Baseball: Clemente's family disgusted with auction

Roberto Clemente's family is upset that pieces of the plane he died in are being auctioned off, according to The New York Times. Lelands auction house is selling a light metal piece of the airplane, measuring 19 by 14 inches at its largest point, the paper reported on its Web site Saturday night. That section has a minimum auction price of $1,500. A gray steel propeller, 14 by 79 inches, has a minimum price of $1,000.

The high bid for the first piece is $1,650 and the high for the second is $1,210. The auction, which includes 28 Clemente-related items, is to end June 24. Clemente died on Dec. 31, 1972, when the DC-7 he was on during a relief mission crashed after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The plane was headed to Nicaragua with supplies for earthquake victims.

Link. Fox Sports.com

this is ghoulish and there should be means to stop sales like this, to put this on a personal level how would you feel if it were from a plane crash that someone you loved were in??? the ultimate in bad taste, both from the seller and anyone who would bid on such a thing

I couldn't agree more. I don't understand what the fascination would be to own a fragment of something that stands for devastation like that. At least you can understand the goal of the seller, they're out to make a buck, no matter how tasteless they have to be to get it.

the clemente family is pursuing legal action to prevent people from profiting from roberto's death and to prevent things like this aucton from happening again

as distasteful as this auction is i don't see why it would be illegal, but best of luck to the clementes in their quest

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