Pirates respond to social media reaction, defend replacing Clemente Wall logo with ad

Pittsburgh Pirates fans have been voicing their complaints with the club, with the latest controversy coming because of the reaction by the son of the most beloved player in franchise history.

Roberto Clemente Jr. wrote a one-word response to a social media post noting that the Clemente 21 logo on the padded wall below the right field foul pole had been replaced by a Surfside ad: “WOW………….” It drew 1.7 million impressions on X, formerly known as Twitter.

WOW………….. https://t.co/qcL1O6zPZ2

— Roberto Clemente Jr (@RClementejr21) April 5, 2025

This comes after an offseason where fans paid for billboards around town urging Pirates chairman Bob Nutting to sell the team and had an airplane fly over PNC Park before the home opener with a banner that read, “SELL THE TEAM BOB.”

Roberto Clemente was a 15-time All-Star who won two World Series, the 1966 National League MVP, 12 Gold Glove Awards, four batting titles and recorded a franchise-record 3,000 hits in 18 seasons with the Pirates. He died at age 38 when his plane crashed while delivering humanitarian supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims on New Year’s Eve 1972, and was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame.

That put the Pirates in the position of doing damage control. Brian Warecki, the team’s senior vice president of communications and broadcasting, sought to clarify that the logo next to the 21-foot wall in right field that is named for Clemente was only meant to be temporary.

“Roberto Clemente is more than a Hall-of-Fame player to us,” Warecki said in a statement. “His legacy helps define who we are as an organization. One would be hard-pressed to find a franchise that pays tribute to one of their historically great players more than the Pittsburgh Pirates do of Roberto Clemente, and rightfully so. Each and every day, we proudly honor and celebrate Roberto Clemente, the person, the player, and the humanitarian in and around our ballpark, as well as through our charitable endeavors.”

Warecki listed all of the ways that Clemente is celebrated at PNC Park, from the bridge that bears his name connecting Downtown to the North Shore, the retired No. 21 on the riverwalk ramp leading up to Federal Street to the 12-foot-tall bronze statue outside the center field gate and retired No. 21 on the upper deck facia, two separate, stand-alone No. 21 logos on the facia of the right field wall, artifacts in the newly created Season Ticket Holder headquarter location, his No. 21 jersey and photos on display on the club level, commissioned artwork commemorating his 3,000th hit on the main concourse and his photos and No. 21 on display in the office of manager Derek Shelton.

Warecki wrote that Clemente is the inspiration behind Pirates Charities and its signature programs, that the Pirates have worked to ensure the team is home every Sept. 15 to honor his legacy, including the pregame ceremony, in-game programming and the No. 21 logo stenciled into the right field grass. The Pirates also successfully petitioned MLB to allow the entire team to wear Roberto Clemente’s No. 21 on the league-wide Roberto Clemente Day, host a Roberto Clemente Day of Giving program in which current players and coaches conduct community service in his honor and conducted an organization-wide effort to collect needed supplies and personally deliver them to the people of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“The 21-foot-high wall that officially bears Roberto Clemente’s name continues to, and will forever, display his No. 21 in two separate locations,” Warecki said in the statement. “The temporary wall sign in question was put in place prior to the 2022 season and was never meant to be a permanent tribute, simply another cap tip to ‘The Great One.’ We apologize that we didn’t directly communicate that fact to the Clemente family and our fans.”