Major League Baseball today announced that pitcher Joe Musgrove has been named the San Diego Padres 2021 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.
Musgrove is one of 30 Club nominees for the annual award. While new to the Padres in 2021, he is no stranger to the community and fanbase as a San Diego native, taking advantage of the opportunity to play in his hometown and be a leader in the community. Joe's philanthropic focus has been in youth sports, specifically supporting those facing physical challenges including through local non-profit Challenged Athletes Foundation, an organization that strives to provide opportunities and support to people with physical challenges so they can pursue active lifestyles through physical fitness and competitive athletics. His support of CAF included an $8,056 contribution with the Padres Foundation in celebration of throwing the first no-hitter in Padres history (dollar amount represents the number of games played in franchise history without a no-hitter), in addition to taking 15-year-old ball player Landis Sims under his wing. Joe spent a day with Landis going over baseball mechanics upon hearing Landis' story about his dreams of playing baseball despite being born without hands and most of his legs. Joe looks forward to continuing his charitable efforts and partnership with CAF and plans to continue inspiring San Diego's youth to work toward bright and successful futures.
Wednesday, September 15th marks the 20th annual Roberto Clemente Day, 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.
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, October 3rd. 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.
The distinguished list of past Roberto Clemente Award winners includes 19 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: View Past Winners »