Major League Baseball will conduct its most extensive recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month in the league's history by creating a special version of its silhouetted batter logo and debuting a new spot celebrating the many ways that MLB Clubs and Latino players impact the game on the field and in the Latino community. In addition, MLB clubs are hosting Hispanic Heritage games in the lead-up to and during Hispanic Heritage Month. The announcement was made on Roberto Clemente Day, MLB's annual league-wide celebration of the great Latino player's life and legacy.
The increased activity surrounding Hispanic Heritage Month is an extension of the league's Ponle Acento campaign, which translates into "put an accent on it." Ponle Acento was created to highlight the distinctive mark that MLB's Latino players and fans leave on the game.
SPECIAL LOGO
MLB has added an accent mark to its silhouetted batter logo in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month. The special MLB Acento logo will be used in ballparks, MLB traditional and social media, and on batting practice t-shirts worn by players prior to select games. All 30 MLB clubs will wear the t-shirts, with the MLB Acento logo in their team colors, at least once prior to the end of the regular season.
NEW CREATIVE
For the first time, MLB will run a bilingual (English and Spanish) spot in general market national media. The new creative will be featured on ESPN, Fox Sports 1, MLB Network, MLB.com and MLB's social media platforms. The Spanish-language version will air on ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes and on LasMayores.com, MLB's official Spanish language web site. The spot will debut on ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball on September 14, the night before the first official day of Hispanic Heritage Month.
HISPANIC HERITAGE GAMES
A total of 23 MLB teams are hosting Hispanic Heritage games and events this season with a majority of them taking place in September during Hispanic Heritage Month or in the days leading into September 15. The special games will incorporate Latino influences into the fan experience that could include game presentation elements, themed entertainment, unique food options, fan giveaways and more. Home teams will wear the Ponle Acento t-shirts featuring the MLB Acento logo during batting practice. 
Teams that hosted Hispanic Heritage games and celebrations earlier in the season include the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies. Some of the teams listed above also have hosted multiple Hispanic Heritage games and events throughout the year. In addition, the New York Yankees will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a variety of events both at and outside of Yankee Stadium.
FACTS ABOUT MLB, LATINO PLAYERS AND FANS
· At least 235 players who appeared on Opening Day rosters were of Latino descent, which is more than 27% of the league.
· According to the ESPN Sports Poll's 2015 Annual Report, more than 60% of U.S. Hispanics consider themselves fans of Major League Baseball.
· At least 25 players and on-field staff have added diacritics (i.e. accent, tilde) to the last name on their uniforms in the past two seasons.
· There have been two million Spanish-language downloads of MLB's At Bat app, including an increase of 80 percent more than 2015, the first year of MLB's comprehensive bilingual offering. It provides a fully native language experience in the app, including news articles, app navigation labels, video highlight descriptions, standings, customized team pages, available live audio broadcasts and the Gameday pitch-tracking feature.
· In 2016, Spanish-speaking baseball fans consumed more minutes of baseball content in At Bat through July than they did over the entire 2015 season - surpassing the 500 million minute milepost.
· The Roberto Clemente Award is the most prominent individual player award that Major League Baseball grants. Each year at the World Series, MLB recognizes the player with this award who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.