Quote:
Originally Posted by barrysloate
Did anyone notice that when Bob Prince interviewed nearly every player after the game, he never asked Roberto Clemente to come forward? I'm sure they were afraid to have an hispanic player who spoke broken English come to the microphone. It was a sign of the times. .
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Of course, I don't know exactly what went into the selection process for tv interviews in the clubhouse that afternoon. But I'd like to say that it's not clear to me that Bob Prince was guilty of any racism or bias in his role as an interviewer that day. I was an infant in 1960 and can't speak to how Prince related to Clemente that year. But I listened to Prince broadcast just about every game from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, and he was a very great admirer of Clemente, and I know for a fact that Clemente felt very warmly toward Prince. Maybe the people at NBC who produced the post-game interviews decided who got to jump up on the table with Prince to talk "coast to coast." Maybe they didn't want to hear Roberto speak with his accent. But except for the one time that Prince reached down and pulled Hal Smith up to the table to talk with him, Bob Prince just stood there and spoke with whomever happened to hop up and say hi. Besides, I think there were a few other principals who didn't get an interview: Stuart, maybe Friend and Nelson and surely Mizell. And what about Murtaugh?