**Arlington, Texas--**Major League Baseball today announced that shortstop Elvis Andrus has been named the Texas Rangers 2019 nominee for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award, the most prestigious individual award for Major League players. 

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.

Each Club nominates one current player to be considered for the Roberto Clemente Award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character. Wednesday, September 6th marks the sixteenth 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. 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.

Every year, each MLB Club nominates a player to be considered for the Award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character. Andrus will be honored in a pre-game ceremony on Tuesday, September 24 prior to the Rangers’ game with the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Park in Arlington.  

Andrus is one of the 30 Club nominees for the annual award. Since joining the Rangers in 2009, he has made a major impact in the Dallas-Fort Worth community. Elvis has donated over $675,000 to the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation since 2012 while be involved in a variety of initiatives, programs, and events.

Elvis has a big heart for children with special challenges and created Elvis’ Entourage to host children and their families to Rangers home games. Andrus served as the Honorary Chair of the Annual Cowboys Santa Toy Drive during 2014 thru 2016 helping raise toys for underprivileged children in Tarrant County. He has donated substantial financial resources to the Sunshine Kids Foundation and has hosted youngsters from that organization to Rangers home games for the last four seasons. Since 2014, Andrus has also provided Rangers’ game tickets for families of the Down Syndrome Guild and participated in a number of their events, including participating in its annual fundraising calendar.

Elvis has taken part in the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run since 2014 while hosting law officers and Special Olympians for Rangers’ games. He has been a friend to the Miracle League of DFW and Southlake hosting groups for Rangers games since 2015. This past winter Elvis donated 300 winter coats by families served by VeneDallas, a local non-profit that helps Venezuelan families that have relocated to the DFW Metroplex. He has served on the Taylor Hooton Advisory Board All Me League since 2015 and hosted athletes from area schools to Rangers’ home games.

Andrus has also donated to a variety of other non-profit organizations as well as his teammates’ foundations to include the Robinson Chirinos Foundation, the Joakim Soria Foundation, the Michael Young Family Foundation as well as Our Calling, Sunshine Kids Foundation, Special Olympics, VeneDallas, Do It for Durrett Foundation, Down Syndrome Guild and several youth baseball organizations.

“The Rangers are proud to nominate Elvis Andrus for the 2019 Roberto Clemente Award,” said Rangers Chief Operating Officer and Rangers Baseball Foundation Chairman Neil Leibman. “Elvis has been a tremendous contributor in so many ways to the Rangers Foundation and numerous other charitable endeavors in North Texas. He is a great role model for the Rangers organization.”

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) and MLB.com, as well as Vera Clemente (the late Roberto’s wife & MLB Goodwill Ambassador). Beginning today, fans can vote for the overall winner of the Roberto Clemente Award via a dedicated website. 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 29th. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue ribbon panel. Fans are encouraged to vote by visiting the following link: mlb.com/clemente21.

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.