Salvador Perez wins Roberto Clemente Award

NEW YORK – After becoming only the second Venezuelan to earn the Roberto Clemente Award for his charitable and humanitarian efforts, Kansas City Royals great Salvador Perez thought of his mother, Yilda Diaz.

She’s the one who raised him as a single mom in a humble home in Valencia, Venezuela. Diaz is also the one who encouraged Perez to give back to the less fortunate. So naturally, the fourth captain in Kansas City Royals history thanked his mom and wife after receiving the Clemente Award.

Perez received the award Monday night at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. He credits his mother with urging him to give back one day when they were driving home from a Royals game.

“My mom talked to me (about what) we can do to make people, to make families happy,” Perez said. “She knows where we’re coming from. She knows how hard she worked to get everything I needed to play this game, beautiful game. I get back home and talk to my mom, ‘Yeah, let’s start. Let’s open up a foundation. Let’s do some good things.’

“We know where we’re coming from, but I don’t want to sit here and talk about all the bad things. I just like to see what I can do to help, the key to make people happy.”

Dutiful son

Perez grew up in an impoverished barrio in Valencia in a home with a dirt floor. Now, he’s one of the greatest catchers to ever come out of Venezuela.

“I have to tell you, after winning a World Series, this is the second best award I ever got,” Perez said. “I got some Gold Gloves, Silver Slugger, World Series MVP, but this means a lot to me.

“Guys that know me know that I don’t like to post on a lot of things that I like to do on social media. So for you guys to recognize that and be able to see what I do, it means a lot to me, guys. I appreciate that.”

The Roberto Clemente Award caps an extraordinary season for the 2015 World Series MVP. Perez earned his ninth All-Star bid this season and helped the Royals reach the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

“The good works that this man does are really unbelievable,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said of Perez. “In his home in Venezuela, his hometown, he does everything from providing food and medical care to providing a baseball field for baseball and softball and all the equipment in the league so that the kids have the equipment to play with.

“Here in the United States, he’s been active in the fight against ALS and other health causes. He supported Teach For America program in Kansas City. He gave a million dollars to the Royals Youth Academy, which is one of our very, very best, thanks in part to your generosity. He even stopped this year on the way to a game in order to play a little wiffle ball and promote baseball involvement.”

Second Venezuelan Clemente Award winner

As part of Perez’s nomination, the Royals cited his charitable work in his hometown of Valencia, Venezuela, in Kansas City and in Colombia.

“I’m really happy for him because when somebody wins the Roberto Clemente it’s because of how they did in the community in and out of the field,” said Carlos Carrasco, the first Venezuelan to win the Clemente Award. “Right now it’s really special because he’s the second Venezuelan to win the Roberto Clemente.

“I’ve been seeing him a lot. All the work he does in the field and back in Venezuela, in our country, and here too in the U.S. I’m really happy for him.”

Salvador Perez, 34, and his family distribute bags of food and kitchen supplies to upwards of 2,000 homes in Valencia. 

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Perez is also a regular presence at hospitals. Over the years, he has paid for dozens of children with cleft lips to undergo surgery. Children’s hospitals have also benefited from Perez’s charity, receiving thousands of toys annually. 

When back home in Venezuela, he travels to bordering Colombia, where many Venezuelans have sought refuge because of the political situation in Venezuela. Perez supports the Carlos Fortuna Foundation’s mission to help parents. 

Helping Venezuelan, Colombian, KC youth

Through his youth baseball league in Valencia, Perez helped children learn to play baseball with the help of professional coaches. Moreover, he has provided the children in his league with baseball equipment and financial support.

Perez also donated $1 million to the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy. That donation matched the largest individual donation ever given to any of the 11 Urban Youth Academies in the United States.

The award was named after the Puerto Rican icon who died on New Year’s Eve 1972 on a relief mission to help victims of a deadly earthquake in Nicaragua. Clemente died when his plane crashed in the ocean shortly after taking off from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Salvador Perez, who appears on pace to earn a place in Cooperstown, N.Y., among the Hall of Famers, joins an elite group of Roberto Clemente Award winners. The list of past winners includes 20 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge won the 2023 Award. Likely Hall of Famers Albert Pujols (2008) and Yadier Molina (2018) also won the award. Carrasco made history in 2019 when he became the first Venezuelan to win the Clemente Award.

“I read a lot about Roberto Clemente and how he was an amazing player,” Perez said. “Something that touched me is the way he helped people outside the field. So I want to thank you guys too for continuing to do that for every kid, every foundation.”