Clemente

We live in the ESPN age, when even a salami-swinging journeyman can make the nightly highlight reel. With every new "Web gem," baseball's pre-video legends slip further into the background, reduced to choppy, black-and-white clips and the testimonies of bow-tied, PBS-tested talking heads. Sure, grampy tells us Ted Williams and Willie Mays were special. But can we really understand how those players revolutionized the game?

Tonight's one-hour "American Experience" film, "Roberto Clemente," should at least educate those poor Yankees fans who recently booed reliever LaTroy Hawkins out of his No. 21 jersey. Hawkins wanted to honor his hero, Clemente. The Bronx faithful were horrified that anybody might dare model the number once worn by Paul O'Neill, the solid but hardly spectacular former Yankees outfielder (lifetime average: .288). Let's hope a few of the boo birds are watching tonight.

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