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Message: [QUOTE="Carnac, post: 2851238, member: 5798"] The day baseball cried. We lost one of the the all time greats that day. The [B]1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 Crash[/B] was an aviation accident that occurred on December 31, 1972. I remember that day well. Roberto Clemente was a baseball star for the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Pirates']Pittsburgh Pirates[/URL], winning two [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series']World Series[/URL] championships with them, and becoming only the [B]11th player in [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball']Major League Baseball[/URL] history to collect 3,000 hits on September 30, 1972, in his final at-bat. [/B] Eleven weeks after he was killed on a mercy mission, Roberto Clemente was voted into baseball's Hall of Fame in an extraordinary special election. The longtime outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and folk hero in Puerto Rico thereby became the first Latin‐American player picked for the museum at Cooperstown, N. Y. [B]He also became The first player in baseball history to be elected in a special mail poll without the normal five‐year wait.[/B] Only two months after Clemente's visit, on December 23, an [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Nicaragua_earthquake']earthquake struck Managua[/URL], causing the deaths of 5,000 persons and devastation to Nicaragua's capital. Many countries sent help and this made Clemente desire to send help, paid for with his own money, and to personally supervise the delivery of goods. Clemente had been convinced to involve himself in the relief efforts by local television show host, reporter and celebrity [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Vigoreaux']Luis Vigoreaux[/URL]. [SIZE=5][B]Accident[/B][/SIZE] The accident caused the deaths of all five people on board, including Clemente. The airplane crashed immediately after take-off from [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Munoz_Marin_International_Airport']Isla Verde International Airport[/URL], falling into the beach at the adjacent area known as [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinones&action=edit&redlink=1']Pinones[/URL]. It was rumored that the plane was over loaded. I remember reading that several people at the airport tried to talk him out of getting on the plane. They told him it was over loaded, but he insisted. He said he had to go. :( Clemente leased the aircraft from a local airline, American Express Leasing (also named "American Air Express" by some sources), Unknown to Clemente, the aircraft, a DC-7, had suffered a non-fatal accident just 29 days before the fateful flight took place. [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Puerto_Rico_DC-7_crash'][Story][/URL] [/QUOTE]

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