The thirty Club nominees for the 2016 Roberto Clemente Award, the most prominent individual player award from Major League Baseball, were announced today. The Roberto Clemente Award is the annual recognition of a player from each MLB Club who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.
Each Club nominates one current player to be considered for the Roberto Clemente Award in tribute to Clemente's achievements and character. Wednesday, September 7th marks the fifteenth annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente's legacy and to officially acknowledge local Club nominees of the Roberto Clemente Award.  
The 30 Club nominees of the 2016 Roberto Clemente Award feature seven 2016 MLB All-Stars (=MLB All-Star)
Arizona Diamondbacks - Paul Goldschmidt (#VoteGoldy)
Atlanta Braves - Jim Johnson (#VoteJJ)
Baltimore Orioles - Adam Jones (#VoteAdam)
Boston Red Sox - Brock Holt (#VoteBrock)
Chicago Cubs - Anthony Rizzo* (#VoteRizzo)
Chicago White Sox - Jose Abreu (#VoteAbreu)
Cincinnati Reds - Michael Lorenzen (#VoteLorenzen)
Cleveland Indians - Carlos Carrasco (#VoteCookie)
Colorado Rockies - Carlos González* (#VoteCarGo)
Detroit Tigers - Miguel Cabrera* (#VoteMiggy)
Houston Astros - Lance McCullers (#VoteMcCullers)
Kansas City Royals - Eric Hosmer* (#VoteHosmer)
Los Angeles Angels - Andrew Heaney (#VoteHeaney)
Los Angeles Dodgers - Adrian González (#VoteAdrian)
Miami Marlins - Giancarlo Stanton (#VoteStanton)
Milwaukee Brewers - Ryan Braun (#VoteBraun)
Minnesota Twins - Joe Mauer (#VoteMauer)   
New York Mets - Curtis Granderson (#VoteGrandy)
New York Yankees - Brett Gardner (#VoteGardy)
Oakland Athletics - Sean Doolittle (#VoteDoolittle)
Philadelphia Phillies - Ryan Howard (#VoteHoward)
Pittsburgh Pirates - Jared Hughes (#VoteHughes)
St. Louis Cardinals - Adam Wainwright (#VoteWainwright)
San Diego Padres - Tyson Ross (#VoteRoss)
San Francisco Giants - Jake Peavy (#VotePeavy)
Seattle Mariners - Robinson Canó (#VoteCano)
Tampa Bay Rays - Chris Archer (#VoteArcher)
Texas Rangers - Cole Hamels (#VoteHamels)
Toronto Blue Jays - Kevin Pillar (#VotePillar)
Washington Nationals - Ryan Zimmerman (#VoteZim)
More information and brief nominee bios can be found at MLB.com/clemente.
Clubs playing at home on Wednesday, September 7th will recognize their local nominees as part of Roberto Clemente Day ceremonies. Visiting Clubs will honor their nominees on a subsequent home stand. 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. Beginning on Roberto Clemente Day, fans can vote for the overall winner of the Roberto Clemente Award on social media for the first time by posting hashtags (see above) to Twitter and Facebook. Deadline for fans to vote is Sunday, October 2nd.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will host the St. Louis Cardinals on September 7th for ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball broadcast. In celebration of Roberto Clemente Day, Pirates executives and front office staff will join the Clemente family, Pirates players and wives, including 2015 Roberto Clemente Award winner and Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen, and community representatives at Pittsburgh King PreK-8 school to distribute 650 backpacks to students.
To enhance Roberto Clemente Day and celebrate Clemente's enduring legacy in 2016, Major League Baseball worked with the 30 Clubs to establish SEAT 21. SEAT 21 will be a designated seat in each ballpark on Roberto Clemente Day (or alternate home game for Clubs on the road) dedicated to a well-known or local hero who will be recognized in addition to the Club Clemente Award nominee. Recognizing individuals who embody the humanitarian spirit of Roberto Clemente is a natural extension of the current honor bestowed upon players each year and gives MLB and the Clubs the opportunity to further extend the message of service and commitment. Profiles for all 30 SEAT 21 Club honorees can be found on mlb.com/seat21.
The concept of honoring Major League players for their philanthropic work was created in 1971 as the "Commissioner's Award," but 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. Each September since 2002, Major League Baseball has commemorated Roberto Clemente Day.
The distinguished list of past Roberto Clemente Award winners includes 16 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame:
1971 Willie Mays+
1972 Brooks Robinson+**
1973 Al Kaline+
1974 Willie Stargell+
1975 Lou Brock+
1976 Pete Rose
1977 Rod Carew+
1978 Greg Luzinski
1979 Andre Thornton
1980 Phil Niekro+
1981 Steve Garvey
1982 Ken Singleton
1983 Cecil Cooper 
1984 Ron Guidry
1985 Don Baylor
1986 Garry Maddox
1987 Rick Sutcliffe
1988 Dale Murphy
1989 Gary Carter+
1990 Dave Stewart
1991 Harold Reynolds
1992 Cal Ripken, Jr.+
1993 Barry Larkin+
1994 Dave Winfield+
1995 Ozzie Smith+
1996 Kirby Puckett+
1997 Eric Davis
1998 Sammy Sosa
1999 Tony Gwynn+
2000 Al Leiter
2001 Curt Schilling
2002 Jim Thome
2003 Jamie Moyer
2004 Edgar Martinez
2005 John Smoltz+
2006 Carlos Delgado
2007 Craig Biggio+
2008 Albert Pujols
2009 Derek Jeter
2010 Tim Wakefield
2011 David Ortiz
2012 Clayton Kershaw
2013 Carlos Beltran
2014 Paul Konerko *
2014 Jimmy Rollins *
2015 Andrew McCutchen
+ Member of The National Baseball Hall of Fame

• Co-winner
  
• • Originally known as the Commissioner's Award (prior to 1973)