The City of Pittsburgh announced it’s first-ever Walk of Fame class at The Terminal in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, with one noteable member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. All-time great Roberto Clemente was
one of the headlining names for this inuagural group of Pittsburghers.
The full list is as follows: George Benson, Nellie Bly, Andrew Carnegie, Rachel Carson, Fred Rogers, Dr. Jonas Salk, Andy Warhol, Roberto Clemente, August Wilson, and Michael Keaton.
Keaton gave a speech, and Clemente’s children as well as the kids of Mr. Rogers and Jonas Salk attended the event.
The requirement for the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame is that the inductees were either born, spent their formative years in the area or did their most important work in the area. The surrounding counties of Pittsburgh, such as Butler, Westmoreland, Armstrong, Butler, Beaver, etc… are also considered.
The Walk is the brainchild of Shady Ave magazine publisher Nancy Polinsky Johnson and will feature 10 new inductees every year, starting nominations in January each year.
Clemente, for his part, played for the Pirates from 1955-1972, finishing his career with exactly 3,000 hits, helping lead the Bucs to two World Series victories in 1960 and 1971. Clemente would also earn World Series MVP in the 1971 Series and also landed an NL MVP Award in 1966. He also had four batting titles, 12 Gold Glove Awards, and 15 MLB All-Star game selections.
Clemente was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973 via special election with 92.7 percent of the vote (and what the hell were the other 7.3 percent thinking, anyway?) following his untimely death in 1972 in a plance crash while flying in an aide plane to Nicaragua following an earthquake.
Congrats to the Clemente famaily and the families of all of the inductees for the new Pittsburgh Walk of Fame.
