Perhaps Aaron Judge should not have been surprised to learn that he had been named the recipient of Major League Baseball’s most prestigious individual honor, the 2023 Roberto Clemente Award.

Bestowed annually since 1971, when Willie Mays was named winner of the inaugural “Commissioner’s Award,” the Clemente Award recognizes the player who best represents the game on and off the field. Every year, each team nominates one of its own who exhibits extraordinary character, community involvement and philanthropy and positive contributions on the diamond.

Judge’s baseball accomplishments have already secured his place in Yankees lore. In 2022, he broke Roger Maris’ 61-year-old American League record by blasting 62 home runs. The five-time All-Star won his first AL MVP Award after that season, and he was named the 16th captain in Yankees history shortly thereafter.

But for as long as Judge has been impressing onlookers with his play, he has quietly carried himself in a way befitting of a Yankees captain and a Clemente Award winner. In college, Judge capped off the 2012 summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League by earning the Brewster Whitecaps’ Citizenship Award for being a positive team member. He dreamed of following in the footsteps of Major Leaguers such as Dave Winfield, Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia, who started their own charitable foundations. After reaching the Majors and earning 2017 AL Rookie of the Year honors, he huddled with his parents and laid the groundwork for the Aaron Judge All Rise Foundation, whose mission has been to inspire young people to become responsible citizens and future leaders.

Judge has embodied everything that Clemente stood for and was honored to be nominated for the award last September, but he never imagined what it would be like to win it. So, he was caught off guard when, a couple weeks after the 2023 regular season ended, he received a phone call from Yankees vice president of communications and media relations Jason Zillo, who asked the star outfielder if he was sitting down for the news he was about to hear.

“I’m like, ‘Is there a trade going on or something? Is something happening?’” Judge recalled. “He said, ‘You won the Roberto Clemente Award.’

“I was speechless.”

Judge shared that conversation during a press conference held in Arizona prior to Game 3 of the 2023 World Series. At Chase Field to help celebrate the newest Clemente Award winner were Commissioner Rob Manfred; Roberto Clemente’s sons, Luis Clemente and Roberto Clemente Jr.; and previous Clemente Award winners Jeter, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Harold Reynolds and John Smoltz.

“We talk about the Clemente Award being our highest honor,” Manfred said. “It is our highest honor, because it represents the combination of on-field excellence and service in our communities.

“Aaron, you are, like so many of your fellow players, a real credit to our game.”

Manfred highlighted some of the ways in which Judge has made an impact, from hosting Make-A-Wish kids at Yankee Stadium to conducting youth baseball and softball clinics to supporting the movement to make social media a more positive environment. The Commissioner was only scratching the surface, though. Spend some time exploring the All Rise Foundation’s website, or watching Judge interact with fans wherever he goes, or listening to the people in his orbit. What becomes evident is that helping others isn’t something he does -- it’s who he is.

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“I’ve never seen a gala like this. This is incredible.”

Judge smiled broadly as his mother, Patty Judge, handed him an oversized gavel, which he hoisted over his shoulder like a baseball bat, much to the amusement of the hundreds of people gathered at Cipriani Wall Street in January for the foundation’s biggest fundraising event of the year. In attendance were familiar faces from nearly every stop along Judge’s journey -- Yankees teammates, college coaches, apparel partners, childhood friends -- all eager to support the foundation’s mission. Bidding on items such as a game of HORSE with Shaquille O’Neal, guests raised nearly $800,000 that will go toward initiatives such as All Rise’s mini-grant program, which has provided financial aid to more than two dozen community-based organizations in his home state of California and New York City.

But even those who lost out on auction items gained a deeper understanding of what makes Judge tick. Sharply dressed in a blue pinstriped suit, Judge spoke to the crowd about the importance of giving back in ways that have nothing to do with money.

“Every day we wake up, we’re gifted with a new opportunity: time,” he said. “I’ve learned over the years, time is the greatest item you could ever give or receive because it can’t be bought, you can’t take it back, and you never know how much of it you have left. When you guys reflect on your most impactful moment in your life, I’m sure it involves someone who paused and just poured a little bit of time into you. Whether it be a child learning a new skill or an adult sharing a moment of wisdom, passing on some knowledge, the currency of time is invaluable.

“I believe by providing kids with the right tools, opportunities and time, we’re setting them up to become the best version of themselves: better friends, better family members, better employers and employees. And, ultimately, better people in our community. Through the All Rise Foundation and our programs, we strive to achieve the legacy that will live long after I’m done on the baseball field.”

Arleigh Rothenberg is a New York-based dancer and choreographer with a background in video production who founded Spring36 in 2020 to provide opportunities for young people interested in those fields. It was exhausting work, as she found herself trying to “do everything by myself.” The first Bronx mini-grant recipient in 2021, Spring36 was able to expand its operations -- and its impact. Its team produced a 2022 video for the All Rise Foundation that encouraged people of all ages to go out and play catch, and Spring36 continues to connect aspiring music video producers and directors with outstanding mentors and organizations.

“All Rise has honestly changed my life,” Rothenberg said during the Jan. 25 gala. “They set an amazing example of what a true MVP is: teamwork, leadership. I always hear Aaron talking about his teammates -- that he doesn’t do something alone, that he doesn’t win an award alone.

“I think that what the foundation is doing, what Aaron is doing, what the mini-grants are doing, is planting a seed. We’re able to watch these children grow.”

Nurturing the development of children is second nature to Judge, who credits his parents, Wayne and Patty, for instilling in him that it’s important to show “the same love and respect and kindness to everybody.” The former educators were obviously extremely proud to have their son and the efforts of the All Rise Foundation recognized by MLB.

Patty Judge, who serves as the foundation’s president and executive director, said that Clemente “encourages us to continue to work toward Aaron’s goals for All Rise. Roberto’s legacy provides a path for us as an organization to emulate and learn from as we continue to grow.”

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In winning the 2022 AL MVP Award, Judge already put himself among rare company, but winning the 2023 Roberto Clemente Award put him in an even more exclusive club, an honor that has been cherished by every one of its 54 members.

Most of the mementos Ron Guidry collected over the years are tucked away in a closet. “I don’t want to walk around in my house and see stuff that has my name on it,” the 73-year-old said. But his wife, Bonnie, has maintained a shelf in their Louisiana home reserved for the most important keepsakes from Gator’s career: his 1978 AL Cy Young Award, the Dodgers cap Sandy Koufax signed for him in ’81, his Gold Gloves -- and the 1984 Roberto Clemente Award.

“It was a great honor,” said Guidry, who was the first of four Yankees, followed by Don Baylor (1985), Jeter (2009) and Judge, to win it. “Because you don’t go out to try and earn it; they bestow it on you. So, to me, it carries more weight because it’s not just the game of baseball, it’s in life and what you’re doing around [the game].

“I’ve always said it’s one of the most important awards I’ve ever received.”

The award was born inauspiciously, as part of a plan hatched by then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn to keep Major League Baseball in the spotlight during the winter months with an “Academy Awards-type baseball affair” that could be taped in Hollywood and sold to a national television broadcaster. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose constitution prevents it from sponsoring or endorsing any marketable product, balked at the idea of using the platform to present the MVP and Cy Young Awards, so Kuhn proposed handing out a new set of hardware recognizing the player of the year, pitcher of the year and others, including the “player who best typifies the game on and off the field.”

Like the BBWAA, The Sporting News was not enthused about the new awards -- “How many similar honors can you confer without diluting the impact of each?” read a Dec. 19, 1970 column -- but it did admit that, “Where Kuhn’s prizes did not conflict with existing laurels, he probably was on solid ground. Saluting the player who best typifies baseball on and off the field can be justified.”

The made-for-TV dinner flopped, but the prestige of the award continued to grow when Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson accepted the 1972 honor at a luncheon in New York. The next year, the award took on an even greater meaning.

Roberto Clemente was 38 years old and had just completed his 18th season with the Pirates -- his final hit of the regular season was the 3,000th of his career -- when he made it his offseason mission to deliver relief supplies to victims of a devastating earthquake in Nicaragua. The plane carrying Clemente and four others crashed shortly after taking off from Puerto Rico on Dec. 31, 1972, killing all five aboard.

The shocking and tragic news of Clemente’s death shook the baseball community, which made preserving the great humanitarian’s legacy a priority. At a banquet in St. Petersburg, Fla., that March, Clemente’s widow, Vera, learned that the National Baseball Hall of Fame had held a special election and voted to induct her late husband immediately, waiving the five-year waiting period (something it had done just once before, for Lou Gehrig). And Kuhn announced that what had been called the Baseball Achievement Award would now forever be known as the Roberto Clemente Award.

“We have renamed it as well and as fittingly as we ever could,” Kuhn said.

“For me, this is the finest award I have ever received, the finest award any player could receive,” said 1973 winner Al Kaline, who spoke after a tearful Vera Clemente tried to but could not continue. “Because it is named for Roberto Clemente, the man I consider the greatest right fielder I ever saw play, I accept it with sincere appreciation of the man for whom it is named.”

In the ensuing decades, Vera Clemente proudly presented the award to dozens of deserving ballplayers -- 21 of whom are now in the Hall of Fame -- who shared Kaline’s appreciation for her husband. The last award she handed out personally before her death in 2019 at age 78 came in 2017, when it went to then-Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

“It’s the greatest award you can win,” Rizzo -- now a teammate of Judge’s in New York -- said at the time. “This will go front and center in front of anything I’ve ever done on the baseball field.”

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Even prior to winning the Clemente Award, Judge felt a connection to the Pirates legend. When the Yankees played in Pittsburgh in recent years, Judge met Clemente’s sons and visited the Roberto Clemente Museum. He even borrowed a replica Clemente bat from the museum and used it to club a batting practice home run at PNC Park in 2022.

And while he builds his Hall of Fame résumé on the field, Judge carries on Clemente’s legacy with every fan interaction, every meaningful conversation with a teammate, every new initiative of the All Rise Foundation. He doesn’t think about winning awards, but to have his name now permanently associated with one of the great human beings to have ever played this sport is something he will cherish forever.

Roberto Clemente “was a generational talent on the field, but he was a generational ambassador for this game off the field,” Judge said. “When we get to this level in our career and in our lives, to whom much is given, much is required. We’ve been given so much, surrounded by so many great people, surrounded by great family and friends, getting the chance to play the game that we love. This is what it’s about: giving back and helping the next generation to follow in our footsteps.”

With each passing year, Judge’s size 17 cleats are leaving some colossal footprints behind, and the Clemente Award is the latest and truest testament that there is more to being an all-time great than just performing on the field.

“Knowing Aaron and the type of guy he is, he probably accepts that just as much as he accepts an MVP Award,” said Guidry. “There’s a different side of him than just being ‘Aaron Judge, home run hitter.’ That award, for who he is and what he has done, it’s fitting that he should get it.”

Nathan Maciborski is the executive editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the Spring 2024 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.