By Sean O’Reilly
September 9, 2024
Major League Baseball announced that Steven Kwan was named the Cleveland Guardians 2024 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One, baseball’s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers.
The Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One 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.
Kwan is in his third year hosting Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s John Marshall High School students for his player program Guardians Chess Club. This spring, the outfielder won Chess.com’s SlugChamps tournament and sent his first-place prize money to CMSD Chess Clubs.
Kwan’s second year in the True2U mentorship program included several in-person and virtual visits with the eighth-grade class at CMSD’s Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham School, including a trip to the eighth-grade basketball game this past offseason.
The Guardians leadoff hitter actively supports diverse populations, especially the Players Alliance and various AAPI groups, and advocates for the growth of baseball in underrepresented communities.
The Guardians will honor Kwan with a pregame on-field ceremony at Progressive Field on Roberto Clemente Day, Sunday, September 15.
“I am truly honored to be nominated for such a prestigious award,” Kwan said. “Seeing this validation makes me want to strive to be a better person and player on and off the field.”
Sunday, September 15th marks the annual Roberto Clemente Day presented by Capital One, 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 customized tribute video to Clemente and the 30 Roberto Clemente Award nominees will be shown in all MLB ballparks on Roberto Clemente Day as well as on MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB.tv, Club sites and MLB Social Media Platforms.
The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One will be honored at the 2024 World Series following selection by a blue-ribbon panel. This panel includes representatives from the Commissioner’s Office, Capital One, MLB-affiliated networks (MLB Network, FOX Sports, ESPN and TBS), MLB.com, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as Roberto’s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Clemente, Jr. Beginning today, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One via MLBTogether.com/clementeaward (in both English and Spanish). The site, which will feature bios of each of the nominees, 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.
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 as tribute to Clemente following his passing while delivering relief supplies for earthquake victims in Nicaragua on December 31, 1972.
COURTESY GUARDIANS MEDIA RELATIONS
