1965 Topps Bob Clemente

I've been on a break from Poor Old baseball Cards lately. But today, this came in the mail and I knew I needed to share.

A few days ago, I took a chance. I offered $7 for this beauty on eBay. It had a Buy it Now price of $15. I expected to be counteroffered.

I wasn't and the card was mine for $7. What a bargain.

Clemente was coming off his second batting title in 1964. He would win the title four times (1961, '64, '65 and '67).

He ended his career with 3,000 hits. Who knows how many more were in his bat before dying in a plane crash carrying relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.

While it's a beaut, there's one thing that bothers me about this card. "Bob."

His name is Roberto and he wanted to be known as such. I wonder why baseball card companies felt the need to Americanize his name? 

A snippet from Encyclopedia Britannica online:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/121138/Roberto-Clemente

While Clemente amassed a mountain of impressive statistics during his career, he was often mocked by the print media in the United States for his heavy Spanish accent. Clemente was also subjected to the double discrimination of being a foreigner and being black in a racially segregated society. Although the media tried to call him “Bob” or “Bobby” and many of his baseball cards use “Bob,” Clemente explicitly rejected those nicknames, stating in no uncertain terms that his name was Roberto. There was also confusion over the correct form of his surname. For 27 years the plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame read “Roberto Walker Clemente,” mistakenly placing his mother’s maiden name before his father’s surname. Only in 2000 was it changed to its proper Latin American form, Roberto Clemente Walker.