Major League Baseball today announced that Josh Bell was named the Pittsburgh Pirates 2020 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers.

The Roberto Clemente Award 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. Wednesday, September 9 marks the 19th annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente’s legacy as a humanitarian and to officially acknowledge local 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.

Bell is one of the 30 Club nominees for the annual award. Although he has long been an active participant in community programs and Pirates Charities events, his efforts in 2020 have far exceeded his usual community service. This year, his community involvement has been more personal in nature as his activism and commitment has been focused on creating and growing new, impactful programs that help address the current community unrest and need for social justice. He felt a personal connection and a desire to use his platform to help others listen and learn through the sharing of diverse perspectives.

With this goal, he started a series on his own social media pages with the hashtag #SocialReformSunday, speaking from his heart and educating others on social justice issues, while reaching out to other Major League players to do the same.