Clemente nominee 'a huge honor' for SF mainstay Crawford

SAN FRANCISCO -- Veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford has been a fixture on the Giants’ infield for the past 12 years. He has also emerged as a consistent presence in the community, lending a hand to several charitable causes in his native Bay Area and beyond.

Crawford’s commitment to giving back earned him his second consecutive nomination for the Roberto Clemente Award, which is given annually to the “Major League player who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”

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The prestigious award is named in honor of the Hall of Famer and 15-time All-Star from Puerto Rico who died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972, while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

“It’s a huge honor to be nominated for an award named after not only such a good baseball player, but a great person off the field also,” Crawford said. “It’s something that I definitely take pride in, trying to help away from the field with charities and stuff like that.”

Crawford and his wife, Jalynne, spread their support across a number of causes, though they’ve been particularly involved in funding research to find a cure for ALS -- also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease -- in recent years. Since 2019, they’ve hosted the annual Crawford Family Golf Tournament, which has helped raise more than $250,000 to benefit ALS organizations. Crawford’s relationship to A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty, a fellow Pleasanton, Calif., native who lost his mother, Gretchen, to ALS, helped inspire him to join the mission to find a cure for the disease.

The Crawfords have also been active in creating initiatives to support children and families who are battling cancer. In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September, they launched a special “Position to Win” clothing line to raise funds for The Baller Dream Foundation, which supports pediatric cancer patients.

“We have four kids ourselves,” Crawford said. “Just the amount of stories that we’ve heard, whether through social media or friends, [about families] that have gone through kids having cancer -- it’s close to us.”

Fans can cast votes for the award through the end of the day on Wednesday.

An overall winner will be selected via a blue-ribbon panel that includes Commissioner Rob Manfred, representatives from MLB-affiliated networks and MLB.com, as well as Clemente’s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Jr.