'Indescribable': Pirates RF Joshua Palacios revels in Roberto Clemente Day celebration

Joshua Palacios was doing a pregame interview with Harold Reynolds on MLB Network about Roberto Clemente Day when the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder got the surprise of a lifetime, especially for a player with Puerto Rican bloodlines.

Pittsburgh Steelers minority owner Thomas Tull handed Palacios a bat, glove and 1960 World Series game-worn jersey that belonged to the Pirates legend and Hall of Fame right fielder. Palacios was trembling while holding rare collectibles that he called the Holy Grail.

“I had no clue when they brought that out,” Palacios said. “Man, it was like touching a holy artifact, something like the Ten Commandments. That was pretty sick. I never in my life thought I’d be able to touch one of those bats, or touch one of the jerseys. Especially putting the glove on, it was pretty crazy.”

"This is incredible, this is a dream come true."

Joshua Palacios joins Harold Reynolds to talk about Roberto Clemente’s impact in Puerto Rico and what it means to him to play on this day wearing a @Pirates jersey.#ClementeDay | @CapitalOne pic.twitter.com/Nongo5bcix

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) September 15, 2023

Palacios was amazed to feel how heavy Clemente’s bat was — he used a 36- to 38-ounce bat, despite weighing 175 pounds — how the wool jersey looked itchy and the state of the leather glove. Palacios called it a “testament” to how major leaguers of that generation “didn’t have a lot of resources, but they were still dominant in the game.”

“That was pretty sick,” Palacios said, with a broad smile. “I rubbed it all over myself, tried to get everything I could out of it, see if his bat had some hits left in there.”

Every Pirates player and coach wore No. 21 in honor of the Clemente, who died at age 38 in a plane crash from his native Puerto Rico to deliver humanitarian supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims on New Year’s Eve 1972.

A Brooklyn native whose paternal grandparents were born in Puerto Rico, Palacios took pride when the Pirates started him in right field Friday night against the New York Yankees.

“There was definitely some purpose to that,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who collaborated with bench coach Don Kelly on the lineup. “He was going to play today, but when Donnie and I talked about it (Thursday) night it, we thought, ‘Yeah, this is how this should go down.’ ”

For 21. ???????? pic.twitter.com/XrvabstT7x

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 15, 2023

Palacios got another surprise before running out to right field, where Clemente won 12 Gold Gloves in 18 seasons with the Pirates, the 21-foot wall is named in his honor and his No. 21 was stenciled in the grass.

“They asked me if I wanted to go small flag or big flag, and I was like, ‘Big flag is definitely the move,’ ” said Palacios, who went 1 for 4 with a run scored in the 7-5 loss. “That was pretty cool, a cool moment. I blacked out, per usual. It was pretty sick. I remember just seeing some fans that are Puerto Rican, and they were going crazy when I was waving the flag.”

It was another incredible moment for Palacios, who has had a season of them. He hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning of a 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on July 31, on his 28th birthday. He had a winning homer in a 7-6 win over St. Louis on Sept. 2. And he hit a two-run homer and threw a runner out at the plate in a 5-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

“That was one of the biggest energetic, goosebump moments that I had this year,” Palacios said. “It was pretty crazy. Running out there with the flag, you just feel the energy and feel the aura and everything he did for the city, everything he left behind. It was indescribable.”