Baseball Players in America: Dealing with Difficulties
Baseball players in America deal with a variety of difficulties throughout their lifetimes. One of the best baseball players, Roberto Clemente had a profound effect on many young people's lives as well as the American sports.
The Impact of Roberto Clemente
The player grew to have compassion for the kids in the abandoned villages because he had faced many hardships as a youngster. The suffering of the underprivileged touched him. He consequently developed into a splendid combatant in baseball matches in America with interests in other facets of life and a high number of victories relative to losses. Roberto battled against racial prejudice that was present in the matches between Latinos and Americans. Hence, this is crucial to study his life by the fact that he faced health challenges and had a plane crash accident yet he impacted the lives of many people.
The Fatal Plane Accident
Roberto Clemente faced a fatal plane accident just after he won a game at the Pittsburg. The player was heading to help over one million children left in abject poverty after an earthquake hit their country. With all his fame and achievement, the player did not accomplish his mission and desires to help the poor in Managua (Riess, 2015). Among the many players in his time, Roberto was the best of all. He knew how to impact his society. In fact, his past motivated him to help children who might be facing the same problems (Markusen, 2014). Many teams have been performing poorly after their best players ended in accidents such as the road accidents. Some of these accidents are a result of the use of drugs and depression. Therefore, plane accidents become one of the challenges that Roberto Clemente faced in his life.
Fighting Racial Discrimination
Clemente faced racial discrimination during his lifetime but this could not hinder him from influencing and assisting many people. At his early stages of playing the game, Roberto faced racial discrimination where he was lowly paid. He started fighting this to the last breath of his life. He never liked bias of players in any matter. To him, all players were equal, and they deserved better payments (Markusen, 2014). He remembered an instance where he was paid peanuts by Dodgers. Latinos were making very little money because of discrimination. They could not even earn bonuses nor were they given time to play in major American leagues. Such biases have blocked many players who would have been champions in America. They have been denied chances that would have led to the success of the American teams. The teams from Latin for long before Roberto started advocating for equal opportunities would rarely get the chances to play against the American baseballers in National leagues. Discrimination, therefore, is one of the challenges that American baseballers faced.
The Issue of Low Payments
Moreover, the American baseballers from Latin were lowly paid. They were rarely recognized as experts in the games. In fact, they were denied chances to play games in major leagues which were highly paying. The lack of opportunities made many of the players give up on baseball. Roberto had to fight for more chance and equal payments. Many Latin players during his time did not participate in the national leagues (Riess, 2015). They had no better fields to train because they lacked enough resources to improve their infrastructure. Therefore, lack of proper payments has made many to live lives of low standards and miserable ones. They are unable to impact their society. Whenever the players receive their right payments, they would do just as Roberto did in his time before he died.
Battling Injuries
Likewise, he Clemente suffered many injuries. He confesses that he suffered many wounds within the 2400 games that he played in America yet he won many games. Most of the people who heard him speak these words mocked him saying he was just boasting. They wondered how he would play games with injuries on his body. Clemente's personal doctor also could not understand the challenges that the player was having at that time. He had pain in his various parts of the body in which most of them were internal. Such pains left him having restless times without people to console him. Clemente had very few hours to rest considering his commitment to helping the poor across the world. He spent much of his money on helping people who built him an excellent reputation in his time. Therefore, many players in baseball have many injuries, yet they are expected to continue playing these games (Riess, 2015). Their team managers do not consider their medical complications during games, and in case the team is defeated they are blamed for that failure. That was one of the significant problems in the American sports history where players experienced various injuries, and yet they were expected to win.
Overcoming Poverty
Poverty is another obstacle that Clemente encountered in his sports career. In an interview, he remarked that there were times he went without supper due to poverty. With all his excellent baseball talent, he did not have someone to feed him well at his childhood. No one was available to nurture his big dream of becoming a world champion. He had to fight like a militant for his chance and space in the world of sports. Such problems face many people who are talented, and many go unrecognized (Riess, 2015). They lack people to hold their hand and walk with them till they succeed. Puerto Ricans have heard this challenge where they had no champion from their land whom they could identify within the baseball games until Clemente rose up to defend them. He used some of his resources to train other people from Puerto Rico hence impacting their lives positively. Accordingly, it is apparent that poverty is one of the challenges in the American sports history which has blocked many talented individuals from rising to the game. If this could be solved then sports in America would become relevant to many poor people living in America (Riess, 2015). It would become applicable and considerable to children who have the same visions as Clemente had but cannot rise to become heroes. That is an indication that America sports have had severe challenges that people know since there is a lot of hidden potential in the children that Clemente was helping.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that Clemente faced severe challenges in the history of American sports but he surpassed them. Such problems included poverty, a plane crash which leads to his death, racial discrimination and injuries. Clemente was an important figure who helped to not only motivate others in sports but also proved that poverty cannot block one's dream if they are determined. It is irresistible, therefore, that if the problems which Clemente faced are addressed, then present baseball players would achieve a lot in the field of sports.
References
Markusen, B. (2014). Roberto Clemente: The Great One. New York: Sports Publishing.
Riess, S. A. (2015). Major problems in American sports history: Documents and essays.
