Book on Roberto Clemente a page-turner

The lives of baseball players Roberto Clemente and Lou Gehrig have many similarities. Both were on World Series-winning teams. Both were relatively young when they died. Both left such an impact on their sport that the traditional five-year wait for them to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame was waived. And both are the subjects of superb books.

Jonathan Eig’s “Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig” was published in 2005. This year has brought “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero,” by David Maraniss, author of 1999’s stellar work about Green Bay Packers coaching legend Vince Lombardi (“When Pride Still Mattered”).

Much like Eig’s “Luckiest Man,” “Clemente” is a book that a reader devours while knowing that despair is just around the bend. Gehrig was not quite 38 when he succumbed to the disease that now bears his name.

Clemente’s life ended at age 38 in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972, as he was taking earthquake relief supplies to Nicaragua.

Clemente became a revered legend in his native Puerto Rico and was the first Latin player to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The proud “Momen” won two World Series rings during his 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Maraniss captures the essence of Clemente, including a key philosophy: If you have a chance to help others, and you don’t, you are wasting your time on this earth. It was a philosophy that would help contribute to Clemente’s death.

Given today’s era of baseball, in which performance-enhancing drugs get as much attention as happenings on the field, “Clemente” becomes even more of an exceptional read. His deeds on and off the diamond truly make him “Baseball’s Last Hero.”