In 1966 at the un-ripe 'ol age of eight years old I became seriously hooked on sports. Football, Basketball, a little bit of Hockey, but most of all, Baseball. I was an army brat who lived in a different town (and sometimes different country) pretty much every year of my childhood. Thus, I had no "hometown " team. For some odd reason I liked the colors of black and gold/yellow, so I began following the Steelers (who were god-awful then), the Lakers (I know - not black & gold but the closest thing at the time since the Pacers didn't exist), the Boston Bruins (Bobby Orr !), and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I didn't know much about the Bucs, but began listening to games whenever possible, hording player's baseball cards, and on the very rare occasion, watching a game on TV. I believe it was in '67 when such a game was on, that I got my first chance to watch Roberto Clemente play. He stood out amongst the other players on the field. I can still hear Curt Gowdy's voice describing Clemente's ability and still not thinking it did the player justice.

via ts2.mm.bing.net

I bring this up because I came across a link about Clemente today that struck a resonant chord with those childhood memories of mine. I know that many on BucsDugout never got the incredible opportunity that I did to live through that time in Pirates history, so I recommend checking on the link here . Also make sure to watch the video.