Chris Sale Named Atlanta Braves Nominee For The 2024 Roberto Clemente Award
Major League Baseball announced that Chris Sale was named the Atlanta Braves 2024 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.
During each month of the season, Chris Sale hosts a group of deserving Braves fans as special guests in the Atlanta Braves Foundation’s Community Clubhouse. This pregame experience offers a private and exclusive hospitality space for groups inside Truist Park. Since the start of the season, Chris has welcomed families from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Miracle Network, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Camp Sunshine. The experience includes complimentary food, beverages and Braves swag for each group. In addition, Chris visits each group pregame to take photos, sign autographs, answer questions, and spend quality time with fans.
On Memorial Day, Chris hosted families from TAPS, a nonprofit organization focused on providing bereavement resources and experiences for families suffering the loss of a military family member. The five families – each of whom had recently lost a loved one – met Chris on the field pregame and watched Braves batting practice. This was an incredibly moving experience for the five families from Braves Country who had recently lost a loved one.
Chris also played a significant role in the Braves’ Lou Gehrig Day celebration at Truist Park in 2024. After losing his grandmother to ALS when he was five years old, Chris felt encouraged to learn about Lou Gehrig, whose personal battle with ALS brought widespread awareness of the disease. Inspired by Gehrig's legacy and the impact of his story, Chris developed a deep connection to the cause, which has influenced his career and philanthropic efforts in professional baseball profoundly.
Sunday, September 15th marks the annual Roberto Clemente Day, 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 will be honored at the 2024 World Series following selection by a blue-ribbon panel. This panel includes representatives from the Commissioner’s Office, 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. Fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award via MLBTogether.com/clementeaward (in both English and Spanish). Voting is now open until the end of the regular 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.