In this episode, we talk about David's biography of Roberto Clemente, the luminescent right-fielder from Puerto Rico, an athlete whose humanitarian grace and love for his homeland and working people everywhere transcended even his remarkable skills as a ballplayer.
Spring has sprung, and we're missing baseball. In this episode of Ink in our Blood we talk about David's biography of Roberto Clemente, the luminescent right-fielder from Puerto Rico, an athlete whose humanitarian grace and love for his homeland and working people everywhere transcended even his remarkable skills as a ballplayer. Sarah asks David why he felt such a soulful attachment to Clemente, how he conducted his research for the biography, how he came to understand "the fire of dignity" that drove Clemente through his life and toward his death - in a plane crash on the way to deliver aid to Nicaragua after the 1972 earthquake. They also talk about the work on a movie based on his biography, and about his reaction to the Hollywood portrayal of Moneyball, where the beauty of the sport hit up against dry algorithmic strategy.