Poster 'CapAnson' is right on with his post: Clemente was a great player, but not the best. Whatever Willie Mays had to say about him was inflated by professional courtesy. He's not Mays, not Aaron, not Mantle. Great player who is easily among the top 50 position players all-time, but nowhere near the top 10.

Rated to high. Not enough run production to deserve this ranking.

If you really want to know who was the most complete and spectacular player who ever played this sport, and you understand that baseball is equal to just balls gone over the fence, and also have problems believing that fans rate him too high.. go ahead and ask 'Say Hey' Willie Mays, hey Willie !!.. who was the most spectacular 5 tool player that ever played the game ?.. He gladly and with no hesitation whatsoever, is going to tell you that was the 'Inmortal' Roberto Clemente. He is not going to be the only one.. ask Ozzie.. ask Frank.. and other greats would say the same. It could be also a reality that because being both, Hispanic and Black, doubled there, playing in that prejudiced era, in Pittsburh, not for instance in NY, was hard to many people to swallow down the reality of his greatness. For Willie Mays and for myself, Roberto was 'pound per pound', the most phenomenal player that ever played.

Wondeful PBS documentary on about Clemente. . .he was a perfect right-fielder. . .could hit for average and power, run, catch, and had one of the greatest arms from the outfield. . .yes, he was a headcase who bitched about his injuries- but indeed, Clemente was a guy who would actually tell you the truth when you asked him "how ya doin'?". . .but this ballplayer can be summed up by my near-dead uncle whose eyes brighten when he speaks of Clemente: "He was the most beautiful ballplayer I ever saw. . .he ran like a deer in the outfield."  Five stars for this great and inspiring player.

A truly great all-around player even though he wasn't a mega homerun hitter (blame part of that on Forbes Field). Unfortunately homeruns get more attention than anything else in baseball. All of the top all-time homerun leaders are considered great players, but very few had as complete a package of talent as Clemente despite his low homerun totals. He had great speed yet the Pirates seldom had him steal bases (never understood that one). I was priviledged to have seen him play when I was a boy. No 2-dimensional TV image can possibly capture his incredible throwing arm. I attended a game in '71 when he caught a fly ball at the right field wall, then unleash a laser beam of a throw to the third baseman on the fly without the third baseman even having to move his glove an inch (NOT an exaggeration). Incredible to see in person.

Probably the best outfield arm I ever saw, with the possible exceptions of Evans, Valentine and Parker. A very good hitter, on a small market team who didn't get much attention until the 1971 Series, when he played like a man possessed in leading the Pirates to victory over a great Oriole team.

His early death certainly has added to his lustre, but 3000 hits is no small achievement. He's up in the top levels of the game's great players, and may be the best defensive right fielder in history.

Great player on the field but an even better person off the field. It’s a tragedy what happened to him.

Swung at too many bad pitches. Still an alltime great player but many fans rate him too high.

A four-time batting champion and 12-time All-Star, Roberto's greatest performance came when he batted .414 to lead the Pirates to the 1971 World Championship. His rifle throwing arm helped him lead the National League in assists five times and win 12 straight Gold Glove awards.

If he wasnt killed in the plane crash, the Pirates would have won at least three more championships.

A class act all around who died too young.

Good solid hitter, on a very good hitting team, without a lot of solid pitching for most years, outstanding right fielder with a very strong, accurate arm and a nasty go ahead, make my day attitude toward baserunners, he was one of a pack of solid, power-hitting outfielders of his day. Over-rated here, probably due to the circumstances of his tragic death, there are so many better players who played big in so many bigger games. Solid 3, maybe 3 and a half.

Good player.

never recognized until tragedy cut short his career

Rather overrated.. he didn't draw many walks.. probably no better than Al Kaline..Alright look: Clemente: .317 Avg .359 OBA .475 SLG Kaline: .297 Avg .376 OBA .480 SLG Clemente has the advantage in Batting Average by 20 points, and Triples by about 90. Kaline leads in EVERYTHING else. Homeruns by 150, Stolen bases by 50, Walks by 650! Clemente was probably a better fielder, but not enough to overcome all the other advantages Kaline had.. I think Clemente was a great player.. but Kaline was too, and you don't hear poeple talking about him in the top 5 of all time. What other top 5, or hell, top 20 player had a .359 OBA and .475 SLG? Get real.

He definitly had the chance of being in the top 5 of greatest players off all time it is really a shame that he had to die in that plane crash.

One doesn't need to be hispanic to view Roberto as a baseball god. I was only 8 years old when he died but I remember the day like it was yestarday. Stats can't describe him adequately. He was spectacular to watch and I saw him for Game 4 of the 1971 World Series.

Roberto Clemente Walker's pride and humanitarianism won him universal admiriation. Despite an unorthodox batting style, the Pirates' great won four batting crowns and amassed 3,000 hits hits. He was equally brilliant in right field, where he displayed a precise and powerful arm. Clemnte earned National League MVP honors in 1966, but achieved his greatest fame in the 1971 World Series, when he batted .414. Tragically, Clemente's life ended at age 38 - the victim of a plane crash while flying relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. Roberto Clemnte was inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.

Ah, Clemente. Died too young, that's for sure, and like anyone you died young, he is remembered for being slightly greater than he actually was. Clemente amassed a high batting average, but only boasted an average secondary average. His plate patience was poor, but he had some speed. His power was probably hampered by playing in Forbes Field, which restricted offense. Clemente was an outstanding defensive outfielder with that rocket arm, but his assists and various defensive runs saved do not make up for a low on-base %. In other words, not to detract from Clemente (who by the way was a great man and terrific humanitarian), he was obviously not the greatest right fielder ever. Sorry.

The greatest all around right fielder ever. And a great and complex man to boot.

was called the great roberto for very good reasons,he was the best all around ballplayer ever.

Calling him no better than Al Kaline is a disgrace. Clemente was the rare player who had no weaknesses. Consider the era he played, and the massive ballpark he played in while looking at his stats. He had the most hits of any player in the 1960s and is universally regarded as the best right fielder ever. To see him play was truly to understand his greatness.

One of the greatest ever, not top 10 though

Best player ever, no doubt!

Several oldtimers told me he was as good as Willie Mays. That's good enough for me.

THE GREAT ONE

THE BEST baseball player I ever watched!

There will never be another one like him...

Roberto, Babe, Lou, Shoeless Joe, Walter, Cy, Ty, and all of you other guys who have passed from us, THANK YOU for gracing the game with your incredible talent and unique personalities. "Dead"? Hardly.

Surprisingly agile, a remarkably good ball player. But what I liked best about him is that he was apparently a good person as well. The fact that he died while trying to help needy people was especially sad.

They called him the GREAT ONE when he played, so what other rating can you give him other than great.

The comments here are interesting. It's clear that no one who rated Clemente ever saw him play. One rater calls him the Sammy Sosa of the early 70s. Both good people, their games had little in common. Another talks about him having run into a lot of walls. Let's really compare the games. Clemente played 1/2 of his games at Forbes Field. There are no Forbes Fields left in the majors. Massive outfield, dwarfs anything around today. Huge foul ground. Incredible amount of ground to cover. I remember Maury Wills hitting a gapper to right-center at Forbes. Clemente one-hopped it bare handed near the warning track, stopped and through a strike to the plate to nail Jim Lefebvre running from first at the plate. Not just your average through, he threw it on the fly, and it was so low, and so accurate that it could have taken off the cutoff man's head. Best right fielder I ever saw, and a great hitter, too. If he hadn't played at Forbes, he'd have been viewed as a 5-tool player.

He is the greatest Latin American player ever. He got his exact 3,000th hit in his last game before he fell to his tragic death while delivering humanitarian aid to his homeland in Puerto Rico.

very good hitter who does play a very good defensive game and runs into a lot of walls for what he's worth. However, he does not draw very many walks, and has not had a long enough career to be 16th all-time. Barry Bonds has been the better player this generation.

If only gave Mickey, Joe and Hank a 4 how could I give him a higher score? A very good hitter and a great outfielder-- but little power and really did not dominate in any other offensive category.

The Sammy Sosa of the early 70s...

Gone way before his time.

Died as humanitarian. Always gave his best. Rose to top but never forgot past