Puerto Rican MLB Players to wear No. 21 on Roberto Clemente Day
By Manny Gómez
On Roberto Clemente Day, all Puerto Rican MLB players will wear No. 21.
On Wednesday, September 9, baseball will celebrate Roberto Clemente Day for the 19th consecutive season. To honor the legend, the league will allow Puerto Rican MLB players to wear number 21.
This season, 27 Puerto Rican born players have appeared in at least one MLB game. Among them, future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina, who had this to say to Marly Rivera of ESPN:
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"“For all us Latinos who have played Major League Baseball, and have had to deal with so many obstacles, difficulties, and challenges, Clemente is the source of inspiration we need to move forward and pursue our dreams and be an example to others on and off the field.”"
For teams that don’t play on September 9, like Molina’s St. Louis Cardinals, MLB will allow players to wear No. 21 on Tuesday, September 8. This includes Jose Berrios and Eddie Rosario of the Minnesota Twins, Michael Perez of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Christian Vazquez of the Boston Red Sox.
The last Puerto Rican born player ever to wear number 21 was Carlos Delgado, who despite not being inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, holds the record for the highest OPS (.929) of any Puerto Rican born player.
Now, this date won’t be reserved solely for Puerto Rican MLB players. In fact, all Pittsburgh Pirates players and coaches will wear 21 on Roberto Clemente day.
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One final note, as a Latino sports writer of Dominican descent, Clemente is viewed as the Babe Ruth of our culture; our Jackie Robinson so to speak. In the future, I hope that MLB would expand this to include at Latino players, if not the entire league. His impact on the game is that huge.