Two Pittsburgh-based advertising executives are helping spearhead a grassroots movement to try and get Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente's No. 21
http://www.officialredssale.com/anthony-desclafani-jersey-c-1_8.html retired, and they are using the All-Star Game in Miami as a golden opportunity to reach the masses, particularly the large Cuban and Latino community in the city.
Tyler Bergholz, a senior art director at advertising firm MARC USA, and Josh Wigod, an account supervisor with the firm, spent Monday meeting with fans outside Marlins Park to encourage them to sign a petition asking Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred to retire No. 21 throughout the majors. Only Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's color barrier in 1947, has his No. 42 retired throughout baseball.
Bergholz, 37, and Wigod, 28, are partnered with Duane Rieder, the executive director of the Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh.
"We've worked with Duane, and we've been looking at ways of, 'What can we do that's a little bigger?' There's so much to tell with Clemente," said Bergholz. "So many people that we meet and have talked to down here (in Miami) are like, 'Why isn't No. 21 retired?'"
Clemente died on New Year's Eve, 1972 when the aircraft he boarded in his native Puerto Rico crashed shortly after takeoff. Clemente was traveling to Nicaragua to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in the Central American country.
The Daily News recently interviewed Clemente's son, Roberto Jr., in connection with the Clemente family turning over hundreds of items and artifacts to be auctioned through Hunt Auctions, and Roberto Jr. said that he and his mother and two brothers have no strong feelings about the No. 21 being retired. Manfred
http://www.rd-corp.com/phil-rizzuto-jersey-c-1_17.html has said that there are no current plans to retire No. 21, and that Clemente and his legacy are honored through the Roberto Clemente Award, which is given to a player at the end of each season who excels both on the field and in his community. Past recipients of the award include Derek Jeter (2009), Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen (2015) and fellow Puerto Rican Carlos Beltran (2013).
Both Bergholz and Wigod weren't alive to see Clemente play, but during their campaign work in Miami Monday, they say they have talked with dozens of Clemente fans, and that Clemente jerseys are as popular in Miami as those of Yankee slugger Aaron Judge.
A lot of people know Clemente, and a lot of great players have come to the museum (in Pittsburgh) and they talk about what Clemente did on and off the field. When we've talked to fans here in Miami who don't know about Clemente, they have this wide-eyed look after we list all of his accomplishments as a player and what he did off the field. They ask, 'Wait, why has baseball not retired his number?'
"There was a mom, a dad and their kid, who must have been about 10, at a Q&A (Monday) with the commissioner. When it opened up to questions, the kid asked Manfred why Clemente's number isn't retired," added Wigod.
The admen will be back at work Tuesday before the All-Star Game, soliciting more signatures for the petition outside the ballpark, and then after the Midsummer Classic, they hope to continue the push to get signatures at other major league cities like Cleveland in July and August.
"This is not the end after this baseball season," Bergholz said. "We hope to keep going the year after and hopefully longer. This is a labor of love campaign. We love Clemente, and we're in it for the long haul."
Added Rieder: "We're inviting active and retired players, the media and everyone who loves baseball to join the campaign, sign
D'Onta Foreman Womens Jersey the online petition and spread the word through social media and word of mouth. We hope to have at least 100,000 signatures by Roberto's birthday on August 18, and we'll continue adding signatures and spreading the message until MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred gives us a hearing."
