Before I started my Vintage Football Card of the Day posts, I talked with Jason to get his thoughts. He suggested that I just call it Vintage Card so that I could use other sports. While it was a fantastic idea, I know that my vintage love is in the football realm and that’s what I’d want to post. So I went with football. I grew up an hour south of Pittsburgh and I know how loved he is there, even to this day.
Scrolling through Facebook this morning, I saw a post from Andrew McCutchen’s page mentioning Roberto Clemente. He also posted the image that I used as the header on this piece. I only have one Clemente card from his playing days and I made it today’s card of the day.
The image below is my actual copy of the card and I’m very happy that I have it. I picked it up from Baseball Card Exchange in Indianapolis when I still lived there.
I think that anyone reading this at least knows the general story about Clemente’s death. After a earthquake in Nicaragua, he was on a December 31, 1972 flight that contained relief supplies for victims. Unfortunately the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
I’ve actually been thinking back the last couple of weeks about how excited I was at Christmas as a kid in the 80s and 90s because I usually got a box of cards for the next season. I feel like Donruss and Topps were the first two to release and usually before Christmas.
I don’t know when sets were released in the 1970s. That’s a little before my time. Perhaps this card was released before December 31. Maybe it was released posthumously. Nonetheless, this would be the last mainstream Clemente card from his playing days.
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