When Roberto Clemente Jr. woke on the morning of Dec. 31, 1972, he immediately tiptoed to his parents' bedroom to see whether his father was up.
The elder Clemente, one of baseball's biggest stars, suffered from insomnia, so Roberto Jr., then 7, was always careful not to wake him — not to mention his father had been busy organizing relief efforts for victims of a catastrophic earthquake in Nicaragua. Clemente's wife, Vera, had put in room-darkening window shades to help her husband sleep, so Roberto Jr. felt around on the bed to make sure his father wasn't there.
He found his parents at the dining room table and offered them the traditional greeting that Puerto Rican children give their parents: "Bendicion." A request for a blessing.
