In DeSantis' Florida it's goodbye Roberto Clemente.

The Hill reports:

A bill proposed this week by a Republican state senator in Florida would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), his Cabinet officers and members of the Florida legislature to register with the state.

Screw that Republican state senator and screw Ron DeSantis.

In Florida open carry will require no permit but bloggers have to register.

Oh, and also in Florida books about the great Puerto Rican baseball player, Roberto Clemente, are being taken off the shelves.

Years ago I was driving from Chicago to Philly to attend a teacher union convention when I stopped overnight in Pittsburgh and stayed at a hotel across the river from PNC Park where the Pirates play.

With nothing to do but hang around the hotel I walked across the yellow bridge to catch a game between the Pirates and Washington.

At the time they were probably the worse two teams in major league baseball. There was no problem getting a ticket.

Not like in the days of Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell.

There’s a statue of Roberto Clemente outside the park with soil from his home town in Puerto Rico and from Forbes Field and Three River Stadium where Clemente and t Willie Stargell played for a great Pirate team.. 

Clemente spent his entire eighteen-year major league career with the Pirates. In that time, the right fielder won four National League batting titles, captured twelve straight Gold Glove Awards, and amassed a career batting average of .317.

During the 1960 season, Clemente powered the Pirates, hitting .312 with a team-leading 94 RBIs. In the World Series, he batted .310 to help the team defeat the New York Yankees in seven games.

Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning—one of the more memorable moments in baseball history—secured the title for the Pirates.

Eleven years later, in 1971, Clemente once again led the team to a World Series title and, in the process, won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. The following season, in his final regular season at bat, he recorded his 3,000th hit. Until then, only ten players in major league history had reached the offensive milestone. 

Throughout his career, in the off-season, Clemente would returned to Puerto Rico, where he played in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League and held clinic for young players.

In December 1972, when a catastrophic earthquake struck Nicaragua, Clemente led Puerto Rican relief efforts. Outraged by reports that the Nicaraguan army was using the supplies rather than distributing them to those affected by the disaster, he decided to accompany a supply plane scheduled to leave San Juan on New Year’s Eve.

Soon after takeoff, however, the overloaded plane encountered engine trouble and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean just off the Puerto Rican coast, killing Clemente.

Clemente’s body was never recovered. 

Now books about late Afro-Puerto Rican MLB legend Roberto Clemente can't be found in the shelves of public school libraries in Florida's Duval County.

“Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates” by Jonah Winter and Raúl Colón — and other books about Latino figures such as the late Afro-Cuban salsa singer Celia Cruz and Justice Sonia Sotomayor — are among the more than 1 million titles that have been "covered or stored and paused for student use” at the Duval County Public Schools District, according to Chief Academic Officer Paula Renfro.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed laws last year that require schools to rely on certified media specialists to approve them.

To be approved by the DeSantis censors, books can’t teach students about gender identity and sexual orientation. They can’t teach what DeSantis falsely calls critical race theory, an academic field of study that examines systemic racism in American society.

Books may not include references to discrimination, according to the school district.

"Note that even though a title may appear to be appropriate, we must evaluate each book’s full content for its age-level appropriateness and full compliance with Florida law," a school official said.

Of the books removed from Duval County, more than 30 were by Latino authors and illustrators or centered Latino characters and narratives. Among these were “Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa” by Veronica Chambers and Julie Maren, “Sonia Sotomayor (Women Who Broke the Rules Series)” by Kathleen Krull and Angela Dominguez, and Winter's Clemente book.

By the way, in Chicago we have a high school named for Roberto Clemente.

Share this post with a kid from Florida so they can know about Roberto Clemente.

"Robert Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates" by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Raúl Colón.Atheneum Books for Young Readers via Simon and Schuster

The son of the Pittsburgh Pirates player, Roberto Clemente Jr., told NBC News he owns the book, which was written for children K-3.

"His story is his story. He went through racism. It's something that can't be changed," Clemente Jr. said. "But obviously, for the younger students, if it's something that they feel is too much for them, they might be able to utilize a different book with the same story, but it's framed differently for them, for that for that age group."

Clemente Jr. added that he expects his father's life story and legacy to empower people of all ages.

LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a Latino civil rights organization based in New York, blasted the school district in Duval for removing the Clemente book over its "references to racism and discrimination."

“Learning about Clemente’s achievements, his pride in his Afro-Boricua identity and his struggles with racism and discrimination would provide needed insight on historical conditions in the U.S., and inspiration for the majority Black and Latino student population in Duval County schools," Lourdes Rosado, president and general counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, said in a statement.

"We urge the school district to restore this book and others that shine a light on the experiences of exemplary people in our country who have contributed greatly to our society and culture," Rosado said. "Our children deserve to understand the full scope of our society’s flaws and strengths.” 

Clemente died in 1972, when his plane crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico as he was delivering relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38.

His humanitarian efforts are perhaps his greatest legacy in addition to his professional baseball career. Clemente became a posthumous Baseball Hall of Famer, with exactly 3,000 hits, four National League batting titles, 12 Gold Gloves, an MVP award, two World Series championships and 15 All-Star appearances.

Clemente often denounced racism and discrimination in his native Spanish language, and he spoke publicly about his experiences as a Black Latino climbing the baseball ranks during the civil rights movement. He even spoke about political and social issues alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

"The book on Roberto Clemente is pending review," Duke-Bolden said. She couldn't immediately share the review status on the books about Cruz and Sotomayor. 

Cruz, known as the Queen of Salsa, was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated Latin music artists. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Clemente Jr. and his family are waiting to see what happens with the book about the baseball great and plan on reaching out to the school district some time next week.

"We need to continue to figure out how to continue that conversation and unifying our cultures and nationalities," he said.