by Dan Gutman
Wait a minute.
Standing?!
I stopped in the doorway. Where was her wheelchair? Not only was Señorita Molina standing on her own two feet, but the whiteboard was three feet higher than it used to be. For a moment, I thought I had walked into the wrong class.
“Buenos dias, Tito,” Señorita Molina said. “Did you do anything interesting over the weekend?”
Well, yeah! It looked like I changed Señorita Molina’s whole life over the weekend! But at first I really couldn’t comprehend that it was true.
“Señorita, where is your wheelchair?” I asked her.
“Wheelchair?” she said. “What wheelchair?”
“You know,” I said, “the one you sit in all the time?”
A couple of kids who came in behind me started giggling.
“Stoshack es loco,” somebody said.
“Don’t you remember?” I said to Señorita Molina. “When you were very young, you had an infection in your spine and you needed antibiotics, but your family didn’t have the money and…”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, Tito,” Señorita Molina said. “Take your seat, please.”
“But you told me…”
“Estas bien?” she said, putting her hand on my forehead just like my mother does when she thinks I have a fever. “Do you need to go see the nurse, Tito?”
“Uh, no.”
I just stood there for a minute, dazed. Everybody was laughing at me, but I didn’t care.
I did it!
Señorita Molina must have received the envelope I’d mailed to her in 1972. Her parents used the hundred dollars to buy the antibiotics she needed. It cured her infection, and she didn’t need the wheelchair!
She has no memory that it even happened, I realized. She was so young. The medicine took care of the infection, and it wasn’t a significant event in her life. She has no idea I was responsible.
Maybe I didn’t save Roberto Clemente’s life, but I did change history.
“Is there anything else, Tito?” Señorita Molina asked. “We need to start class now.”
“Oh, I just wanted to thank you for the A you gave me on my report card,” I said.
“Don’t thank me,” she said. “It was your extra credit project. Very imaginative.”
Extra credit project? I didn’t remember doing any extra credit project.
Confused, I went to my seat. I was still thinking about what had just happened.
Just to make sure I wasn’t completely out of my mind, I looked up at Señorita Molina again.
And I can’t be completely sure, but I think she threw me a wink.
Facts and Fictions
Everything in this book is true, except for the stuff I made up. It’s only fair to tell you which is which.
It is definitely true that Roberto Clemente was one of baseball’s greatest players. But more importantly, he was one of baseball’s greatest people. After a short lifetime filled with humanitarian efforts, on New Year’s Eve 1972 he died in a plane crash while attempting to deliver food and medicine to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. His body was never found.
Major League Baseball’s highest honor for community service is the Roberto Clemente Man of the Year Award, which is given each year to a player who combines outstanding skills on the field with devoted work in the community.
There are at least forty schools called Roberto Clemente School worldwide. Two hundred parks and baseball fields have been named in his memory, as well as two hospitals in Puerto Rico.
National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY
Clemente loved working with children, and in 1959 he first dreamed of building a sports city where poor kids could learn not just how to play, but also how to be good citizens. That dream was finally realized when Roberto’s wife, Vera, and their sons opened Roberto Clemente Sports City in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the town where he grew up. It has turned out stars such as Ivan Rodriguez, Benito Santiago, Ruben Sierra, and Roberto and Sandy Alomar Jr.
Clemente was the first Hispanic player to win a batting title and also the first to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Much like Jackie Robinson a generation earlier, Roberto Clemente paved the way and inspired hundreds of Latin American players. Today, about a quarter of all major-league players are Latino. Some of them, such as Jose Guillen, Ruben Sierra, and Sammy Sosa, wore number 21 in honor of Roberto Clemente.
Roberto was also well-known for his physical ailments. It is true that he needed to have his neck “booped” to move the disks back into place. He was also an amateur chiropractor and would use his healing touch to help teammates and sometimes strangers. And he loved fruit milk shakes.
Most of the information about Roberto came from David Maraniss’s biography Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero. I also got a lot of good material from Roberto Clemente: The Great One, by Bruce Markusen.
I wish I was there, but I did not attend the Woodstock Festival in 1969. With the help of books and videos, I tried to capture the look and feel of the event. Peter, Wendy, and Sunrise are fictional characters, but lots of hippies drove Volkswagen vans to and from Woodstock. Other fictional characters in this story include Stosh, his parents, Bernard and his family, Flip, and Señorita Molina.
The Pittsburgh Pirates did play at Crosley Field in Cincinnati on the night Woodstock ended, but Bob Moose was not the pitcher, and the play-by-play described here is not identical to the actual game. Clemente’s heroics described in that game were actually condensed from plays he made over the course of his career. Crosley Field was torn down in 1972. And the Mets did make a dramatic come-from-behind charge in 1969, winning 38 of their last 49 games—and the World Series.
Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to predict the future, and usually failing. We will probably never have flying cars or personal jet packs.
Nobody today knows what life will be like in the year 2080. But many scientists believe that unless we stop burning fossil fuels and switch to solar, wind, and other clean sources of energy, we are heading toward an environmental disaster. You can do something about it. If you want your great-grandchildren to have a different life than Joe Stoshack’s great-grandson, here are some websites I urge you to visit:
EPA Climate Change Kids Site
(www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids) Learn about the greenhouse effect, how humans change the climate, and what we can do about it.
What’s Up with the Weather?
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming) This PBS site helps you find out how much fossil fuel you use.
The Green Squad
(www.nrdc.org/greensquad) Kids taking action to make greener, healthier schools.
Environmental Kids Club
(www.epa.gov/kids) A club for kids interested in learning more about the environment and in getting involved in environmental activities.
Tree Musketeers
(www.treemusketeers.org) An organization dedicated to empowering young people to lead environmental improvement movements.
It’s Getting Hot In Here
(http://itsgettinghotinhere.org) A growing movement of student and youth leaders who aim to stop global warming and to build a more just and sustainable future.
Natural Resources Defense Council
(www.nrdc.org) They work to protect the planet—its people, plants, and animals—and to help create a new way of life for humankind, without fouling or depleting the resources that support all life on Earth.
Sierra Club
(www.sierraclub.org) This is America’s oldest, largest, and most influential environmental organization. More than a million members work to protect the planet.
Greenpeace
(www.greenpeaceusa.org) Since 1971, they have been fighting to protect the environment through education and activism.
Stop Global Warming
(www.stopglobalwarming.org) A movement to demand that our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
&nb
sp; As you go about helping others, remember Roberto Clemente’s words: “If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.”
Roberto Clemente’s Career Statistics
Year: 1954
Team: Montreal
Games: 87
At Bats: 148
Hits: 38
Doubles: 5
Triples: 3
Home Runs: 2
Runs Batted In: 12
Batting Average: .257
Year: 1955
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 124
At Bats: 474
Hits: 121
Doubles: 23
Triples: 11
Home Runs: 5
Runs Batted In: 47
Batting Average: .255
Year: 1956
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 147
At Bats: 543
Hits: 169
Doubles: 30
Triples: 7
Home Runs: 7
Runs Batted In: 60
Batting Average: .311
Year: 1957
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 111
At Bats: 451
Hits: 114
Doubles: 17
Triples: 7
Home Runs: 4
Runs Batted In: 30
Batting Average: .253
Year: 1958
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 140
At Bats: 519
Hits: 150
Doubles: 24
Triples: 10
Home Runs: 6
Runs Batted In: 50
Batting Average: .289
Year: 1959
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 105
At Bats: 432
Hits: 128
Doubles: 17
Triples: 7
Home Runs: 4
Runs Batted In: 50
Batting Average: .296
Year: 1960
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 144
At Bats: 570
Hits: 179
Doubles: 22
Triples: 6
Home Runs: 16
Runs Batted In: 94
Batting Average: .314
Year: 1961
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 146
At Bats: 572
Hits: 201
Doubles: 30
Triples: 10
Home Runs: 23
Runs Batted In: 89
Batting Average: .351
Year: 1962
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 144
At Bats: 538
Hits: 168
Doubles: 28
Triples: 9
Home Runs: 10
Runs Batted In: 74
Batting Average: .312
Year: 1963
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 152
At Bats: 600
Hits: 192
Doubles: 23
Triples: 8
Home Runs: 17
Runs Batted In: 76
Batting Average: .320
Year: 1964
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 155
At Bats: 622
Hits: 211
Doubles: 40
Triples: 7
Home Runs: 12
Runs Batted In: 87
Batting Average: .339
Year: 1965
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 152
At Bats: 589
Hits: 194
Doubles: 21
Triples: 14
Home Runs: 10
Runs Batted In: 65
Batting Average: .329
Year: 1966
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 154
At Bats: 638
Hits: 202
Doubles: 31
Triples: 11
Home Runs: 29
Runs Batted In: 119
Batting Average: .317
Year: 1967
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 147
At Bats: 585
Hits: 209
Doubles: 26
Triples: 10
Home Runs: 23
Runs Batted In: 110
Batting Average: .357
Year: 1968
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 132
At Bats: 502
Hits: 146
Doubles: 18
Triples: 12
Home Runs: 18
Runs Batted In: 57
Batting Average: .291
Year: 1969
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 138
At Bats: 507
Hits: 175
Doubles: 20
Triples: 12
Home Runs: 19
Runs Batted In: 91
Batting Average: .345
Year: 1970
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 108
At Bats: 412
Hits: 145
Doubles: 22
Triples: 10
Home Runs: 14
Runs Batted In: 60
Batting Average: .352
Year: 1971
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 132
At Bats: 522
Hits: 178
Doubles: 29
Triples: 8
Home Runs: 13
Runs Batted In: 86
Batting Average: .341
Year: 1972
Team: Pittsburgh
Games: 102
At Bats: 378
Hits: 118
Doubles: 19
Triples: 7
Home Runs: 10
Runs Batted In: 60
Batting Average: .312
Total
Games: 2433
At Bats: 9454
Hits: 3000
Doubles: 440
Triples: 166
Home Runs: 240
Runs Batted In: 1305
Batting Average: .317
National League Batting Champion: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1967
National League Most Valuable Player: 1966
World Series Most Valuable Player: 1971
National League Outfield Assist Leader: 1958 (22), 1960 (19), 1961 (27), 1966 (17), 1967 (17)
National League All-Star: 1960-67, 1969-71
Gold Glove: 1961-72
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the following people for the kind help they gave me on this book: Warren Friss of Topps, Dave Kelly of the Library of Congress, Pat Kelly and John Horne of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Dave Arrigo of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jo Pure of the Haddonfield Public Library, Nina Wallace, Zach Rice, Rachel Trotta, Bob Feist, Dr. Kevin Browngoehl, Peter Blau, Richard Milner, Liza Voges, Rachel Orr, and all the folks at HarperCollins.
About the Author
DAN GUTMAN is the author of many fantastic books for young readers. Besides baseball, he has written about soccer, basketball, bowling, and aliens. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, he has received fifteen state book awards and thirty-seven state book-award nominations. Dan lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife, Nina, and their two children, Sam and Emma.
You can visit him online at www.dangutman.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Also by Dan Gutman
The Get Rich Quick Club
Johnny Hangtime
Casey Back at Bat
Baseball Card Adventures:
Honus & Me
Jackie & Me
Babe & Me
Shoeless Joe & Me
Mickey & Me
Abner & Me
Satch & Me
Jim & Me
Ray & Me
My Weird School Daze:
Mrs. Dole Is Out of Control!
Mr. Sunny Is F
unny!
Mr. Granite Is from Another Planet!
Coach Hyatt Is a Riot!
Officer Spence Makes No Sense!
Mrs. Jafee Is Daffy!
Dr. Brad Has Gone Mad!
My Weird School:
Miss Daisy Is Crazy!
Mr. Klutz Is Nuts!
Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy!
Ms. Hannah Is Bananas!
Miss Small Is off the Wall!
Mr. Hynde Is Out of His Mind!
Mrs. Cooney Is Loony!
Ms. LaGrange Is Strange!
Miss Lazar Is Bizarre!
Mr. Docker Is off His Rocker!
Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal!
Ms. Todd Is Odd!
Mrs. Patty Is Batty!
Miss Holly Is Too Jolly!
Mr. Macky Is Wacky!
Ms. Coco Is Loco!
Miss Suki Is Kooky!
Mrs. Yonkers Is Bonkers!
Dr. Carbles Is Losing
His Marbles!
Mr. Louie Is Screwy!
Ms. Krup Cracks Me Up!
Credits
Jacket art © 2010 by Steve Chorney
Copyright
ROBERTO & ME. Copyright © 2010 by Dan Gutman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gutman, Dan.
Roberto & me : a baseball card adventure / Dan Gutman. —1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Stosh travels back to 1969 to try to prevent the untimely death of Roberto Clemente, a legendary baseball player and humanitarian, but upon his return to the present, he meets his own great-grandson who takes him into the future, and what he finds there is more shocking than anything he has encountered in his travels to the past.
ISBN 978-0-06-123484-2 (trade bdg.)
