Merced Right Where He Wants to Be--Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH —  Orlando Merced wears No. 6, but another Pittsburgh Pirates number is more special to him. Much more special. It is No. 21.

It is Roberto Clemente’s number.

In Merced’s native Puerto Rico, Clemente is an idol, who, nearly 20 years after his death, still remains the most revered athlete in the island nation’s history. Clemente was a Pirate. Merced is a Pirate.

And while nearly every baseball fan in Puerto Rico has a special memory of Clemente, the Hall of Fame outfielder who died with exactly 3,000 hits, Merced has a treasure trunk-sized load of them. Not only did he revere Clemente, he was close friends with Clemente’s three sons and played baseball with them nearly every day.

“I’m living a dream,” said Merced, Pittsburgh’s rookie first baseman. “I’m playing major league baseball, and I am playing for the Pirates. The Pirates always were my favorite team.”

Merced’s link to the most memorable Pirate of the last half-century became even more special this season when Merced played in Pittsburgh for the first time before Vera Clemente, the late Clemente’s wife.

Even today, 19 years after he last played in Three Rivers Stadium, the name Clemente is magical in Pittsburgh. When she was introduced during a Pirates-San Francisco Giants game last week, Mrs. Clemente received a thunderous standing ovation that lasted even after play resumed.

None of her own three sons -- Luis, Roberto Jr., and Enrique -- has reached the majors, but their friend, Merced, is a Pirate. Now, when she makes her two or three annual summertime visits to Three Rivers Stadium, Mrs. Clemente will have a special Pirate to cheer.

“I watched Orlando grow up,” Mrs. Clemente said. “He and (Roberto Jr.) were always playing baseball or talking about baseball or practicing baseball.”

Especially major league baseball. In fact, Merced -- whose .302 batting average leads all National League rookies -- owes his very career to the Clementes and a Clemente family friend.

In 1985, Merced, then 18, figured he had played his last significant baseball game. He had been passed over by scouts, and his American Legion season had ended a few months before. He was attending college and trying to get on with a life without baseball.

Then his friend, Luis, invited him to the Clemente house to watch him sign a Pirates contract. Also there was Victor Henriquez, a Clemente family friend who also had watched Merced play. Henriquez thought Merced also was deserving of a contract and told Pirates scout Howie Haak about him.

The next day, Haak held a special one-man tryout camp for Merced, and decided to sign him, too.

If it wasn’t for No. 21’s family, Merced knows he wouldn’t be wearing No. 6 today.

“I was a very lucky person because I knew the Clemente family,” Merced said. “Not too many people have exceptional friends like them. I wanted Bobby Jr. and Luis to keep playing ... but now, here I am ... the big leagues.”

Merced has ended the Pirates’ search for a leadoff hitter and platoon first baseman to complement the right-handed hitting Gary Redus. He was hitting in the .360s until a recent 2-for-23 slump.

He bounced back Wednesday with a key run-scoring single in the Pirates’ 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Merced’s 16th RBI of the season. He also has four homers, one of them the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over Houston.

As Buffalo manager Terry Collins predicted last summer, Merced continues to improve as a hitter as he learns he doesn’t have to pull every pitch to get a hit. His strength and quick bat will supply enough homers and RBIs.

Merced has impressed Pirates manager Jim Leyland not only with his batting stroke, but his patience. Merced usually hit cleanup in Buffalo, but has adapted smoothly to leading off, a spot that requires patience and the ability to get on base.

Merced is adjusting -- to the majors, to the Pirates, to living in the U.S., to leading off, to finally living out his dream.

“The first three or four years were tough for me,” he said. “I was in a different country and didn’t speak English well and I was trying to establish myself here and trying to establish my life here. Now that I’m here (in the majors), I want to stay here. This is all I’ve wanted.”