PHILADELPHIA — Roberto Clemente Jr. was dressing for his first spring training workout in February 1986 when a Phillies official alerted him to a group of reporters waiting outside the clubhouse in Clearwater, Fla. He signed with the team a month earlier for $40,000. Now the press wanted to know how the 18-year-old compared to his famous father.
“The questions were all the same,” Clemente said. “I said, ‘Listen, there’s players in the major leagues who can’t compare to him. How can you compare me to him?’ But they didn’t get it. They kept asking the same questions.”
For the reporters, it was an easy comparison as the dad — who died 50 years ago in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve — started his Hall of Fame career as an 18-year-old in Puerto Rico. Perhaps they were about to witness the start of another icon.
