Cardinals’ Molina wins Roberto Clemente Award
LOS ANGELES — St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina has been named the winner of the 2018 Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s highest humanitarian honor.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced Molina’s selection on Wednesday. Molina, 36, was chosen for the award for his work providing aid to victims of Hurricane Maria, which devastated his native Puerto Rico in 2017.
Just two days after the Cardinals’ 2017 season ended, Molina, his friends and family arrived in Puerto Rico with crates of supplies. For weeks, he did manual labor on the island, moving fallen trees, clearing roads, picking up debris and rebuilding roofs. He also handed out provisions to thousands of people in need and held a fund-raiser in St. Louis for victims.
“Yadier has been one of baseball’s greatest representatives as a perennial All-Star while also devoting himself, often without fanfare, to communities and families in St. Louis and Puerto Rico,” Manfred said. “Most notably, the results of Yadier’s personal efforts this past year to support Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria have been both meaningful and inspiring.”
In a prepared statement, Molina said he was honored to win the award bearing the name of a fellow Puerto Rican.
“It’s a great honor to win this award and it’s even more special to me because I’m Puerto Rican,” he said. “For us, Clemente is a hero and a legend, and we highly respect and admire him not only as a one of the greatest players but as a humanitarian who lost his life helping those in need and to be associated with him is a true privilege.”
Molina was not at Fenway Park to accept the award on Wednesday because he is managing the Puerto Rican U-23 team in Colombia. His wife, Wanda, accepted the award on his behalf.
“Actually it’s kind of like ironic that I don’t think he’s going to be able to be here, but the reason is the right one,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who is also Puerto Rican and was the GM of the national team at the last World Baseball Classic. “...Clemente, he managed our national team at one point while he was playing in the big leagues. Because Yadi is not here because of that, it’s like, wow, it was meant to be.”
Cora also gave extensive praise to Molina’s relief efforts.
“Very proud of what he’s done throughout his career,” Cora said. “But I think last year was the highlight of his career. What he did was amazing.”
The award was established in 1971 as the Commissioner’s Award but renamed in Clemente’s honor two years later after he died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
Molina is the fifth member of the Cardinals to win the award, following Lou Brock (1975), Ozzie Smith (1995), Albert Pujols (2008) and Carlos Beltrán (2013). He was selected from among 30 team nominees by a panel that included Manfred, Clemente’s widow, Vera, and a number of former players, media members and MLB executives. —