L-R: Luis De Rosa, president, Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce; Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson; and Roberto Clemente, Jr. met on October 1, 2009 at Roberto Clemente Park in Wynwood, a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood in the City of Miami, to tour the park named in Clemente’s father’s honor.  Clemente, Jr. is searching for sponsors who will help maintain the baseball field with a new type of turf which will require little watering. 

Clemente, Sr., now in the Baseball Hall of Fame, played eighteen seasons in Major League Baseball from 1955 to 1972, all with Pittsburgh. He was awarded the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1966. During the course of 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 four different seasons, amassing 3,000 hits. He was involved in charity work both 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 was waived since the wait was instituted in 1954. Clemente is also the first Latino to win a World Series as a starting player (1960), win a league MVP award (1966) and win a World Series MVP award (1971).