Roberto Clemente was not only a great baseball player, but also a great humanitarian. At the end of 1972, at only age 38, he died in a plane crash, in the service of others in need, delivering humanitarian aid, to an earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua. 

His final regular season hit that year also happened to number his 3,000th hit. This made him only the eleventh player in all of history to join the 3,000 hit club. Only three of those other ten star players had achieved this select status during the latter half of the 20th Century — fellow Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Henry Aaron, and Willie Mays.