Major League Baseball today announced that Justin Turner has been named the Dodgers 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.  Wednesday, September 9^th marks the 19^th 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.

Turner is one of the 30 Club nominees for the annual award. He has been a fixture in the Los Angeles community since joining the Dodgers seven years ago and continued to make his presence felt in 2020 as he served Angelenos amid an unprecedented crisis. With many adversely affected in Los Angeles, Justin and Kourtney spent their days at home working to support small businesses while at the same time providing hot meals to those in need. Nearly every day from mid-March through June, the Turners would select a restaurant and order thousands of meals to be delivered to the Los Angeles Dream Center, which fed over 12,000 individuals per day at the height of the pandemic. His teammates took note and joined in his efforts helping to keep restaurants in business and feed those experiencing food insecurity as Los Angeles’ unemployment rose. The Turners served at the drive-through food distribution, which operated 11 hours a day, seven days a week. Justin and Kourtney donated an estimated 900,000 meals during the 82-day effort, culminating with the Dream Center naming their food bank The Justin & Kourtney Turner Food Bank.

In addition to his efforts at the Dream Center, Justin donated several meals per week to the doctors, nurses and staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where Justin, Kourtney and the Justin Turner Foundation have been added to the “Spotlight Wall” in recognition of their philanthropic efforts. Justin is a longtime supporter and frequent visitor to CHLA, and he along with Kourtney, have served as Honorary Hosts for their Walk and Play LA event for the past two years, helping to raise critical funds for the hospital. They also hosted CHLA’s Winter Wonderland during the holidays, creating a festive carnival for hundreds of patients. The Turners also make frequent visits to patients at Cedars Sinai Hospital and UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital throughout the year, and serve on the board of UCLA Health’s Operation Mend, which provides healthcare and social support for wounded warriors and their families.

 His support of Operation Mend is just one of Turner’s contributions to the military community. One of the pillars of the Justin Turner Foundation is to support homeless veterans, and the Turners host an annual golf classic to help support that mission. Additionally, Justin has annually championed AM 570’s Veterans Day Radio-a-thon, which has benefited Paralyzed Veterans of America as well as the Dream Center’s Veteran’s Program. Turner has also been instrumental in the Dream Center’s programming for veterans and helped support the opening of their Women Veterans Program in 2018, which helps aid women with the difficult transition from military to civilian life. He also created a Military Monday program prior to the 2019 season, where through social media he solicits nominations and then selects a military family to receive an all-inclusive gameday experience at each Monday home game.

“Being nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award by this great organization is something that my wife Kourtney and I are so proud of, and it’s truly an honor to be recognized. We feel so fortunate to be able to give back – especially during these hard times due to the coronavirus – and support our homeless veterans, hospitals, schools, and youth sports,” said Turner. “We have the greatest fans in all of baseball who support us year-round, and we have a duty, a responsibility to give back to the community above and beyond.”

“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented people, which Justin and Kourtney have proven to be in their selfless efforts to fulfill the basic needs of Angelenos during this pandemic. Justin is not only a representative of what a Dodger should be, but an example to athletes around the sporting world of the impact you can make in the community. We’re so fortunate to have Justin in Los Angeles and proud to nominate him for the Clemente Award,” said Naomi Rodriguez, Dodger Vice President of External Affairs and Community Relations.

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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, 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.

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(Article courtesy of LA Dodgers)

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