51 years ago Saturday, The Great One notched his memorable final hit to close a sensational Hall of Fame career.
On September 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente recorded his 3,000th hit on a gap shot to left-center field against the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium. In his final regular-season at-bat, Clemente crushed starter Jon Matlack’s pitch and one-hopped the wall for a double.
On this day in 1972, Roberto Clemente joined the 3,000-hit club with what would be the final hit of the @Pirates icon's career pic.twitter.com/luKhtEAfgK
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) September 30, 2023
Roberto became the 11th player in MLB history to reach the accomplishment and the first Latin American-born player to total 3,000.