, a Hall of Famer who had precisely 3,000 hits and racked up 12 Gold Glove Awards earlier than his tragic loss of life in an airplane accident on Dec. 31, 1972. His Major League accomplishments got here in a Pirates uniform, nevertheless it wasn’t with that group that his skilled baseball journey started.
In early 1954, after seeing Clemente play within the Puerto Rican Winter League, a number of Major League groups have been displaying curiosity, together with the Braves, Red Sox, Cardinals and Giants.
With the rival Giants clearly pursuing Clemente, the Dodgers outbid them with a proposal of $10,000 as a signing bonus and a $5,000 first-year wage. The Braves reportedly supplied way more, however Clemente wished to play in New York as a result of he had household and pals there. So he signed with Brooklyn on Feb. 19, 1954.
The Dodgers — the workforce of Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese and Don Newcombe, which might win the World Series the very subsequent yr — had Roberto Clemente.
But they wouldn’t have him for lengthy.
Back then, there was a rule governing signing bonuses of $6,000 or better (about $63,000 as we speak) — if a membership signed a participant for a bonus at or above that threshold, he needed to spend two calendar years on the workforce’s Major League roster from the date of signing, in any other case he can be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft.
Clemente wasn’t protected against the Rule 5 Draft as a result of he was promptly assigned to Triple-A Montreal. The 19-year-old solely performed in 87 video games for the Royals of the International League in 1954, hitting .257/.286/.372 with two residence runs in 155 plate appearances.
According to a 1962 article in The Sporting News, Clemente felt he was being “hidden” from the broader baseball world out of concern that if he performed effectively, he can be taken by one other membership within the Rule 5 Draft.
“Clemente, on the other hand, felt — and still does — that the Royals kept him out of the regular lineup so big league teams would think him a weak prospect and ignore him in the postseason draft for which he’d be available as a bonus player if he weren’t elevated to the Brooklyn roster,” wrote the creator of the article, Howard Cohn.
Dodgers normal supervisor Buzzie Bavasi stated signing Clemente within the first place was a matter of protecting him away from the Giants, although he reportedly gave a number of causes for Clemente’s project to Triple-A through the years.
The man who was within the GM’s chair for the Pirates on the time of the 1954 Rule 5 Draft (Pittsburgh had the primary choose after ending an MLB-worst 53-101) was none apart from Branch Rickey.
Rickey had been the Dodgers’ GM from 1942-50, famously signing Jackie Robinson in 1945 earlier than Robinson broke baseball’s coloration barrier two years later. Rickey and Dodgers proprietor Walter O’Malley had a falling out, which led to Rickey’s departure from Brooklyn. Now, though Rickey initially wasn’t all that impressed with Clemente, he swiped him from his former membership.
In his 1955 scouting report, Rickey wrote that whereas he had been instructed Clemente had nice pace, Clemente’s “running form is bad, definitely bad, and based upon what I saw tonight, he has only a bit above-average Major League running speed.”
Still, there have been some simple strengths in Clemente’s sport that Rickey famous as effectively.
“He has a beautiful throwing arm,” Rickey wrote. “He throws the ball down and it really goes places … his form at the plate is perfect … I would not class him, however, as even a prospective home run hitter.”
Overall, Rickey’s evaluation of Clemente was that whereas he would possibly ultimately grow to be a productive Major League participant, that might be years away.
“I do not believe he can possibly do a Major League club any good in 1955,” Rickey wrote in his report. “So, we are stuck with him — stuck indeed, until such time as he can really help a Major League club.”
Whatever Rickey considered Clemente’s skills the primary time he noticed him, one thing he instructed the Pittsburgh Press about two weeks after drafting Clemente proved prescient:
“We may have a sleeper in Roberto Clemente, whom we drafted from Montreal.”
Clemente didn’t hit his stride till 1960, when he earned the primary of 12 All-Star choices over the remaining 13 seasons of his profession. He received 12 straight Gold Glove Awards from 1961-72, and was a .317/.359/.475 hitter with 240 residence runs in an 18-year profession with Pittsburgh. He helped the Pirates win the World Series in 1960 and ’71, taking residence World Series MVP honors after the Bucs defeated the Orioles within the ’71 Fall Classic.
All of that may be traced again to Nov. 22, 1954, when Rickey and the Pirates drafted Clemente away from the Dodgers for $4,000 (the quantity required to be paid to the workforce from which a “bonus” participant was drafted).
History could have turned out fairly in a different way if the Dodgers had positioned Clemente on their huge league roster in 1954. It would possibly even have turned out in a different way if Brooklyn hadn’t allowed Clemente to play winter ball in his native Puerto Rico that offseason, the place he was sensational after the underwhelming efficiency for Montreal.
Still one other dimension of how issues might need been completely different lies with the Giants — if they’d upped their supply, Clemente’s title could have been on a roster with Mays’.
Mays and Clemente in the identical outfield is enjoyable to consider. But it isn’t a purely theoretical train as a result of it really occurred, simply not with the Giants. When Rickey was taking notes for his scouting report, Clemente was enjoying left subject for the Cangrejeros de Santurce within the Puerto Rican Winter League, and the person in middle was Mays.
Together, they mixed for seven hits, together with a pair of triples from Clemente, in an 11-3 victory over Panama for the Caribbean Series championship on Feb. 14, 1955.
Clemente made his MLB debut two months later towards the workforce that misplaced him the yr earlier than. His first huge league hit, an infield single, got here in his first plate look towards the Dodgers at Forbes Field on April 17, 1955. It was the primary of 395 hits Clemente would gather towards the Dodgers in his profession. His .345 batting common towards them is the best he posted towards any membership in his profession.
Perhaps a baseball govt who watched the Dodgers lose Clemente put it finest on the day of the 1954 Rule 5 Draft:
“I think the Brooklyn club outsmarted itself in the kid,” White Sox GM Frank Lane instructed the Associated Press. “It never should have let him play winter ball. That’s where he attracted all the attention.”
