Outfielder Shin-Soo Choo today received his award as the Texas Rangers 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. TODAY, Wednesday, September 9th 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 prior to Wednesday’s games..
Choo is one of the 30 Club nominees for the annual award. He was presented with the Rangers by manager Chris Woodward award prior to tonight’s game with the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field.
Choo will also join shortstop Elvis Andrus and catching coach Hector Ortiz, who is a native of Puerto Rico, by wearing Clemente’s #21 for tonight’s game.
In 2011, Shin-Soo and Won Mi Ha established the CHOO Foundation with a personal donation of $875,000. During the coronavirus pandemic this spring and summer, he has pledged $173,900 to the Community Chest of Korea to aid relief efforts in Daegu, South Korea, an area of his home country that experienced a serious virus outbreak, $88,000 to Korea Disaster Relief, $151,000 to the ChildFund International and $9,500 to miscellaneous causes.
Since joining the Rangers in 2014, Choo has also donated a total of $750,000 to the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation for a variety of community programs and initiatives. Over the last three years, he has committed $90,000 in scholarships to six high school juniors in the Arlington Independent School District. In 2015 he provided two Korean students with scholarships and in 2016, he donated $40,000 of game tickets to the Korean community to purchase tickets by making a donation with proceeds being used to provide two Korean students with scholarships.
Proud of his Korean heritage, Choo and Won Mi Ha, presented a check for $100,000 to the Korean Cultural Center of Dallas in 2014 and in 2017 donated $50,000 to the Boh Hyun Buddha Temple and Zen Center in Richardson.
And, with the pandemic delaying the start and eventual canceling the 2020 Minor League baseball season, Choo donated $1,000 each to 191 Texas Rangers Minor League players to help account for lost salary.
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.
Fans can vote for Choo as MLB’s 2020 Roberto Clemente Award recipient via mlb.com/clemente21. The site features bios of each of the nominees and allows fans to vote until the end of the season on Sunday, September 27th. 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.