Is Roberto Clemente top five all time?

Answer 1

As one who was able to see him during his prime I have to tell you, yes. He was the greatest right fielder of all time. Forget his great offensive numbers for the moment and image a right fielder who, if you hit a line drive to right, stood a very good chance of being thrown out at first! That's how great an arm he had. His range was so good he could have played any of the outfield positions. As far as hitting, a .317 lifetime batting average, 4 batting titles, and 3000 career hits tells you everything you want to know about him on the field. He was also a real life hero. Yes, he is in my top five of all time.

Answer 2

In this day and age of a player being judged by what he has done offensively, there will be people who say no. But I think that he is. Not just in terms of what he could do defensively, Roberto played in an era when how many home runs that you hit was considered a good judgement of how good you were. However roberto was more than a just a baseball player, he was a great indiviual too. I'm not sure but I don't think that there are many pro athletes out there who would die just trying to help people that they didn't even know.

Answer 3

Top five right fielders? Probably. However, he is certainly behind Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, Mel Ott, and Frank Robinson. He was 37 (6ht oldest player in the league) when he died, not likely to suddenly get a lot better; he certainly wasn't going to start walking more or becoming a power hitter.
Top five baseball players? If that's the question, it borders on lunacy.
Top five people who played the game? Almost certainly.
Top five Pittsburgh Pirates? Well, Honus Wagner is #1, Paul Waner might be #2, but Clemente is probably a top five Pirate.

But the best ever? That's a halo effect gone supernova!

Answer 4

I saw Clemente play many times and I have to tell you that he was absolutely unbelievable, and his life came to an end way ahead of his time. Clemente had the strongest and most accurate throwing arm of any player I ever saw. I saw him throw out a runner, at Dodger Stadium, trying to go from first to third on on ball off the right field fence. When Clemente threw the ball it was never more than six feet off the ground and was received by the third baseman knee high on the fly, from the right field corner, in plenty of time to get the runner. I would put Clemente, along with Mays and Aaron, as one of the top five outfielders of all time but it might be a bit of a stretch to place him in the overall top five.

Answer 5

Frank, outfield defense is overrated??? What are you talking about?

Defense is 1/3 of the game, along with offense and pitching.

Clemente changed games with his defense. There was no going from first to third on a base hit to right. There was no scoring from second on a base hit to right. There was no tagging up from third on anything other than a deep fly ball to right.

You need to rethink your theory on what's important in baseball.

As far as the question, obviously he's top 5 defensively. Not so sure about offensively, but all-around player I'd put him in the top 15-20.

Mike and the mad dog are insane btw -- any baseball expert would rank him well inside the top 50.
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Answer 6

For RF, yes. He was charismatic and really, really good. In fact, I've always considered him mostly under rated. His death took away a lot of the admiration for his baseball career, which was Hall of Fame no doubt. He was a leader and like Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson he was quiet and dignified. In today's game we have Barry Bonds, et al. When Clemente played we had some SERIOUSLY good guys.

Answer 7

Top Five what?

Outfield arms, yes. Right field defense, probably.

Pretty much anything else, no. Five is too small a cutoff and the pool of players is quite large. Top ten for some things, 25 for others, and Clemente gets in.

Answer 8

Yes and if he wasn't killed in the plane crash on December 31, 1972 while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua he would have gone down as one of the top 3 baseball players of all time.. Read the link below he was not a just a great baseball player but a humanitarian

Answer 9

MIke and the Mad Dog were discussing this a few weeks ago. They seemed to think that he was overrated. I think they put him between 50-75 all-time, and I agree with that. Defense in the outfield is a bit of an overrated stat as well.

Answer 10

Top five all-time what?

I don't think he'd fit into any of the top five categories, sorry. There's been a ton of great players over the course of 100+ years...