Major League Baseball today announced that James McCann was named the New York Mets 2022 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One, baseball’s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers.

The Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One is the annual recognition of a 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.

 As part of the annual program, each MLB Club nominates one player to be considered for the league-wide Award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character. 

McCann, a first-time Roberto Clemente Award nominee, has been a prominent figure in the New York City community during his two seasons with the Mets. McCann is passionate about helping families with children receiving care in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), sharing stories of his personal experiences as a parent of twin boys who spent their first seven weeks in the NICU.

McCann and his wife, Jessica, often visit local hospitals, spending time with families whose children are receiving care in NICUs and donating gift cards to families to help ease some financial burden. In June of this year, McCann and his wife visited Cohen Children’s Medical Center to connect with families. He also donated a suite to a Mets game for the nurses he met during the visit to show his support and gratitude to the healthcare workers. 

McCann will be recognized during a special pregame ceremony that will also include members of the Clemente family as the Mets will host the Pirates at Citi Field on September 15, with the game airing nationwide on FOX beginning at 7:00 p.m. Retired players who are former Roberto Clemente Award winners will be in attendance to participate in a food packaging volunteer event for Rise Against Hunger at Citi Field with Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., employees from the Commissioner’s Office and the Mets.

Thursday, September 15th marks the 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day presented by Capital One, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente’s legacy as a humanitarian and to formally acknowledge Club nominees of the Roberto Clemente Award. As part of the league-wide celebration, the Roberto Clemente Day logo will appear on the bases and official dugout lineup cards and a special tribute video will be played in ballparks. Additionally, a customized tribute video to both Roberto and his wife Vera – Momentito (in English and Spanish) – will be shown in all MLB ballparks on Roberto Clemente Day as well as on MLB Network, MLB.com, Club sites and MLB Social Media Platforms.

The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One will be selected via a blue ribbon panel, including Commissioner Manfred, representatives from Capital One, MLB-affiliated networks (MLB Network, FOX Sports, ESPN and TBS), MLB.com, as well as Roberto’s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Clemente, Jr. Beginning today, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One via mlb.com/clemente21 (English) and LasMayores.com/clemente21 (Spanish). The site will feature bios of each of the nominees and will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Wednesday, October 5th. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue-ribbon panel.

The concept of honoring Major League players for their philanthropic work was created in 1971 as the “Commissioner’s Award.” The recognition was renamed to the “Roberto Clemente Award” in 1973 in honor of the Hall of Famer and 15-time All-Star who died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.