Month: June 2019

On the south side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there is a mural honoring the late Roberto Clemente, one of the most influential figures in not only Pittsburgh sports, but in the city’s history altogether. I am choosing to review this work of art because when thinking about a piece of art to analyze, sports immediately popped into my head. When I tried to think of a piece of art that involved sports, I thought of the larger than life mural that I had seen multiple times while watching Pirates postgame shows.

The mural shows Clemente with a bat on his shoulder, looking into the distance. The only colors used in this mural are black and white, as opposed to the black and yellow we are accustomed to seeing Pirates players wear. This could be to add some nostalgia, as all pictures at the time were in black and white. It was painted on the side of Verdetto’s Sports Bar by Jeremy Raymer. He wanted to paint the mural on a warehouse on the south side of Pittsburgh. He chose Verdetto’s and the owners, Len and Pat Verdetto, agreed, as they were long time fans of the Pirates and had a personal history with Clemente. The couple met Clemente and his wife in the strip disctrict. They had Clemente sign a piece of paper and kept it as a piece of memorabilia. This resonated with me, as I am someone who goes to Pirates games and collects autographs as a piece of memorabilia on a regular basis. When I see the mural, I wish I could have seen him play in person. I wish I could have seen him appear in 2,433 games, the most by a Pirate ever, or collected 240 home runs, drove in 1,305 runs, hit the only walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in MLB history, won 12 gold gloves, which is the tied for the most among outfielders with Willie Mays, won 2 World Series titles, and appeared in 15 All Star games, which earned himself a spot in the Hall of Fame, and also collected his 3,000th and last hit in the last at-bat of his career. .

In the mural, Clemente shows no expression on his face. He could be procrastinating about what he will do next. Whether that is hit a home run into the packed stands at Three Rivers Stadium, or spend some time with friends and family from his native island of Puerto Rico. Most of Clemente’s offseason was spent doing charity work in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, this lead to his death. Clemente had predicted he would die young, said his widow Vera in a 2002 interview with ESPN. He was on his way to Puerto Rico on a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane on New Year’s Eve in 1972 to help out fellow Puerto Ricans after a devastating earthquake on December 23 of that same year. The plane Clemente was on was doomed for failure. The type of plane had a history of mechanical problems and the plane was short staffed (missing a copilot and flight engineer). The plane crashed in the Atlantic ocean and Clemente died. He was 38 years old. His charity work left a lasting impact on the organization. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the Pirates sent many supplies down to the islands of Puerto Rico, as it held its place in the organizations heart. They were there for 7 days giving out supplies to help the suffering Puerto Ricans get back on their feet. This shows what an impact Clemente left on the Pirates and  this is surely something for which he would have contributed. And being someone who doesn’t like to watch the devastating news stories, I was enlightened to see that Clemente’s charity work in the 60s to early 70s brought the Pirates out to help the relief efforts.

So if you ever pass on by Verdetto’s Sports Bar, take the time to appreciate the mural of the man who gave everything he had to the game and to Puerto Rico, the island he called home.

Many people, including myself, may write for an audience. I may write an essay for a teacher or podcast for a few sports fans, but I don’t do it completely for myself. I do it partly for others. When podcasting or maintaining a blog, this is not the way to go about it. By doing it for yourself, the audience will ultimately enjoy it more.

Maria Popova goes on a podcast and says that “when you start to think of your writing as content, you’ve altered the motive, you’ve lost meaning.” Not many people will produce content for their own pleasure. Content is for other people’s pleasure. This is the disconnection between writing for yourself or writing for your audience. She also refers to Vonnegut’s 7th tip of writing, which is to write for one person. That person is not a publisher or crush you may have. That one person is you. Your work not only becomes more meaningful to you if you take this stance when writing, it also becomes a better work in general.
If you create a podcast, for example, and you don’t want to make the next episode, but you feel your audience NEEDS this next episode and you do it, it might not seem as good as the other episodes. It might seem dull and lackluster compared to other upbeat episodes because the motive for producing it is lacking enthusiasm.

When you write or podcast for yourself, the work becomes more thought out. You may get more statistics or facts for a podcast or write in deeper detail when doing a work for yourself. When I want to podcast, I will dig deeper to find facts and present more ideas from my viewpoint. Authors that want to write for their own pleasure may get into more detail, whether that detail is gruesome and makes you flinch just by reading, or by building suspense, leaving you on the edge of your seat.

This topic really jumped out at me because I could make a connection with this. I do a podcast every now and then. Sometimes I do it because I want to podcast. Other times, I do it out of guilt for not uploading a podcast at the time I should have. When I do that, I don’t feel as the podcast is as good as it should be. After listening to Popova, I realize that uploading a podcast inconsistently, but out of pleasure, makes it better than uploading the podcast consistently, even if the episode is not as well done as the others.

So if there’s one thing people should know when starting a podcast, or one tip students should take to make their writing better, it is to write for yourself. These links will take you to a couple of my podcast. You may notice the first one is better than the second, as I had planned the first one more, and rushed to get the second one done because I had felt that my upload schedule required it. This is a prime example of why you should write for yourself.