Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez won the Roberto Clemente Award, Major League Baseball’s prestigious honor awarded annually to the player whose humanitarian efforts exemplify off-the-field service.
The 34-year-old, who has spent all 13 years of his major league career with Kansas City, is the first Royals player to win the award and was lauded for his generosity not only in his adopted hometown but in Valencia, Venezuela, where Perez grew up, and Colombia, where his contributions honor a minor league pitcher who died of cancer.
Perez, the Royals’ captain who is one of the most beloved athletes in Kansas City sports history, played on Roberto Clemente Day this year in Pittsburgh, where the Hall of Fame outfielder spent each of his 18 seasons. Perez later donated his catcher’s gear from that day to the Clemente Museum. Clemente, the Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pirates, died in a plane crash trying to deliver aid to Nicaragua after a devastating 1972 earthquake. Clemente, esteemed for his philanthropy across Latin America — including his native Puerto Rico — was 38.