{"id":493,"date":"2010-04-15T01:52:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T08:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2010-04-15T01:52:22","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T08:52:22","slug":"remembering-roberto-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Roberto Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

When our American Airlines Boeing 757 touched down at San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, so began my second visit to Puerto Rico, this time in advance of a Panama Canal<\/a> cruise. The first was in 1974, but I’m told San Juan hasn’t changed a lot over the years. However, my second visit won’t be anything like the first.<\/p>\n

I was a baseball writer in those days, and the trip to San Juan was for a spring training game. For me, it was more. This was just over a year after the death of Roberto Clemente<\/a>, the Pittsburgh Pirates super star who died \"\"<\/a> in a plane crash on a mercy mission to aid earthquake victims in neighboring Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

I had it in mind to write a story about the wife and three children he left behind. It had the makings of being a good human interest story.<\/p>\n

I found the address of the Clemente home \u2014 I’m really not sure how \u2014 and set about to find it. There was a short taxi ride to the suburbs and, having zero knowledge of Spanish, there was still some searching to do from where the cab driver let me out. Eventually, I was standing at the front door and, with some trepidation, I rang the bell. His widow, Vera, opened the door and after my short introduction and explanation, I was invited inside.<\/p>\n

The interview lasted about an hour. She was gracious, and forthcoming, in recalling what the last 14 months had been like for Roberto’s family.<\/p>\n

Somehow, I can’t imagine having that kind of experience today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When our American Airlines Boeing 757 touched down at San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, so began my second visit to Puerto Rico, this time in advance of a Panama Canal cruise. The first was in 1974, but I’m told San Juan hasn’t changed a lot over the years. However, my second visit won’t… Continue reading Remembering Roberto Again<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[35,74,75,76],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-stories","tag-cruises","tag-puerto-rico","tag-roberto-clemente","tag-san-juan","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}