American Experience

Classroom Activities

1. A Hall of Fame career.
Clemente’s wide-ranging baseball accomplishments, described in many newspaper accounts, made him one of the greatest players in history. But just how good was he? Working with one or two partners, research one aspect of Clemente’s career — such as his 3,000 hits or his 12 consecutive Gold Gloves — and see how he compares to other baseball greats, especially other outfielders. Or, if you have a favorite Hall of Famer, you might prefer to compare his career to Clemente’s across a range of measures, from career batting average to world championships.

To present your findings, imagine that you are attending Clemente’s induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame and design a poster that illustrates Clemente’s accomplishment. Hang the completed posters around the room and compare them as a class. What do you think was Clemente’s greatest single accomplishment?

2. Defining a role model.
As both Clemente’s family and friends recall, Clemente was a role model — not just for Puerto Ricans or baseball fans, but for people throughout the United States and Latin America.

Do role models like Clemente exist in sports today? Select the italicized statement below that best describes your view, then do the activity connected with that statement.

Role models like Clemente don’t exist in sports any more.
Write a 500-word essay describing the qualities that made Clemente a role model and suggesting reasons why such people don’t exist today.

Role models like Clemente do exist today.
Write a 500-word essay describing how one or more present-day sports stars have the same qualities Clemente showed.

Athletes cannot, or should not, be role models.
Write a 500-word essay explaining why you believe we should not look to athletes as role models.

See which of the three statements received the most “votes,” and ask volunteers to read their essays to the class. How much (or how little) do the members of the class agree on this issue?

3. The story of Puerto Rico.
Shaped by his upbringing in Puerto Rico, Clemente went on to become one of the island’s best-known and most-admired citizens. To help students learn more about Puerto Rico, divide the following questions among the members of the class to research.

1. Where is Puerto Rico located? How big is it? How many people live there?
2. What group of people were living on the island when Europeans first arrived?
3. What European country took control of Puerto Rico, and how did it do this? What happened to the native peoples?
4. What were the main economic activities in Puerto Rico while it was a colony?
5. When and why did the United States invade Puerto Rico?
6. When and how did the United States gain formal control of Puerto Rico?
7. When and how did Puerto Ricans gain U.S. citizenship?
8. When did Puerto Ricans gain the right to elect their governor?
9. When did a group of Puerto Ricans launch a violent revolt against U.S. control? What was the outcome?
10. When did Puerto Rico gain its own constitution?
11. What is Puerto Rico’s current legal relationship to the United States? Can Puerto Ricans vote in U.S. election?
12. When did Puerto Ricans vote most recently on whether to change their relationship to the United States, and what was the outcome?
13. How many Puerto Ricans live in the 50 United States, and what areas have the largest Puerto Rican communities?

Have students answer their assigned question and report their answer to the class. Then, use the information they obtained to prepare a timeline of the last five centuries of Puerto Rican history.

4. Not just a national pastime.
One way to see how much more diverse Major League Baseball has become since Clemente’s era is to see how often Latino players are mentioned in media reports of games. Divide the class into two groups — one for the American League, the other for the National League — and have each group, over several days, track the coverage of its assigned league’s games by a national media organization such as the Associated Press or ESPN. Roughly what share of the players mentioned in the game highlights are Latino? Now compare these results to the newspaper accounts of some of Clemente’s biggest games. Even if you didn’t recognize the names of any of the players, could you tell which media reports came from which era simply because of how many Latino names appeared?

5. Athlete activism.
Clemente wasn’t the only star athlete of his era who fought injustice or sought to make the world a better place. Divide the class into four groups and have each group research one of the following examples of “athlete activism” during the 1960s and 1970s.

— Muhammad Ali refuses to enter the U.S. Army when drafted.
— U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos make the “black power” salute on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics.
— Tennis star Arthur Ashe protests South Africa’s apartheid system.
— Billie Jean King accepts Bobby Riggs’s challenge to a “battle of the sexes” tennis match.

Have each group report to the class on (a) what the athlete(s) did, (b) what the action was meant to accomplish, (c) what the outcome was, and (d) whether the group approves of the action and why.

After groups have made their presentations, discuss as a class how these examples help you understand Clemente’s character and legacy. What similarities and differences do you see between Clemente and these athletes? Are there different ways athletes can try to improve the world, and do you think some ways are more effective than others?

Close by asking students if they can name some more recent examples of athlete activism. What sorts of recent issues have athletes taken on?