Oris partner of the R. Clemente Foundation

To mark the occasion, the watchmaker presented the Oris Roberto Clemente Limited Edition.

Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker is a 20th century hero. Born the youngest of seven children in Puerto Rico in 1934, he would go on to become one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game. But he was more than a ballplayer. He was a passionate humanitarian and activist and lived to serve others by bringing real change in his home country and his local community.

From humble beginnings, Roberto’s life changed quickly. At 17, he began his career in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League and a year later moved to the U.S. to join the Brooklyn Dodgers organisation. In the years that followed, he would overcome discrimination because of the colour of his skin, and become a baseball legend. In 1955, he made his Major League debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he would stay for 18 seasons. He was an exceptional athlete, with a mighty throwing arm. He won two World Series with the Pirates and became a 12-time winner of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, before reaching 3,000 hits with the last hit of his career in September 1972, making him the first Latin American player to reach the mark.

During the following winter, Nicaragua was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, leaving as many as 11,000 people dead and 300,000 without a home. Roberto, who had been involved in community work throughout his career, sent aid, but discovered his shipments had gone missing in the chaos, almost certainly diverted by corrupt local officials. He insisted on accompanying the next shipment in order to make sure it reached the people who needed it most, and on December 31^st, he boarded a plane. It would never reach its destination. Roberto Clemente died, serving others, aged just 38. The plane crashed into the sea and his body was never found.

In 1993, the Roberto Clemente Foundation was established with a mission to “Build Nations of Good”. Headed by his widow Vera and now his son Luis Clemente, it continues his proud legacy of bringing real change.

September 24, 2020