Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us: Roberto Clemente; Boston Monuments

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Roberto Clemente; Boston Monuments

Roberto Clemente

Fenway

Anthony Forgone, Sculptor 1976 Bronze / Stone

Heroically, represented in bronze and stone the Boston Puerto Rican community honors Roberto with this monument and baseball field.

“Roberto Clemente: His three loves; Puerto Rico, baseball, and children”.
Taken from the Stone

This monument was dedicated in 1973 to the late baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. It is a 5-foot-tall (1.5 m.) stone marker inset with a large bronze relief of Clemente and a short inscription in Spanish & English. The adjacent baseball diamond, which is part of the athletic field, is also dedicated in his honor.
Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pirates (1955-72). He was awarded the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1966. During his career, Clemente was selected to participate in the league’s All Star Game on twelve occasions. He won twelve Gold Glove Awards and led the league in batting average in four different seasons.
He was involved in charity work in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, often delivering baseball equipment and food to them.
He died in an aviation accident on December 31, 1972, while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. His body was never recovered. He was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973, thus becoming the first Latin American to be selected and the only current Hall of Famer for whom the mandatory five year waiting period has been waived since the wait was instituted in 1954. Clemente is also the first Hispanic player to win a World Series as a starter (1960), win a league MVP award (1966) and win a World Series MVP award (1971).

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"celebrates another Boston Monument.

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About The Author

Joseph R. Gallo Jr. is not a historian nor a sculptor. He is a student and great appreciator of both academic fields. Trained as an educator and being an entrepreneur, he felt a need to reach out to the thousands of visitors who come to our historical city teaching them through this guidebook the purpose and reason why such beautiful works of art embellish our fair City of Boston. Compiling updated photos and historical text for the resurrection of a much needed simple-to-use guidebook Boston Bronze and Stone Speaks To Us was time consuming, but fulfilling. The purpose and meaning of these monuments is made more lucid with the structuring of this new book.

About the Book

Boston Bronze & Stone Speak To Us is a unique and beautiful book that combines art, history, and walking guides for the public sculpture found in eighteen Boston locales. Written by Joseph R. Gallo, Jr., who states that he is not an historian but a lover of the City of Boston, the book combines his original photographs and observations with well-referenced sources and maps for a complete experience of enjoying Boston sculpture. With hundreds of full-color photographs in all, each chapter offers a map of that area with stars and page numbers marking each work discussed. The chapters include the Boston Common, the State House inside and out, Beacon Hill and Louisburg Square, the Boston Public Gardens, the Esplanade and Hatch Shell, the Fenway, Chinatown and the Theater District, Copley Square, Park Square, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, School Street and the Old City hall, King's Chapel, Downtown and the Financial District, Government Center, Quincy Marketplace and Faneuil Hall, the North End, and the Waterfront. The book also includes and Index of Monuments and an Index of the Sculptors. Boston is home to some of the most extraordinary public art in North America. Sculptors of public art include Daniel Chester French, Katherine Lane Weems, August Saint-Gaudens and George Aarons. This lovingly produced book introduces readers to the artists, the subjects of their work, and the accessibility of exceptional art all within the city of Boston.