Roberto Clemente's hypochondria

Milt Dunnell's 1973 column on Clemente's death has been posted to celebrate Dunnell's 100th birthday.

TORONTO—This time, there can be no doubting the seriousness of Roberto Clemente's injuries. Roberto Clemente, one of the most talented baseball players of his time — and, until recent years, one of the most unappreciated of superstars — is dead.

Clemente, who spent most of his 18 years as a big leaguer defending himself against insinuations that he was a hypochondriac — that he was the type of athlete who would apply a cast to a hangnail — lost his life on a mission of mercy.

We forget that Clemente was not a "gamer" who lived in denial of pain and injury. Go read the whole article. Finoli & Ranier treat it briefly in their Encyclopedia, where they attribute Clemente's "hypochondria" to the culture of Latin baseball. Do the Latin players still struggle to understand why the North American white boys pride themselves on playing through injury? Is anyone writing today on the different cultures & their different interpretations of such significant aspects of the game?

And oh for the days when "the Pirates firmly believed they were . . . better than any other team in the world."