Moving Experience

AFTER BEING mercilessly booed by New York fans for having the temerity to wear Paul O'Neill's old jersey number, Yankees reliever LaTroy Hawkins, an off-season free-agent acquisition, last week switched to number 22. O'Neill's 21 is not retired, but it has gone unworn in the regular season since the serial watercooler smasher retired six years ago. Hawkins's reason for wanting it had nothing to do with O'Neill; he wore it to honor Roberto Clemente.

The story of the late Pirates star is told in the current episode of PBS's Peabody Award--winning American Experience. (Check listings or watch at pbs.org.) Experience makes the case that the path traveled by Clemente—from the sugarcane fields of Puerto Rico to spring training in the Jim Crow South to rightfield in nearly Latinoless Pittsburgh—was just as tough as Jackie Robinson's. Robinson at least spoke the language; Clemente talked in heavily accented, broken English. Reporters anglicized his name, calling him Bobby, yet they embarrassed him by printing his quotes phonetically. (Hit became heet, for instance.) Such treatment contributed to Clemente's complex nature. "You see it in his eyes," says David Maraniss, author of the definitive Clemente biography. "There was an interesting combination of pride, fury and melancholy."

Clemente's play made him a king in Pittsburgh, but he never forgot his heritage. During a live TV interview after the Pirates won the 1971 World Series, he insisted on addressing his family in Spanish before answering questions in English. He returned to Puerto Rico to give baseball clinics to kids, and he died at 37 flying supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. The gracefully produced Experience should be required viewing for Yankees fans; perhaps after watching it, they'll encourage Hawkins to again honor a star even bigger than their beloved O'Neill.