Page "Roberto Clemente" Paragraph 34

During the 1960s, Clemente batted over. 300 in every year except 1968, when, thanks to yet another freak off-season injury ( à la 1965 ), he got off to the worst start of his major league career, hitting just. 245 by the All-Star break, and doing well just to reach. 291 by season's end.

Moreover, thanks to that slow start, 1968 would also prove to be the only season out of Clemente's final thirteen in which he did not make the NL All-Star squad ( he was selected in ' 72 but missed the game because of a heel injury ).

There was, however, no corresponding interruption in Clemente's defensive prowess, nor, thus, in his unbroken string of Gold Glove Awards from 1961 onwards ; he would also lead the league in outfield assists in four of those seasons ( 1960, ' 61, ' 64 and ' 67 ), having already done so in 1958.

He led the National League in batting average four times ( 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967 ), led the National League in hits twice ( 1964 and 1967 ), and won the Most Valuable Player award in the 1966 season, when he hit. 317 while setting career highs in home runs ( 29 ) and RBIs ( 119 ).

In 1967, he registered a career high. 357 average along with twenty-three home runs and 110 runs batted in.