On Roberto Clemente Day, MLB's Habitual Vagueness Becomes Massively Convenient

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The nominees for the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award were announced Monday, as each of the 30 MLB teams selected the player they believe best embodies the league's values of character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions on and off the field. The award is, in effect, the league's Man of the Year trophy, named after a player who had an enormous, transformative impact on the game—one very much akin to Robinson's.

Though not the first Black player from Latin America to play in the majors, Clemente was very much the first star from that demographic, and like Robinson, he was unafraid to speak his mind or to back his thoughts and words with action. He endured slightly less focused racial animus than did Robinson, coming along more than half a decade into the integration of the National and American Leagues, but he had to deal with different prejudices, too—of culture and language, as well as skin color. Clemente was mercurial, but deeply dedicated to that which he believed in.

He died in a plane crash, after he was so irrepressible in collecting and delivering relief supplies to an earthquake-stricken Nicaragua that he chartered a plane that wasn't airworthy and couldn't handle the load he'd amassed. That made Clemente baseball's closest facsimile of a saint, and has made it easy for the league to deify him as a symbol of charity and nobility ever since. That's not an inaccurate image of the man, but nor is it complete. The institution of baseball has always been comfortable with that.

For that very reason, they're not sweating as much at the league's central office in New York today. Robinson, who died the same year as Clemente but had spent 15 years in post-playing career public life by then, left a legacy that could never be untangled from the racism and inequality that made up so much of the game's history. Clemente, however, had never been heralded as the same sort of trailblazer as Robinson; his story was mixed in with others somewhat like it. He was a phenomenal player with such a leonine off-field reputation that he could be upheld as the perfect confluence of baseball and personal virtue, in an uncomplicated narrative.

Just as three rivers (not two) flow into one another in the city where Clemente became a baseball legend, though, there's a third element that needs to be part of a serious conversation about his impact. Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, a majority-Black city that lies cheek-by-jowl alongside the larger, better-resourced, majority-White capital of San Juan. From a young age, he was aware of the tension of his own existence, and when he journeyed to the States and became a professional ballplayer, he never ceased to be. Clemente was born into a Puerto Rico whose future was still very much undecided, as the post-Spanish Caribbean basin took shape under the heavy influence of the United States.

Throughout his childhood, though, the U.S. firmed up its control of the archipelago. Clemente was 16 years old when the U.S. military violently quashed a revolution by Puerto Rican nationalists, including by bombing the town of Jayuya and killing civilians who were American citizens. Clemente himself never took up the cause of Puerto Rican independence, but nor did he denounce it. He signed up to serve as an American military reservist, but as he experienced more of the country and its contradictions, he would go on to consider himself a "double outsider," which itself seemed to be a double-entendre. Both his Blackness and his Latino heritage alienated him from neighbors and fans in the States, while his life as a rich and famous boricua made him occasionally feel less welcome on his own home soil—though, of course, he's now virtually venerated there, as some idealized (and partially silenced) version of him is here.

Though they have always wanted to trade on his exemplary attitude of service and his extraordinary, stylish play, the league has never wanted much to do with the third current of Clemente's story. Even in times when the political and cultural climate invited more attention to the history and the modern reality of racism and xenophobia, the league never used Roberto Clemente Day to talk much about it. In this climate—one that actively discourages such conversation and whitewashes history to serve the maintenance of an inequitable social order—they've been especially quiet on that front.

In fact, in each of the past three years, the league announced the Clemente Award nominees earlier in September, leaving at least a bit more space to (specifically) honor Clemente and (generally) celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. This year, they've held back those nominations until the day designated for Clemente, crowding the schedule. As for the nominees themselves, whereas 14 players of color were nominated in 2022 and 2023 and 12 in 2024, only seven of this year's 30 are people of color.

It's a real shame that the league finds the waters of that third river too swift and too dangerous, because there's great power to be drawn from that current. At a moment when the world seems increasingly obsessed with mutual protection between self-selected tribes, it might be wonderful to make a bigger deal of the fact that Clemente wasn't rushing to his own home with the relief shipment that never made it. Nor was he seeking to serve his adopted hometown, or home nation. He'd only visited Nicaragua a few months earlier, while coaching Team Puerto Rico in the Amateur World Series, but that was enough to make him feel an obligation to his fellow humans.

Clemente, who got used to being slapped with labels throughout his life and who came from a place that has lived in a colonialized limbo for over a century now, didn't pause a moment to consider whether the people affected by a disaster thousands of miles away were within his required circle of empathy or help. He took action, with conviction, because those people were worth as much to him as he himself was. 

We haven't resolved the colonial status of Puerto Rico in any satisfactory way, and life there gets more precarious by the year, as economic forces and climate change conspire against it. We also haven't resolved the sense of twice-baked alienation Clemente so often felt early in his baseball career. Preferring to read the direction of the wind and blow with it, the Commissioner's Office has abdicated any responsibility to address either issue.

It can't be that way, for those of us who care a bit more about the game and the world it's played in than do Rob Manfred and his cohort. The history of American influence (sometimes imperialist, sometimes colonialist, sometimes covert, sometimes salutary, sometimes calamitous) in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela and other places is inextricably connected to the growth and development of baseball. In a sport awash in Spanish speakers and immigrants and supported by no small number of people who sound and look like those players, baseball has a huge, urgent duty to speak up each September—not just about the virtue of a great throwing arm and mission work, but about the relationship between the U.S. and many of its neighbors, and about how wide our circles of empathy ought to sweep. The league doesn't want that conversation right now, so please, start it yourselves. Otherwise, we'll be paying just two-thirds tribute to the legacy of Clemente—and letting too much water flow under the bridge.

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[jkcarew]

Aren’t there any job openings at MSNBC or the New York Times…or the Star Tribune?

[Patzky]

Thank you for writing this and giving perspective. It's a lot and it's not easy.. sports reflects society and ours is in the wrong river right now.

[shimrod]

"...baseball has a huge, urgent duty to speak up each September..."

No, they don't. Baseball, and any other business, needs to stay in its lane and avoid politics as much as possible. Leave politics to the politicians and activists. 

It's bad business to lecture people on how they should think, act, feel. For every customer who agrees with the spin there's another who won't. 

Activists feel they're right and feel that people who don't agree are wrong. Wrong thinkers need to be educated and, if they resist, shamed into right think. That's your prerogative as a private citizen and you can advocate until the cows come home, it doesn't cost you a thing. MLB is in the business of making money and lecturing the customers on social justice issues is not conducive to profit. 

Note that I'm not commenting on the virtue of your cause. Just saying your suggestion that MLB join your crusade is not in their best interest. 

 

[tony&rodney]

4 hours ago, shimrod said:

"...baseball has a huge, urgent duty to speak up each September..."

No, they don't. Baseball, and any other business, needs to stay in its lane and avoid politics as much as possible. Leave politics to the politicians and activists. 

It's bad business to lecture people on how they should think, act, feel. For every customer who agrees with the spin there's another who won't. 

Activists feel they're right and feel that people who don't agree are wrong. Wrong thinkers need to be educated and, if they resist, shamed into right think. That's your prerogative as a private citizen and you can advocate until the cows come home, it doesn't cost you a thing. MLB is in the business of making money and lecturing the customers on social justice issues is not conducive to profit. 

Note that I'm not commenting on the virtue of your cause. Just saying your suggestion that MLB join your crusade is not in their best interest. 

 

A huge part of me gets where you come from on this issue/article.  The major reason I open Twins Daily is for baseball. My blood pressure and general health struggle badly if I read or see video about the chaos that exists in a world that is turning to again to genocide, violence, and increasingly stomping on the other as not only normal but ok. 

All I really want to do is watch baseball, crawl around the yard, and go kayaking. I'm an old man, one who has benefitted enormously in this world beyond all justification from where and when I was born, to whom I was born, my race, religion, gender, etc. Luck is a wonderful thing. I guess I was pretty brilliant to pick my parents. That is an important skill. It accounts for about 90% of all success.

On the other hand, staying in your lane never accomplished much for slaves or other victims (gender, genocide, etc.) Currently I live in an incredibly wealthy country that is tipping over. The majority of the country does not have a politician to represent them. Those politicians who "won" their positions often received less than half the vote of their potential constituents. The three branches of government are broken badly. Money and power are what remains. If you need any proof of what I mean by tipping look at this: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/school-shootings-by-country

That is normalcy today. MLB is a business and as you say businesses are in existence to make money and having a social conscience is .... (fill it in yourself). 

Back to the other hand .... So yes, let us please leave any and all references to anything remotely political off of Twins Daily. Frankly I'm a little surprised this was published. 

 

[Western SD Fan]

I don't mind the article as it attempts to generate discussion and ask hard questions.  I will point out one part of the article that, in my opinion, starts to become too preachy for a TD article.

As for the nominees themselves, whereas 14 players of color were nominated in 2022 and 2023 and 12 in 2024, only seven of this year's 30 are people of color. (from article)

This next quote is taken from MLB.com's news release of the 30 club nominees defining what the reward entails:

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. The nominees, announced this morning exclusively on MLB Network, will be recognized in ballparks beginning today, September 15th, Roberto Clemente Day presented by Capital One. Major League Baseball established Roberto Clemente Day in 2002 to honor the late Hall of Famer’s legacy as a humanitarian.

Somehow, in that definition, I don't see a requirement that the teams must nominate a person of color.  Maybe you read that description different than I do.  

One reason to nominate different players every year for the award is a chance for those players to showcase their respective causes.  I'm sure that the Royals could nominate Salvador Perez every year or the Twins could nominate Pablo Lopez every year (like they did this year).  I guarantee there are more than 30 baseball players that are doing great things to help people all over the world.  This class of 30 just happen to be the group nominated this current year.

 

[Dave Borton]

Great article. I for one wish to see more efforts on the part of MLB to find acreage for sandlots in central cities such as the Negro Baseball Museum does to promote the game in KC as well as MLB:

https://www.mlb.com/mlb-youth-academy

 

 

[JDubs]

Great piece -- would be nice to see more of this kind of deep dive here on TD

[the_brute_squad]

5 hours ago, Western SD Fan said:

I don't mind the article as it attempts to generate discussion and ask hard questions.  I will point out one part of the article that, in my opinion, starts to become too preachy for a TD article.

As for the nominees themselves, whereas 14 players of color were nominated in 2022 and 2023 and 12 in 2024, only seven of this year's 30 are people of color. (from article)

This next quote is taken from MLB.com's news release of the 30 club nominees defining what the reward entails:

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. The nominees, announced this morning exclusively on MLB Network, will be recognized in ballparks beginning today, September 15th, Roberto Clemente Day presented by Capital One. Major League Baseball established Roberto Clemente Day in 2002 to honor the late Hall of Famer’s legacy as a humanitarian.

Somehow, in that definition, I don't see a requirement that the teams must nominate a person of color.  Maybe you read that description different than I do.  

One reason to nominate different players every year for the award is a chance for those players to showcase their respective causes.  I'm sure that the Royals could nominate Salvador Perez every year or the Twins could nominate Pablo Lopez every year (like they did this year).  I guarantee there are more than 30 baseball players that are doing great things to help people all over the world.  This class of 30 just happen to be the group nominated this current year.

 

Truth.

[mikelink45]

13 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Aren’t there any job openings at MSNBC or the New York Times…or the Star Tribune?

Not sure how this is meant but actually it is such a great essay that they could use it on one of those stations or any number of other good outlets where the truth and the ability to give perspective is welcome. 

[mikelink45]

There's a person with very strong feelings about political and social events in their country I really appreciate this essay. Baseball is supposedly a reflection of life in America. That's been the cliche for everyone for years it used to be when baseball was the number one sport in the country people would tell immigrants to learn baseball if they want to know America. Baseball has lost his place as number one sport and it also has moved away from being a real reflection of the nation. I'm glad that you took this opportunity to express the views that you had in this essay and I would love to see more strong editorials that can risk possibly offending some and a challenging others. This has so much more substance than they projected can we trade for dreams. So thank you for doing this

[Doctor Wu]

Excellent article, and I applaud Matthew for writing it and TD for putting it online. Sure, we all come here for Twins baseball news and related stuff, but it's also refreshing, and I think necessary, to look at other aspects of this great sport and how it affects other human beings on the planet. 

[Woof Bronzer]

14 hours ago, shimrod said:

"...baseball has a huge, urgent duty to speak up each September..."

No, they don't. Baseball, and any other business, needs to stay in its lane and avoid politics as much as possible. Leave politics to the politicians and activists. 

 

You must be furious about the Yankees' "tribute" the other night...

[Woof Bronzer]

15 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Aren’t there any job openings at MSNBC or the New York Times…or the Star Tribune?

Do you have any constructive feedback to the piece, or do you think that writing about brown people automatically makes the writer a left wing fanatic?  

[Woof Bronzer]

Great piece Matthew.  If baseball is the American past time than baseball history is American history. And don't listen to the critics here - they love politics in sports, just only when they agree with the politics. (You never hear the "stick to sports" people demand that we stop singing the anthem or "honoring the troops" at sporting events or having presidents throw out the first pitch or, like NY did the other night, offering a tribute to a divisive figure who had nothing to do with NY or baseball.)

Write what you want to write.  

 

[Robert Gauthier]

The basis of the award is community service. Clemente died, trying to help his home country, which is the very definition of community. I think that the people that are bothered by the fact that it was mentioned that he was black, received some negative treatment because of that, need to step back and take a look at the history of our country. Clemente was a dignified and classy guy. I remember when I heard that he died, I think it was on New Year’s Day. I was stunned as a child, because I thought of him was one of my favorite players. I’m white he was black, I didn’t care. He was a great ball player. people who are complaining about him being mentioned as a prominent black player make the point of this article. He did not have an easy path because he was Latin at black. That was not his fault. That was society‘s fault. We currently seem to be trying to erase that bad part of our memory, because it’s inconvenient.