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Roberto Clemente memorial unveiled near site of plane crash

Louis Requena / Major League Baseball / Getty

This week's MLB games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, offered the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to the island's patron saint of baseball, Roberto Clemente.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and members of both the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians joined Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello, the Clemente family, and many of Clemente's former teammates to help unveil a new memorial marker on Wednesday that honors the late Hall of Famer.

The marker will become a permanent fixture on the San Juan shoreline, near the spot where Clemente was killed in a plane crash on New Year's Eve 1972.

A plane full of supplies heading for earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua that was also carrying Clemente and others crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff from San Juan, killing all aboard. Clemente's body was never recovered.

"It's so emotional, because for so many years we have been coming to this place and keeping it to ourselves and paying our respects, but now it's time for others to experience it with us," Luis Clemente, Roberto's son, said at the ceremony, according to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com. "This site will become the place where fans from all across the world will be able to come and pay their respects to my father's memory."

Clemente was the first Latin-American baseball superstar, and paved the way for fellow Puerto Rican and Latino players to reach the major leagues during his stellar career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He remains revered in Puerto Rico and throughout the baseball world - as much for his tireless humanitarian efforts as for his exploits on the diamond.

The Indians and Twins will play the second of two games in Puerto Rico on Wednesday night at San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium, after Cleveland won the opener 6-1 on Tuesday. These are the first regular-season MLB contests in the United States territory since 2010.

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