 Kal Waggenheim though retired took time to come from New Jersey to participate as the keynote in the last symposium on the 21 Days of Clemente. (Photo LSV) Bronx, New York - Last night Latino Sports Ventures hosted its third symposium in honor of Roberto Clemente, the last of three such discussions held weekly (Dec. 14, 21 & 27) at the Applebee's restaurant inside the Bronx Gateway Center mall, to cap off "21 Days of Clemente," an annual period in which LSV has esteemed guests give presentations on the impact Clemente had on them, the sport of baseball and beyond.
The evening's featured guest, former New York Times journalist Kal Wagenheim, author of "Clemente!" - the first published biography of Roberto Clemente following the Dec. 31, 1972 plane crash that claimed his life - made his way to the South Bronx on a cold night to speak before 40-plus attendees about the process he underwent to write the book, which, till this day, is the most vivid literary portrait of Number 21.  Kal & LSV President, Julio Pabón share a laugh at this interesting, funny and educational presentation given by Mr. Waggenheim. (Photo LSV)
"Leon King, a book editor at [New York] Praeger Publishers, had suggested that I should do a biography on Clemente, since I had previously lived in Puerto Rico for a long time and written a book with my wife about the history of the island," said Kal Wagenheim of how the idea spawned.
Wagenheim, who never got to meet Roberto Clemente, was in Puerto Rico with his wife, Olga Jimenez de Wagenheim, with whom he co-authored "The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History," and two kids on a holiday vacation at the time of the tragedy. Though aware of the great Pittsburgh Pirate's athletic achievements, it wasn't until he attended the January 2, 1973 inauguration of the newly-elected governor, Rafael Hernández Colón, merely two days after the incident, that Wagenheim realized the sheer weight of Clemente's untimely death and its effect on Puerto Rican society.  Applebee's Manager, Waggenheim, Paul Kutch all pose with the limited bats they received from Mr. Pabón courtesy of Verdero Sports. (Photo LSV)
"It was like the United States on the day [President] Kennedy was assassinated," was how Wagenheim described the mood at the Capitolio Nacional de Puerto Rico that day. "The governor quickly accepted the office, but he was visibly sad, like everyone else there, about Clemente. There was sadness on people's faces; everyone kept looking off into the northern shores of the island, next to where the inauguration was held, because that's where Clemente's plane had crashed. They were looking for him, and you knew then just how much Clemente meant to his people.
"It was as though they had lost someone in their family."
Initially overwhelmed by both the responsibility of writing the biography of an icon who had just perished, and a tight, three-month deadline to complete it, Wagenheim came up with a simple yet ingenious approach that would enable him to have the book ready for its scheduled spring 1973 release.
"The publisher gave me 90 days to complete the book, so I thought conducting a series of interviews with the key people in Clemente's life and arranging the accounts chronologically would be ideal, given the small timeframe I had to work with," he said. "I had to write roughly 2,000 words a day."
Through those very words, spoken by Roberto Clemente's mother, Luisa Walker, whose interview covered her son's life from birth to adolescence; his little league and amateur baseball coaches, who detailed Clemente's years as a burgeoning baseball prodigy until the time he was 18-years-old; those with whom he played as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates; and close friends from Pittsburgh's African American community, the book, said Wagenheim, practically wrote itself.
"Only about 25% to 1/3 of the book is researched, and the rest was made up of transcribed interviews," said Wagenheim, 74, a native of Newark, New Jersey. "And they were done not long after his death, so they were still in mourning. It was so personal for them, and they spoke of him like was still alive. The book had gotten great reviews because it was so natural, from the subjective viewpoint of those closest to him."
"I had no idea of how many people he had touched; what he meant to so many," Wagenheim added. "By the time I was through with the interviews, I truly admired the guy.
"The only person I didn't interview was his wife, Vera, because she was understandably devastated to the point where I just didn't even want to pursue it. Her loss was too recent at the time. It was really sad."
 Marty Torres was the lucky guest that won one of the limited edition bats in the evening's raffle. (Photo LSV)
Perhaps the most profound anecdote Mr. Wagenheim shared with the audience last night, was the one involving Roberto Clemente's best friend on the Pittsburgh Pirates, Manny Sanguillen, when the team played on opening day - their first-ever regular season game after Number 21's death - on April 6, 1973, at Three Rivers Stadium.
"Early on, the Pirates were losing [to the St. Louis Cardinals] by a lot," said Wagenheim, recalling the 5-0 deficit Pittsburgh had entering the bottom of the 6th inning. "But then, little by little, the team started fighting back, eventually going ahead [7-5].
"The last man at the plate for St. Louis was Lou Brock; he ended up making the last out by hitting a fly ball to Sanguillen in right. Sanguillen was a catcher, but in honor of Roberto Clemente, who was like an older brother to him, he played right field.
"When I spoke to [Sanguillen] afterwards, he told me, 'That's the spot where Roberto would've been, in right field. ... He was with us today.'"
As soon as he was done recounting that story, I thought to myself that the phrase "Angels in the Outfield" was no longer exclusive to a baseball movie.
Since his death, the people for whom Roberto Clemente has served as an example, and not merely for his talents in between the lines, have worked ardently to keep his memory alive.
Through his wife, his descendants, friends, monuments, books, baseball, Latinos and beyond, survives the legacy of the man known as "The Great One" in Pittsburgh.
He is, as Manny Sanguillen would say, still with us today.
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