Major League Baseball today announced that Dee Strange Gordon is the Seattle Mariners 2020 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, the most prominent individual player award bestowed by MLB.
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.
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 for the Roberto Clemente Award. The Mariners will be playing at San Francisco against the Giants that day.
Dee Strange Gordon is a two-time All-Star, three-time Stolen Bases leader, Silver Slugger, hits leader, and Gold Glove Award winner. Yet, for all his accomplishments on the field, his efforts off the field and in the community are even more impressive.
This spring, Strange Gordon was honored by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as recipient of the 55th Hutch Award, the award given annually to the MLB player who best represents courage and dedication of Fred Hutchinson. During the virtual Hutch Award Celebration event, over $73,000 was raised to fuel Fred Hutch's research to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Strange Gordon provided meals for families in need in his hometown while supporting a local restaurant struggling to stay open. He also worked to help those on the frontlines and in the community get the protection they need through a collaboration with Uncognito, a Seattle-based streetwear company, to create customized "Flash" lightning bolt face masks. Every custom mask purchase included a free KN95 protective mask, with another donated to healthcare and emergency response workers. All proceeds benefited DAWN, the Domestic Abuse Women's Network, to support survivors of domestic violence.
Strange Gordon has been a vocal advocate in the social justice movement sparked by outrage over the deaths of Black men and women in police custody. He is a member of the Active Players Advisory Board for The Players Alliance, an organization of current and former Black Major League Baseball players using their platform to call attention to prejudice and inequity in baseball and society.
Strange Gordon's activism on social issues goes back many years. In 2015, he founded the Flash of Hope program to support kids and families who have been affected by domestic violence. At the age of six, Dee lost his own mother, Devona Strange, to domestic abuse and her memory not only helped motivate him to accomplish his dreams of becoming a professional athlete but also inspired his passion to help other survivors of domestic violence. Since arriving in Seattle in 2018, Strange Gordon has partnered with the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, LifeWire, New Beginnings, DAWN and API Chaya to meet with families who have been impacted by domestic violence to share personal experiences and provide hope and encouragement.
Last season, in addition to hosting DAWN families at T-Mobile Park, Strange Gordon was special guest for the nonprofit organization's 2019 Returning Dignity event, which raised over $38,000.
He serves as a spokesman for the Mariners anti-domestic violence campaign, Refuse to Abuse, which is in partnership with the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Strange Gordon has also teamed up with Food for the Hungry and the Striking Out Poverty campaign to help meet urgent needs in some of the most underserved communities in the world. Food for the Hungry offers access to life-changing resources such as clean water, medical aid, food, equal educational opportunities for girls and boys, vocational training and empowerment.
Strange Gordon's Stealing Bases to Strike Out Poverty campaign has helped raise helped raise over $42,000 in two years alone to benefit relief efforts in the Dominican Republic and support families in Syrian refugee camps. Strange Gordon has also traveled to Rwanda to visit the Ruhango District, one of the most impoverished areas in the African nation, to identify their needs and offer support.
Other charities Strange Gordon has been involved with over the years including the Boys & Girls Clubs, Seattle Children's, Special Olympics USA, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), and Mariners Care.
The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award will be selected via a blue-ribbon panel, including Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., representatives from 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 via mlb.com/clemente21. The site will feature bios of each of the nominees and will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Sunday, September 27. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue-ribbon panel.
Over the years, three Mariners players have received the Clemente Award: Harold Reynolds in 1991; Jamie Moyer in 2003; Edgar Martinez in 2004.